By the time you finish reading this your skin will feel like it's
crawling, I'm feeling itchy and shuddery just thinking about what
I'm about to write. URGH
Did you know that there are zombies all around us? I mean, literally,
zombies, their own "self" gone as their bodies are used
as hosts to propogate the parasite within, their minds puppeted
by chemicals and enzymes created and delivered in very careful
doses by their puppet masters. Driven to extraordinary acts of
destruction to spread the parasite within.
There's several different types of these extraordinary and horrible
parasites. Here are the ones we have found out about through our
research, but there are plenty more...
Ampulex Compressa - The Roach Rider
This description of what this amazing wasp does is so well written
that I am just going to quote author Carl Zimmer who explains
the process in deliciously visceral detail in his book Parasite
Rex. Just imagine it happening to you whilst you read it...
"The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and
directly into its brain. She apparently use sensors along the
sides of the stinger to guide it through the brain, a bit like
a surgeon snaking his way to an appendix with a laparoscope. She
continues to probe the roach's brain until she reaches one particular
spot that appears to control the escape reflex. She injects a
second venom that influences these neurons in such a way that
the escape reflex disappears.
From the outside, the effect is surreal. The wasp does not paralyze
the cockroach. In fact, the roach is able to lift up its front
legs again and walk. But now it cannot move of its own accord.
The wasp takes hold of one of the roach's antennae and leads it--in
the words of Israeli scientists who study Ampulex--like a dog
on a leash.
The zombie roach crawls where its master leads, which turns out
to be the wasp's burrow. The roach creeps obediently into the
burrow and sits there quietly, while the wasp plugs up the burrow
with pebbles. Now the wasp turns to the roach once more and lays
an egg on its underside. The roach does not resist. The egg hatches,
and the larva chews a hole in the side of the roach. In it goes.
The larva grows inside the roach, devouring the organs of its
host, for about eight days. It is then ready to weave itself a
cocoon--which it makes within the roach as well. After four more
weeks, the wasp grows to an adult. It breaks out of its cocoon,
and out of the roach as well. Seeing a full-grown wasp crawl out
of a roach suddenly makes those Alien movies look pretty derivative."
Spinochordodes Tellinii - The Suicide Worm
Caution
- video features graphic grasshopper suicide and icky worms.
Also known as the Hairworm because of it's wirey black strand-of-hair
like appearance, Spinochordodes Tellinii lays it's eggs in water,
which is then drunk by insects. The eggs hatch inside the victim,
usually a grasshopper, and the worm grows inside its host. When
the worm decides it's ready to emerge, it excretes proteins into
the hapless grasshoppers nervous system which causes its behavior
to change and for it to seek out water to throw itself in. As
the grasshopper drowns, the worm wiggles free and goes on it's
merry way, leaving its host dead or dying.
Can any
say "Alien"?
Entomophthora - The Destroyer
Meet
Entomophthora muscae, a genus of Enslaver Fungi, who thankfully
only affects insects. It is transmitted by airborn spores
which infect adult flies (other members of Enslaver Fungus
infect other types of insects). When a spore lands on the
fly's body, it germinates and digs into the fly's exoskeleton,
it then proceeds to grow throughout the body of the fly,
growing so big that the abdomen of it's host distends and
bulges as the fungus takes over. Eventually the fungus starts
it's next phase of development and creates tiny cracks in
the fly's exoskeleton, pushing out "branches" or sporangia
(spore-baring structures). The fungus grows into the fly's
brain and creates changes in its behavior which is called
"Summit Disease". At the point that the fungus has started
sprouting out of the fly's body and creating it's spore-laden
branches ready to spread itself, it grounds the fly (stops
it flying) and directs the fly-zombie to crawl as high as
possible, going to the end of the branch or flower it is
on. Once it reaches the peak of it's perch, the fungus excretes
a sticky glue-like material which effectively seals the
fly in place. Just before it dies, the fly is commanded
to spread out it's legs and wings as far as it can. Just
before nightfall, flies are killed by the fungus, so that
the slightly more humid conditions of nightime will allow
the spores to produce. Because the fly's corpse is stuck
in place, the fungus can simply bide it's time till conditions
are perfect for it to ripen and release spores. It then
simply allows the wind to spread it.
But
wait, there's more... If the fungus infects a female fly,
when it kills her it causes her body to release the pheremones
that attracts male flies. They come along and try and mate
with the dead fungus-zombie-fly (augh!). Covered in spores
which start infecting them, they fly away. Before the fungus
initiates it's final stages, that infected male fly mates
with other females, and spreads the fungus still further.
There's
another family of this fungus that affects ants. Basically
it does the same thing as above, except the infected ant
climbs up so that it is above the nest where all the other
ants are unsuspectingly busy about their antish days. The
ant dies, glued to a twig or leaf, and his swollen body
BURSTS... showering the nest below with spores to infect
other ants. This process is repeated till there are few
ants left, and then the infected run frantically through
the forest until they find another ant trail for another
nest, where they die and burst, the fungus hoping another
ant from the new colony will be along soon to pick up an
infection to take home with him...
Quite frankly, we think that is enough to start with without even
mentioning Toxoplasmosis and it's strange and still not fully
known effects on the human brain. Google it, it's pretty
crazy stuff. You might actually be a nature zombie and simply
not know it.
