35 Times Mother Nature Proved To Be Scary As Hell (WARNING: This List Might Be Too Scary For You)

Jul 13, 2023

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50 Times Mother Nature Proved To Be Scary As Hell (WARNING: This List Might Be Too Scary For You)

Mother Nature continues to amaze us every day, even when we fail to treat her with the love and respect she deserves. There are too many dreamy landscapes and mind-boggling animals that exist right outside our urban surroundings, just waiting to be appreciated. But be careful though — if you get too close, things can go from mesmerizing to straight-up terrifying in mere seconds.

You see, not all wildlife surprises are pleasant. They sometimes crawl into the comfort of our homes to remind us that nature is not to be messed with. In fact, there are plenty of horrified poor souls that have experienced these unsettling terrors firsthand. Before running to the hills, they managed to snap a photo and share their horror stories with everyone online.

We at Bored Panda scoured the internet and found plenty of cases where nature provided our world with alien-like creatures to scare the heck out of everyone who crosses them. Continue scrolling and let us know which ones made you say ‘nope’ the loudest! And if by some chance you think you can handle even more creepy and spooky examples, check out our earlier compilations of this feature here, here, and here.

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1. Caught This Storm Above A Bowing Field Of Sunflowers

2. Due To The Low Temperature, Lake Michigan Shattered Into Countless Pieces Of Ice

To learn more about our fear of the natural world, especially insects, we reached out to Robert Bixler, emeritus associate professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University. He told Bored Panda that if we were to grab several hundred children’s books right now, we would find invertebrates such as butterflies, ladybugs, and snails disproportionately used there.

“People who hate bugs love butterflies. Butterflies are insects but are perceived differently from all other insects and small invertebrates,” he said. This does beg the question, why do we respond positively to the story-like creatures yet feel annoyance and disgust when it comes to the creepy-crawly ones?

3. This Is A Wasp Nest That Has Grown Around The Floodlights On A Garage

4. I Share A New Jaguar Photo With You, Earlier Than I Wanted. Hopefully, You Will Like This Striking Image

The professor explained that people often look at insects in fear because some of them use us as a source of food. “Mosquitoes, horse flies, and gnats, along with pest beetles and moths that get into our food. These insects come around repeatedly to feed on us and annoy us. These repetitive and annoying experiences convince us that we hate bugs,” he added.

Another factor to take in is the startle effect. “A vast majority of the million-plus species of insects stay hidden to avoid being eaten. We have never seen them and are surprised when we actually do see these strange creatures” Bixler continued. “[Insects] are perceptually so different than vertebrate animals. They move differently, they make unmusical vibration-like sounds to communicate (e.g., cicadas and katydids all summer long in trees), and eye contact is difficult. From a threat potential perspective, we know that some are harmful and stinging. Yet we know nothing about the other million species. Better to assume the worst,” he said.

5. A Melanistic & Albino Alligator

6. Moose In Fog

Beautiful actually. Hope it was taken with a long lense, otherwise, they probably found this picture in the camera beside the body!

7. Stygian Owl Is Known For The Red Reflection Of Their Eyes That Are Often Associated With The Devil

8. Dead Man Fingers Fungus

Lockwood mentioned another study of more than 1000 households that revealed that 38 percent of the respondents disliked arthropods in their yards, and 84 percent didn’t want them in their homes: “So an aversion toward insects, if not full-blown entomophobia, is extremely common in our society.”

The strong dislike of insects is rooted in six “fear-evoking perceptual properties”, Lockwood said. According to him, insects can:

Invade our homes and bodies,
Evade us via quick, unpredictable movements, to which it might be added that the furtive skittering of a cockroach, for example, with its head lowered as if slinking out of the room, evokes a sense that the creature is guilty or ashamed,
Undergo rapid population growth and reach staggeringly large numbers which threaten our sense of individuality,
Harm us both directly (bite and sting) and indirectly (transmit disease, as well as destroy woodwork, carpets, book bindings, electrical wiring, and food stores),
Instill a disturbing sense of otherness via their alien bodies — they are real-world monsters associated with madness (e.g., Going Bugs by James Hillman),
Defy our will and control via a kind of radical, mindless or amoral autonomy.

9. Coconut Crabs Are Attracted To The Smell Of Food

10. This Looks Like A Scene From A Movie. Six Waterspouts Simultaneously In The Gulf Of Mexico

11. Infested Spider Tent

12. Found In A Harpy Eagle’s Nest

13. Was Playing Video Games When I Heard Sounds To My Left. Looked Over And Saw This

14. The Creatonotos Gangis Moth Unfurling Its “Hair-Pencils” To Spread Pheromones

15. Went Into My Attic Looking For A Water Leak Coming Into My Living Room And It Appears That I’m Also In Quarantine With This Whatever Monstrosity Left This Behind

It’s soft to the touch so I’m assuming it’s still around.

“Once people get over their fear of insects, going on an insect safari can be full of fascinating surprises. Going out to look for ant lions and tiger beetles in your neighboring parks is much cheaper than a wildlife safari to some distant continent to see lions and tigers. The incredible variety of shapes, behaviors, and colorations of insects make them an excellent focus for nature photographers — you simply need to go looking for them in the right places — they will not come to you,” Bixler concluded.

16. This Cluster Of Fossilised Creatures Look Like They Came From Another Planet

17. Sometimes Mother Nature Can Be Creepy (Chesaning, MI)

18. Does Anyone Know What Kind Of Puppy This Is?

19. Snapdragon Seed Pods Are Kind Of Creepy

20. Found This In My Apartment While Living In Japan. They Are Fast

21. Angler Fish Washed Ashore

21. This Moray Tried To Swallow A Pufferfish. Said Puffer Took Her With Him

22. Heron Likes A Bit Of Crocodilian Dinner

23. This Harmless Snail

24. I Freaked Out A Little When I Met This While Cross Country Skiing

26. Who’s That Pokémon?

27. All The Brown You Can See Is Spiders

28. Apparently, A Species Of Guarana Plant Looks Like A Large Cluster Of Eyeballs

And that’s why they never make it onto the energy drink can design. I once had to design a new energy drink ad. Thought I might add some of the ingredients to the design. Quickly ditched that idea after a short google search.