The bugs that have killed the most humans throughout history are not large predatory insects but small blood-feeding insects that transmit deadly diseases, with mosquitoes being by far the deadliest animal on Earth. Mosquitoes, including Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria, Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya, and Culex mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus, kill over 700,000 people per year worldwide according to the World Health Organization, with malaria alone killing over 400,000 people annually, mostly children in Africa. Mosquitoes have killed more humans than any other creature in history because they have spread malaria for thousands of years. The second deadliest bug is the flea, particularly the rat flea that transmits Yersinia pestis, the bacterium causing bubonic plague, which killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people during the Black Death in the 14th century and continues to cause outbreaks. Ticks are also deadly, transmitting Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever that can be fatal if untreated. Kissing bugs or triatomine bugs transmit Chagas disease which kills about 10,000 people per year in Latin America. Tsetse flies transmit sleeping sickness in Africa. Even though these bugs are tiny, their ability to act as vectors for bacteria, viruses, and parasites makes them responsible for more human deaths than sharks, snakes, or large predators combined, highlighting why mosquito control and vector management are major public health priorities.
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