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First things first, lots of people do not understand that there's a difference between CO (carbon monoxide) and CO2 (carbon dioxide).

- Carbon monoxide is chemically unstable, breaks down after some time, and is highly toxic to mammals.

- Carbon dioxide is pretty much harmless, your body produces it and you exhale it with every breath, plants breathe it the way animals breathe oxygen, and it's the gas which has all the "I have an Arts Degree so I feel qualified to talk about global warming" idiots up in arms.

If you burn almost anything *without* enough oxygen, you get CO. You burn it *with* enough oxygen, you get CO2 and water vapor (steam).

Mammals have red blood because we have hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is, in fact, the iron compound which makes your blood red. Hemoglobin also makes CO (carbon monoxide) deadly, because it binds better to CO than it does to O2 (diatomic oxygen as found in air).

With all your hemoglobin bound to CO, your blood doesn't pick up any/enough O2 from your lungs, and you suffocate. Since you're still inhaling/exhaling as normal, it's not uncomfortable like someone is holding a pillow over your face or you're drowning - you can breathe as normal, it's just not doing anything. So you fall asleep... and don't wake up.

Is insect "blood" equally vulnerable? I doubt it for a few reasons:

- When I squish an insect, the only time I see red blood is when it's a mosquito, and that's MY blood, not mosquito blood.

- Insects evolved a lot earlier in the world's history than mammals. Like 'em or not, insects were here first. And the world was a lot more hostile when they made their first appearance; my suspicion is that CO (carbon monoxide) was a lot more prevalent in the atmosphere than it is today.

- If insects were as susceptible to carbon monoxide as mammals are, you could fumigate your house yourself by setting a charcoal barbecue with glowing embers in your basement and leaving it overnight. This does not work - but is a popular technique for human suicides in Japan.

Are insects equally vulnerable? I haven't found a satisfactory answer.

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βˆ™ 12y ago
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βˆ™ 6mo ago

Yes, carbon monoxide is poisonous to insects as it interferes with their ability to transport oxygen, leading to suffocation. Placing insects in environments with high levels of carbon monoxide can kill them.

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Q: Will carbon monoxide kill insects
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