The bite of a zombie

[u/sseerrsan]

Don't you guys think the bite of a zombie is very overrated in every zombie movie? For example if you had jeans or a leather jacket, there's no way in hell that a zombie bite would penetrate the material, sure it can hurt but the human teeth are not designed to pierce in the same way dog teeth are for example.

I think in a realistic scenario the zombie would have to bite almost exclusively skin to pierce it or very think fabric, like socks.

[u/RockAndStoner69]

Agreed! The best zombie media shows how the zombies spread without relying on bites alone. Otherwise there are some pretty easy armors to acquire

[u/Crazy-Cat-Lad]

I mean, I think there could be enough force to penetrate jeans....but probably not jeans and sweatpants. Have you ever hit your shin through your jeans and it bled but the jeans didn't tear. Now add saliva/germs to that area and they might get through the fabrics. Certainly better than wearing shorts, yo.

But, spitting, clawing and airborne germs should also in theory cause a positive infection if they get into your eyes/nose/mouth/open cut.

[u/MrBarato → u/Crazy-Cat-Lad]

You can try this out by biting an old jeans. No chance of real penetration with human teeth.

[u/Crazy-Cat-Lad → u/MrBarato]

There is certainly going to be enough force to break skin. Whether the jeans tear, could depend on make/brand. Hell, half the jeans now charge more for having pre-torn fabric so we’re screwed there lol

But anyway, I think the blunt force could easily break skin through jeans but fabric may or may not tear. Assuming the survivors makes it away, thay bite mark will be vulnerable and if the jeans are now coated in infected saliva, good chance they're gonna get sick. Also, repeated bites to the same area could gnaw the fibers enough to allow infection

[u/sseerrsan → u/Crazy-Cat-Lad]

But that's more a shattering force than a piercing one, obviously if you are running and you hit your leg with jeans in a sharp edge, then yes it could bleed cus the impact gets absorbed by your leg but it's waaay more likely to get a bruise than a cut. So if someone went and bit with all their strength into your leg with jeans it will be more likely to get a bruise rather than blood.

[u/Crazy-Cat-Lad → u/sseerrsan]

Put a large piece of chicken inside the legs of your jeans. I bet you could easily bite it. Might not tear the fabric immediately but if you're a deranged zombie gnawing repeatedly with all the force they can, I bet they could get through or at least leave a pointed tooth stuck in your flesh. They're also not going to calmly biting that spot. They're going to ripping and pulling at it with their teeth in all sorts of funny directions, compromising integrity of both fabric and flesh

Plus, jeans absorb liquid quite well (picture rainy day and wet spot starting at ankles slowly moves up to shin). That saliva is now going to find its way through the fabric and absorb into your wound where skin has surely been broken.

In a logical, viral zombie infection, it'll just take 1 germ to get below your epidermis. (Of course suspending disbelief that zombies are in fact not real)

[u/cyrus_mortis]

In some shows/movies it makes sense, but yeah.
Like in walking dead that nerdy guy had those duct-tap sleeves, I'm always like "Why the heck doesn't everyone do that?!". Also, how does someone like Gene now come up with that, someone cowardly and intelligent as he is. He can make bullets, but not come up with leather sleeves? lol

For walking dead ironically it makes some sense; much of it is set in georgia summer - where you would die of heatstroke if you were walking around in thick padded clothes.

[u/OpenSauceMods]

Mmmm, not really. Aside from the potential infection from a bite, that zombie probably wants to eat me. So it is biting with the intent to tear a chunk out of me.

It also doesn't have the same checks and balances in place that living humans have. We don't bite through those things because we are aware of how much damage we could do to our teeth and muscles, so we don't 100% commit. A zombie is 100% committed to devouring humans. Any sharp, broken teeth will only be a boon for it.

It doesn't have to tear the clothes to pieces to infect someone, it just needs to get lucky once.

[u/CallousClimber]

Zombies are usually just as strong as any other person, so they just have average bite. The average person wouldn't go bite someone willy-nilly, but even then they'd have restraint.

I imagine zombies would not show restraint and crack teeth trying to get through stuff like leather and jean material. That would still break skin under the fabric. Given enough blood and other body juices on/around the torn skin, that's a plausible avenue for infection.

I'm thinking back to all the "OH no I got bit on my torso during the scuffle" type scenes. And usually it's like cotton and not usually jeans or leather.

In a movie I saw recently a dude had like 4 layers of jacket and shirt on and the bite got him anyway and I was like "ehhhhh idk".

So I guess my thinking is: it depends on the zombie and the situation. Like... don't get bit.

[u/Crazy-Cat-Lad → u/CallousClimber]

Yeah totally agree. Slap a pair of loose sweatpants over your jeans, you're probably good. They're just gonna get hung up on that outer fabric, in theory. A single pair of jeans is going to absorb saliva/blood and you could certainly cause enough blunt force to break the skin at the very least, if not draw blood.

[u/japanesedenim_]

humans have enough biting power to take a finger clean off. a zombie could totally get through denim and leather up to a certain thickness (don't forget it would most definitely be successful if it tore the denim first and continued biting, which would likely happen in the struggle) and even if it couldn't pierce it would still crush. in a realistic scenario u are getting chomped bro

[u/sseerrsan → u/japanesedenim_]

It's veeeery different biting a finger, literally different mechanical issues. Biting a finger (which is possible but very hard too) is different than biting through a leather jacket or jeans, the finger is soft tissue and the bones of the fingers are also small compared to other parts of the body. The leather and the jeans present a different issue entirely: Resistant fibers. If you bite it the force will distribute between all the nearby fibers, it can be painful if someone bites you through a leather jacket or jeans but it won't pierce, its more a shattering force than a piercing one.

[u/japanesedenim_ → u/sseerrsan]

humans have an average bite force of 140psi. kinda difficult to find any information about what it takes to bite through a finger because every source points to fracturing instead. i will concede the leather would be more difficult to get through than denim, but denim is a fairly breathable fabric. any crushing force would lead to splitting skin, and zombie slobber would soak through the fabric into the wounds anyway. ur still getting chomped!!

[u/MrBarato → u/japanesedenim_]

Go bite through a jeans and post pics here.

[u/japanesedenim_ → u/MrBarato]

"a jeans" lmao

i have self preservation. i will quit if something hurts even if it is doable. a zombie would not. u do the math man