Murder slugs and piss ants: Sweden’s top ten most dangerous animals
Published: 20 Aug 12 16:23 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42728/20120820/
After hearing “an outrageous claim” about the potential ferocity of his new country's wildlife, The Local’s Oliver Gee looks deeper into the animals in Sweden most likely to do you harm.
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Coming from way Down Under myself, I told her my best tales of bloodthirsty sharks and deadly spiders, venomous snakes and psychotic koalas.
However, this Swede was nonplussed by my anecdotes.
“Well, we have these ants,” she said. “They’re called pissmyror (literally piss-ants) and can pee on you and leave you in pain for a whole day. Sometimes longer.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP TEN LIST
Then she started talking about the dangerous flies. As she delved into an animated account about how the flies can take a huge chunk out of your leg (or something similarly ridiculous), I drifted off into my own thoughts.
Surely there’s more to the Swedish wilderness than piss-ants, right?
What’s the Great White Shark of Sweden? How is a wayward tourist most likely to become an un-tourist? And while I’m at it, how vicious is the so-called murder slug?
These questions are answered in the following gallery, where the most dangerous animals of Sweden have been rated and ranked… starting with number 10.
Oliver Gee
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What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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These flies are actually quite real. There are flies that we call Bronze Flies who sit down on any of your exposed body parts (not covered by clothes) and take a good bite out of you, I know since I've had one do it to me. They're a little bigger than normal flies but at first glance it's hard to tell the difference. The numbing pain of having your skin chewed off is the only real way to tell whether it's a regular fly or a bronze fly.
But joking apart, the article shouldn't have called the mosquito "disease free". Why it is the spreader of Tularemia (rabbit fever). If infected by it, you need hospital care.