17 Horrifying Facts About Nature That I Wish I Could Instantly Forget

A tongue-eating louse does what it says on the tin.

Nature is WIIIIILD. There is still so much we don't know about the natural world, but there are some unsettling, and terrifying things that we do know.

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Here are 13 creepy and unsettling facts I recently learned about nature...

1. This jellyfish can sink boats.

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Jellyfish are often the ruiner of a nice dip in the ocean, but some can grow so big that they're able to capsize boats weighing 10 tons. The jellyfish themselves can weigh over 200kg and have a diameter of over two meters. Tbf, in the case of the fishing trawler being capsized, it was the number of jellyfish that were being caught that managed to overturn the boat, but that's still pretty scary.

2. Crows can remember faces.

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That's right, don't be mean to crows. They can remember facial features and will know if someone has been kind or threatening to them – they can even pass this information down to other generations!

3. Slow lorises can rot flesh.

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Slow lorises may be cute, but they pack a nasty weapon. The creatures have glands under their armpits that ooze a noxious oil, which they then lick and combine with their saliva to become a venom. When they bite – a bite which can pierce through bone – the venom can rot flesh away. Slow lorises have been seen with their faces half melted off from bites. 

4. Killer bees have a horrible way of getting you.

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It may be no surprise that Africanised honey bees AKA "killer bees" are scary, but what's so creepy is how they attack. It's not one lethal sting that will get you, but the swarming and continuous venom-packed bites. They swarm in hundreds or thousands, and go for your eyes, mouth, and ears, filling the air around you – that's terrifying.

5. Leeches can get ~seriously~ big.

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Leeches are creepy in general, but how about leeches that can grow to the size of 18 inches? The Giant Amazon Leech is one of the largest leeches in the world, and something I never hope to see.

6. Mosquitoes need human blood for their eggs.

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You don't need me to tell you that mosquitoes are pretty grim. You'll know that they suck blood – female ones anyway – but what they use that blood for is also pretty unsettling. They require the proteins in blood in order to form their eggs. So essentially, our blood is helping them make more mosquitos... Great. 

7. Horned Lizards can squirt blood from their eyes.

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Short-horned Lizards are pretty innovative when it comes to defence mechanisms. Not only can they inflate their bodies up to twice their size in order to scare away potential predators, they can also do something very unique and pretty disgusting. If they need to, they can squirt blood out of their eyes. They can squirt it as far as three feet, which they do to confuse and deter predators. 

Have a look here:

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8. Flying snakes exist.

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Alright, these snakes can't technically fly, but they're superb gliders. They can somehow contort their bodies in order to catch air and essentially use it to fly. They're actually more proficient gliders than the better-known flying squirrels! The idea of a snake sailing through the air towards you is not comforting.

Take a look:

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9. A tongue-eating louse does what it says on the tin.

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Parasites are pretty unsettling anyway, but this one is particularly horrible. This parasite prays on fish and does essentially what it says in the name. It essentially detaches the tongue of a fish and attaches itself to the fish's mouth instead, becoming its new, disgusting tongue.

10. Zombie fungus has mind-control abilities.

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This fungus is well-known but sounds like something from a horror movie (The Last of Us is now even scarier). When an ant is infected by the fungus, the fungus will drain the ant of nutrients and take over its mind. Over a week, it will make the ant leave the safety of the nest and climb to a height of 25 centimetres, the perfect conditions for the fungus to grow. It then forces the ant to lock its mouth around a leaf, and eventually sends a long stalk right through the ant's head.

11. Horsehair worms make their host drown themselves.

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On the subject of mind control, these parasitic worms also have a horrifying way of completing their lifecycle. The larvae hatch in the water and wait to be injected by a suitable host. Once inside the host, the larvae feast on the nutrients inside it and grow into a worm.

Once fully grown, the worms need to emerge in water, so they hijack the nervous system of the host and make it seek out water. They will cause a grasshopper to jump into the water (which drowns it) and will burrow out in order to mate and breed.

12. There are cat-sized rats.

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Rats are a problem in any major city, but sometimes they can grow to be as big as cats and small dogs. In fact, a problem with giant rats in Tehran got so bad that the city sent squads of snipers to try and eliminate them. At the time, the number of giant rats was estimated to be 25 million, massively outnumbering the number of humans.

Here's the news story:

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13. Meerkats are brutal.

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It turns out that these cute animals are actually horrible... Well, the alphas anyway. They live in groups, where there is a dominant male and female who dictates the roles and reproductive rights of the other members of the group. When another female has a litter, the alpha female will murder their offspring, and the mothers are either forced into either exile or become wet nurses for the dominant two's offspring.

14. Locusts are actually grasshoppers that have changed form.

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Locusts are known for their destructive swarms, but what's interesting (and kind of disturbing) is how they become locusts. They're essentially grasshoppers, but grasshoppers that have gone from being solitary individuals to gregarious ones. They then go through morphological changes: their colour changes, their wings grow bigger, and they become physically stronger.

15. Vampire bats feed exclusively on blood.

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Yup, that's right, these bats feast on blood... A lot of blood. With their razor-sharp teeth and a heat sensor on their nose, they go for areas where warm blood is just beneath the skin. They usually live in colonies of about 100 bats, and a colony that size can drink the blood of 26 cows annually.

16. There are huge black holes in the ocean.

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Okay, they're not exactly the same as the black holes in space, but these vortexes share similarities with black holes. Known as ocean eddies, these huge holes are powerful enough to pull in anything that comes their way. Some of the biggest can be up to 150 kilometres wide!

17. Assassin bugs wear the bodies of their victims on their backs.

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These bugs mainly hunt ants, and once they've killed them and got all of the good stuff out, they wear the empty ant corpses on their backs! It's thought that they do this to blend in with other ants, avoiding detection and any defences that the ants may put up. It's a pretty clever trick, but also a horrifying one.

Know any more creepy nature facts? Let us know in the comments below!