Why? That's like being afraid of mosquitoes. You can't even really feel a leech.

Well GP didn't say they were afraid. I have pretty much the same reaction of being "freaked out" by leeches too. And while my reaction to mosquitoes is hardly the same, I'm going to avoid both if I possibly can, which seems entirely reasonable to me

Anyway you don't feel leeches coming off? That's surprising.

	▲	Rendello 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's right, I (GP) am not really afraid of them, I just find leeches and bloodsuckers quite unpleasant. A funny story: a few years ago I went canoeing up a small river with my younger cousin. There's not a lot of current because the river is shallow and there are beaver dams around every corner. Most of the dams are unused and broken up, but the river's so shallow in the late summer that they block quite a bit of water anyway and necessitate portaging. My cousin, being young, gets bored and stops padding, though he's still willing to help portage. We zig zag up the small river, crashing into either side every few paddlestrokes, because I hadn't realized that being the heavier one, I should be in the back of the canoe. Eventually we get to a large felled tree blocking the river, and we attempt to portage around it, but the banks are quite steep and thick with brush, and I end up losing the canoe down the river. The current is slow, still, but the canoe is floating away, so I have to strip down and jump in after it. Unfortunately my feet touched the bottom and I was covered in bloodsuckers large and small, some of which hid themselves under my feet and between my toes for the rest of the excursion. When I got back to the house, I lifted my leg, put my foot in the sink, and said "get the salt!"

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codingdave 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Mosquitoes are the deadliest creature on the planet, to be fair.

	▲	hedora 5 days ago \| parent [-]
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throwaway173738 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’ve been in clouds of mosquitos so thick they cover you in black when you sit down. They land in your food and try to eat it. I could understand being afraid of them having seen that buzzing miasma bearing down at all times, relentless for a drop of blood.

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cyberax 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because we're large. In nature, crocodilians prey on small/mid-size mammals and birds. Humans are larger than their normal prey, and we're also tall, so we appear more massive to them. And most predators actively avoid animals that are too large to be their prey.

That's why it gets so much more dangerous if you're swimming. If a crocodile is above the water, then it can only see your head. And it's just the right size to be its prey.

And if the crocodile is underwater, then it may be even worse. Humans usually look clumsy when swimming, just like an animal in distress. In other words, an easy prey.

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saghm 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not being able to feel them is honestly scarier. It's one thing to suddenly feel a single bloodsucking parasite attach itself to you, but suddenly realizing that you're covered in them out of nowhere is the stuff of nightmares. If I could be outside in the summer blissfully minding my business and then glancing down save suddenly seeing like a dozen mosquitoes all gorging themselves on my arm, I'd be more afraid of them too.

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AceyMan 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Umm, I'm hugely afraid to mosquitos: the biggest killer of people among all the world's fauna.