15 Terrifying Animals That Are Way Smaller Than You

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as not only the most dominant species on the planet, but as one that can survive pretty much anything. With our advancements in medicine, biology, and the other complexities of the natural world, we tend to feel that, no matter how much closer we get to the natural world, nothing bad will really happen to us.

Of course, life is full of little ironies, and more often than not, we take our superiority for granted and ignore the fact that there are many animals that can kill us living on this planet.

Of course, not every man-killer is a massive shark, giant anaconda or a saltwater crocodile. Some of the world's most dangerous creatures are much smaller than the average human being; and that's what makes them terrifying. With these smaller creatures, they have the advantage of nimbleness and surprise on their side, which makes coming into contact with them that much more unnerving.

The 15 animals discussed in this list are all, in terms of mass, far smaller than a human being, yet each one of them is dangerous or terrifying in their own way. Some of them are venomous enough to kill a person without much difficulty, while others are simple pests that carry diseases that can harm us. Whatever the case, take great care when you're reading this article; depending on where you are in the world, there might be some terrible creature lurking behind you without your knowledge...

Normally, when you think of ants, you imagine a single underground colony with millions of drones, a single fat queen, and the closest thing to ideal communism on Earth. However, there’s one subspecies of ant that throws that preconception out the window: the Driver ant, named for its constantly-mobile colony that keeps moving forward without stopping, devouring everything in its path.

If you were ever looking for a real-life example of an actual juggernaut that won’t stop no matter what’s in front of it, it’s the Driver Ant. These mobile colonies number in the tens of millions, and they behave like a single entity, akin to a hive mind collective. If you attack one ant, the rest of the colony will respond, and soon you’d find yourself being overwhelmed by millions of vicious ants.

This is the kind of creature that possesses the ability to bring about genuine fear from those who cross them. Every human has a preconception of ants as being those small creatures that get crushed underfoot before scattering away, running in fear. But Driver Ants will keep coming, and no matter how much you try and crush them, more will keep coming.

It’s like a zombie apocalypse, only instead of mindless flesh-hungry humanoids seeking human flesh to consume, it’s tens of millions of insects seeking to destroy whatever’s in their path. So…yeah, aside from the difference in legs, those two things might as well be one in the same.