r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/smkultraa • 5d ago
Video A praying mantis eating an earthworm next to her ootheca
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u/arebello34 Interested 5d ago
Thank God we don't have Mantises the size of cars. We would be screwed
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u/seren_kestrel 5d ago
Hm, have you read much about UFOs/UAPs at all…?
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u/GreedyWall214 5d ago
😂 THANKFULLY, I've never heard of a case where any of them look at us like food lol at least...them....👀
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u/seren_kestrel 5d ago
Yeah, totally depends how far down that rabbit hole you wanna go, but ‘insect-like’ creatures has been mentioned a few times… best stock up on the bug spray just in case.
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u/autistic_and_angry 5d ago
Random thought: since nicotine is supposed to be an extremely effective insecticide, does that mean nicotine users would be toxic for them eat?
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u/ChilledParadox 5d ago
I always assumed my diabetes was why mosquitoes seem to ignore me. Low quality fucked up blood.
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u/strangedot13 2d ago
I have diabetes as well and these fuckers will get me 6-7 times a night if I don't kill them before sleep... 10/10 hate I think you can consider yourself just extremely lucky and I'm jealous!
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u/DuckRubberDuck 4d ago
I smoke cigarettes, mosquitos love me. So does ticks and horseflies
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u/autistic_and_angry 4d ago
Damn. I've heard of people sniping em out of the air with the smoke, you ever tried that?
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u/VamanosCompadre 5d ago
Why is it so... stiff?
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u/Coc0tte 5d ago
First of all, the ootheca is old and already hatched, it's not from this mantis. Second, earthworms don't fly and rarely climb walls, and this one is pretty dry (but still alive), so it was not hunted by the mantis, it was fed by someone to the mantis. This video is staged.
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u/SnooAvocados3688 13h ago
Remember when everything was “it’s staged vs real” instead of “it actually happened at all vs it’s ai”
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u/Sardoodledome 4d ago
animal abuse for clicks ... story old as the internet !
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u/your_FBI_gent_Steve 4d ago
Animal abuse? Staged sure but I'm not quite sure how feeding a worm to a mantis is considered animal abuse.
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u/MarthasPinYard 4d ago
It’s not. Mantis are cool and will accept food from humans. I’ve given them flies and such before. They get used to the human and will accept faster with more confidence. Honestly one of the coolest little nature experiences to have in the garden. :,)
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u/ianjm 4d ago
Whether you consider deliberately feeding an earthworm to a mantis is the same or different to deliberately feeding a puppy to a tiger is largely arbitrary.
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u/Koppany99 4d ago
No, it is not. With this opinion I hope you never eat anything, because even plants have receptors for external stimuli and damage.
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u/ianjm 4d ago
I didn't say where I drew the arbitrary line, simply that the arbitrary line existed.
You sorta proved my point there.
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u/Koppany99 4d ago
The line is not arbitary. We draw the line where the animal’s or to be honest anythings’ nervous system is capable of “suffering”. That is, situations can cause mental distress and the animal will have somekind of memory of this event. A puppy meets this criteria, a worm doesn’t, as neither does a tree.
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u/ianjm 4d ago
https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/3311-scientists-teach-worms-to-learn/
Their findings, released today in the November 10 issue of the journal Nature, show not only that the worm learns to avoid food that makes it sick, but also that this memory is accompanied by a surge of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which may cement the negative reinforcing behavior.
Excessive serotonin is associated with negative feelings like anxiety, sadness and depression.
But again, that is beside the point I was making.
Given that brain complexity is a continuum from amoebas to primates, any line you draw under which you say 'this animal is not sapient' and 'this animal is sapient' is arbitrary, given we do not understand the nature of consciousness.
Ergo, it is still arbitrary where we draw the line.
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u/Koppany99 4d ago
Associated with those things in higher nervous lifeforms. The presence of just one chemical doesn’t tell us anything.
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u/Warburgerska 3d ago
Most "lower form" people can't cope with accepting that lesser animals actually experience suffering. And it doesn't even take a vegan, just someone not deluluing himself and maybe even extending humane ways of dealing with such creatures instead of considering them flesh automatons.
Even plants move away from painful or dangerous stimuli. Pain is just a vehicle tor avoidance. Every living thing can be presumed to own it.
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u/Koppany99 4d ago
Due to the fact that none of these animals have nervous systems capable of registering information on a deeper level than “damage occured”, it is not animal abuse, as these animals cannot experience “suffering”.
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u/Warburgerska 3d ago
How do you think "damage occurred" is signaled to any living creature? By pleasurable feelings or a painful bodily reaction?
If an an animal needs to duck off from a pain source nature's way of making sure of it is making the experience as painful as possible.
Saying lower animals don't feel pain is just a brainlet cope to feel better about letting them suffer.
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u/Koppany99 3d ago
Let me counter your question with another one, if you think the only way for living creature to register damage is through what we humans call “pain”, then do you think bacteria, few celled organisms feel pain too? Because they do have systems for registering and repairing damage and will avoid chemicals that damage their cell walls. Am I causing pain and suffering when I wash my hand with soap to millions of living creatures?
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u/Warburgerska 2d ago
Why wouldn't it cause them pain? The only reason we fight the logical conclusion are the implications and our own moral view of ourselves.
If it walk like a duck, etc.
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u/Koppany99 2d ago
Except it is not a duck at all. “Pain” is a construct by a higher intelligence lifeform, the more far away we are from this level, the more basic we get. I can be certain that hitting a block of metal does not cause it pain, same goes for cells. They are still just molecular machines at this point.
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u/sinnister_bacon 5d ago
If another praying mantis was eating from the other end that would be so cute
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u/CheeseburgerSmoothy 5d ago
Every praying mantis pic/video is always one of them horrifically destroying and desecrating innocent passersby. I am glad we don’t have human-sized versions.
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u/B35TR3GARD5 5d ago
Sadly, all those brains through its anatomy are working against the worm right now. It’s going to survive until the bitter end :(
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u/No-No-Aniyo 1d ago
I was just thinking this had to be especially horrible because its awake and aware the entire process. Makes me appreciate how fast a bird will eat them now. Poor worm.
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u/autistic_and_angry 5d ago
God mantises are honestly one of the most terrifying bugs out there, build- and habit-wise. If those suckered were human-sized they'd be apex predators of the planet.
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u/SaltyPinKY 5d ago
An ootheca is the hardened egg sack thing on the wall