What tiny animals pose a threat to the survival of microscopic humanoids? (Series)

Question

In my world, there is a race of microscopic humanoid organisms (200 μm - 220 μm) who live on land in a neotropic suburban area. They live on plants, leaf-litter, trees, rocks, etc.

Given this information, what are some organisms between 0.1 - 12 mm that might prey upon organisms of their size?

@JDlugosz They have DNA computers for brains , accept the DNA is modified to have 12 possible base pairs — , Mar 06 '16 at 18:04
But why would they be man-shaped, rather than something scale-appropreate? How fast is a DNA computer? When I wanted something that small I calculated that a quantum computer would do. — JDługosz, Mar 06 '16 at 18:11
Also worth reading, the not so classic "Micro" by Michael Crichton. Pretty much the entire book is about exactly this. — Ieuan Stanley, Mar 08 '16 at 13:26

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '16 at 21:32

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Disclaimer

This is simply a list of organisms I can think of , and is in no way meant to be the final answer to this question , nor is it meant to discourage other answers from being posted

Pseudoscorpions : an scorpion-like arachnid that preys on mites , insects , and various other organisms

Ladybugs : These beetles commonly eat aphids , but are known to be opportunistic , eating a variety of soft bodies organisms

Predatory Mites : There are a variety of predatory mites , some of which are opportunistic , eating any soft bodied arthropod that they can get their grasping extremities on

answered Mar 06 '16 at 21:32

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this is a pretty cliche answer, but adding tardigrades always makes things better. if you wanted to use something at a larger scale, you could use whatever small insects are native to the region the story takes place in (side note: how exactly would something like a ladybug be able to interact with a microscopic organism?). on the other side, it would be cool to see how they perceive viruses. – Duncan Urquhart Mar 07 '16 at 15:22
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@DuncanUrquhart The issue with adding tardigrades is that they eat plants , and I did some calculations , and found that the size differences between the ladybugs and people would be proportional to that of a man and an orange – Mar 07 '16 at 15:31
i just noticed something kind of cool: the scale difference between a ladybug and your people is almost exactly a that between them and an average virus. – Duncan Urquhart Mar 07 '16 at 15:34
@DuncanUrquhart Enter , the virophages – Mar 07 '16 at 15:48
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oh man how did i forget about bacteriophages you could have the main character keep one as a pet or something how cool would that be – Duncan Urquhart Mar 07 '16 at 16:19
May I add to your answer: Not an obvious hazard - but parasitic fungus is always looking for a small, humid area (microscopic lungs). – Polyducks Mar 08 '16 at 22:50

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '16 at 18:48

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Ants would a be real problem. While they are not the largest or the strongest insect around, the sheer speed they reproduce would make it nearly impossible for microscopic humans to compete with them.

answered Mar 07 '16 at 18:48

Bryan McClure

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 11 '16 at 01:37

Some pretty scary and powerful insects are out there. Almost every carnivorous insect would be dangerous. Even dragonflies could be a danger. Dragonflies can eat up to half their body weight in 30 mins. Centipedes are also pretty scary. They are fast, venomous, and have an acute sense of smell. The main difficulty for the humanoids would be carnivorous insects. Almost all insects are deadly to humans and have thick shells. They are somewhat like dinosaurs. The main difference would be that dinosaurs don't reproduce half as fast as most insects. So basically you have a civilization of humans who have to deal with hyper reproductive dinosaurs.

What tiny animals pose a threat to the survival of microscopic humanoids? (Series)

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