Tiny, carnivorous bugs known as “mini sharks” are wreaking havoc along California’s coastline, eating beachgoers’ feet causing pain and bleeding.
“It hurt! I did! I jumped out of the water, which was pretty shocking. I had blood all over my leg and between my toes,” said Tara Savage of San Diego. He told CBS8, “I pulled my leg. There was blood all over my leg. It was like a little piranha bit me.”
The carnivorous bugs are actually aquatic isopods (called Excirolana chiltoni), which can grow up to 0.3 inches long and travel in swarms of up to 1,000 creatures – Live Science reports. increase.
Sauvage told local news outlets that she felt better about 15 minutes after washing her feet. But when he put his hand in the water again, another person started biting his finger.
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The carnivorous bug (above) is actually a waterline isopod called Excirolana chiltoni, which grows up to 0.3 inches long.
These isopods are a class of crustaceans that include over 10,000 marine, freshwater, and terrestrial species, from tiny creatures like E. chiltoni to 10-inch creatures that roam the ocean floor.
These isopods are a class of crustaceans that include over 10,000 marine, freshwater, and terrestrial species, from tiny creatures like E. chiltoni to 10-inch creatures that roam the ocean floor.
“They’re called excilorana chiltoni,” Professor Ryan Hechinger of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography told CBS8. He said these crustaceans are here all year round.
“This is an isopod, a member of the roly-poly family that inhabits the oceans as far as Alaska and Japan and in very shallow waters. They are perfectly known to bite people. They like to eat fresh meat like dying or battered animals,” he said.
Marine life experts say the bugs are typically found year-round along the California coastline and on beaches in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada.
Marine life experts say the bugs are typically found year-round along the California coastline and on beaches in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. to be
“It hurt! I did! I jumped out of the water and this was so shocking. I had blood all over my leg and between my toes,” San Diego resident Tara Savage told CBS8. told to
Isopods usually live under sand, but emerge in shallow water when the tide is low. If there are dead fish or other large carcasses washed ashore, they will quickly act like vultures and enjoy their meal.
They prefer to eat other fish and marine life, but they are not picky.
In 1993, a swarm of chewing creatures climbed onto infant diapers and sucked their blood. Her father noticed when she suddenly started crying.
“They drew some blood. It was a quick affair,” Craig Johnston, then 36, told the Los Angeles Times.
A 16-year-old man had to be admitted to hospital in 2017 after being attacked by a swarm of the isopod Cirolana harfordi, a relative of E. chiltoni.
BBC News reported that at first he had no idea what was going on, but when he came out of the water, the crustacean was tearing pieces of skin from his leg, causing him to bleed unstoppably, like a ‘war wound’. Looked.
Richard Bruska, an invertebrate scientist at the University of Arizona and former curator of crustaceans at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, told the California-based publication. “They’re like little sharks, but with a bite comparable to that of a mosquito,” he added.
Hechinger explained that insects are really necessary for ecosystems. Because they mainly eat dead fish so that they don’t smell like rotten fish in the water.
“My recommendation is don’t freak out. If it bothers you, get out,” he added.
“My recommendation is don’t freak out. If that’s bothering you, get out,” he added.
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