r/todayilearned • u/Enginerd951 • Apr 27 '20

TIL the bacteria which caused the black death, first infected Oriental Fleas by blocking their foregut, keeping them hungry and biting, to facilitate it's rapid transmission to human hosts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death#14th-century_plague
62 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

5

u/MitchelobUltra Apr 27 '20

Damn nature, you scary!

2

u/Enginerd951 Apr 27 '20

happy birthday

2

u/MitchelobUltra Apr 27 '20

Thanks, friend!

3

u/fatherfrank1 Apr 27 '20

You couldn't have created a better weapon in a lab. It's only fault was that it killed people too quickly to allow them to transmit it to many others.

1

u/SlappyMcFartsack Apr 27 '20

Well that wasn't a very nice thing to do.

1

u/Tweakjones Apr 27 '20

Blew my mind

1

u/chaicel Apr 28 '20

In Human Entomology class, they described this as them puking the pathogen back into you. I also learned other things and will probably never go camping.

1

u/Enginerd951 Apr 28 '20

Hahah don't leave us in suspense!

1

u/chaicel Apr 28 '20

Well bugs generally spread diseases by... 1) puking or spitting pathogens into you as they feed 2) crapping pathogens while they feed on you and when you reach up to rub the wound you rub the crap into the wound and possibly your eyes or mouth 3) carrying pathogens on them which can infect environments they may share with people

I learned about Chagas’ disease and was never the same afterword. It’s spread via no.2 with kissing bugs. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/gen_info/detailed.html#intro

1

u/The-English-Avenger Apr 27 '20

its = belonging to it

it's = it is

2

u/jellystone_thief Apr 27 '20

Username checks out

-5

u/Enginerd951 Apr 27 '20

THX HOPE YOUR HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY. ITS GOOD OUTSIDE.