10 Reasons To Wake Up Screaming

In her wisdom, mother nature has created animals that survive simply by being so scary that nothing wants to get near them. These animals often trigger primitive reactions in humans that defy logic and intelligent thought. In short, these are the creepy crawlies that will make a human (often over a hundred times larger than the offending creature) jump on top of a chair and scream like a little girl. Here are just a few of these scary animals.

Before reading further, please know that some of the accompanying pictures and videos may be disturbing to sensitive individuals.

Yeah, I thought this little guy was kinda cute too. Until I imagined waking up with that face peering down at me.

In their native Madagascar, the Aye Aye Monkey is frightening to natives for reasons beyond its physical appearance.  According to legend, this little guy brings bad luck and death wherever he is seen.  Some locals go as far as claim attribute exsanguination related deaths to the tiny primate.  For this reason, these animals are often killed on sight. 
 
Superstition aside, unless one is a coconut or a grub, there is really very little reason to fear this little guy.  The Aye Aye is relatively small, averaging about a foot and a half from head to rump and weighing in at about four pounds.  These extremely social animals are nocturnal, which probably adds to their mystery. 
 
The Aye Aye monkey is listed as critically endangered.

It's a spider that eats birds...

Wait.

It is a spider that eats birds.

Nope, didn't sound any better the second time.

The scary thing is the knowledge that someone, somewhere, has tried to eat this thing.

Believe it or not, the blobfish is an evolutionary success. The layers of jelly-like flesh are lighter than water, so little energy is expended to keep afloat. The large, almost human-like mouth opens wide to eat just about anything that happens to float by. Unfortunately, scientists are still undecided on the survival benefits granted to the blobfish by having Judd Hirsh’s nose.

Although completely inedible, the blobfish has, nonetheless, been pushed to the brink of extinction by the fishing industry.

This relative of the grasshopper can weigh twice as much as a common parakeet, making it one of heaviest (and creepiest) insects on the planet.

Largely due to the isolation of its native New Zealand, this insect has evolved to monstrous sizes but remained otherwise largely unchanged in structure to ancestors existing million of years in the past. Without natural predators, small size was not necessary for species survival.

The encroachment of man and accompanying domesticated animals, however, has threatened the species. Fortunately, conservation efforts have met with public support. Most likely the popularity of these efforts is due to the fact that, unlike other cricket species, the giant weta is not generally considered a nuisance. In fact, many believe that its passage of undigested seeds in its species might actually help encourage plant growth and diversification.

Conservation programs targeting giant weta populations are largely limited to habitat protection.  In some cases, however, electronic tracking devices have been attached to individual insects to moniter movement and breeding habits.  You read that correctly, this insect is actually large enough to wear a tracking collar.

The African giant millipede is indigenous to west Africa, but is growing in worldwide popularity as a pet. Larger specimens of this species can grow to a foot in length and up to an inch and a half in diameter. Other than a possible coronary event brought on by accidentally encountering one of these beasts, the giant millipede is relatively harmless to humans. In rare instances, however, individuals handling the bug have had allergic reactions to its protective chemical secretions.

The giant millipede is not endangered, so if one finds its way into my house I do not have to feel guilty about having my husband kill it. I am not sure how he would go about this… Maybe a shotgun?

I actually think this fish is rather pretty... in a Jaws meets Anaconda sort of way.

This is the fish that Steven King should have swimming in his aquarium.  It is, in short, the scariest fish imaginable.

The teeth of the viperfish are so large that they will literally not fit inside its mouth.  When the jaws are closed, the bottom jaw of the fish extends outward so that its teeth can rest comfortably near its forehead.  In human terms, that would be equivalent to having lower incisors longer than your hand.

Since the viperfish lives at average depths of 250 feet and below, most people will, luckily, never encounter the fish by chance.  If you were a shrimp, however, you would be toast.

I'd chose to fight Jaws over this guy any day of the week.

The sea spider is crab that looks just like a spider but can grow to three feet and weigh as much as 10 lbs.  And they say that mother nature doesn't have a sense of humor.

Feed me Seymour!!! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Like the venus fly trap, this species of pitcher plant, nepenthes northiana , is a carnivorus plant. It hunts by producing a nectar that smells alluring, but is actually acidic enough to completely disintegrate a small frog or mouse in a few hours. Insects and other animals are attracted to the smell of the nectar but slide into the basin of the plant when trying to drink. Once inside, the pray either drowns, impales itself on the sharp thorns of the plant, or is eaten alive by the acid.

Theoretically, size of the pray eaten by the pitcher plant is limited only by the size of the plant‘s basin. I am waiting patiently for one to grow large enough to consume ex-husbands.

Ok. So you get bitten by a mosquito and eight weeks later a maggot that is 3/4 of an inch long and half of an inch wide wiggles its way out of your skin.

If this ever happens to me, don't even bother calling a doctor. Just shoot me.

The way that the botfly reproduces is fascinating, in a horrible and nauseating way. Over generations, the botfly has somehow figured out that its large size makes its presence known and avoidable to the potential hosts of its offspring. To get around this, the botfly will capture a smaller insect like a tick or mosquito, and hold it still while it forcibly covers the unfortunate victim in eggs. The carrier, who it is safe to say now has a substantial case of post-traumatic stress disorder, wonders off to find something to eat. As the insect feeds, it drops the eggs of the botfly onto the skin of the host.

What happens next can be seen in the accompanying video.  Once again, this video is graphic and may not be suitable for viewing by children or sensitive adults.