F**K YEAH! Mind-controlling flies and their zombified ant lackeys

Posted: Dec 01, 2009

by:

Zombie ants! This one comes courtesy of a Junkie, but I can't remember who. If you sent me this link, please let me know in the comments below.

Seriously, how F**K YEAH! is this? As reported by National Geographic News, parasitic phorid flies not only lay eggs in fire ants, but the maggots "drive" the ants like a little insectile SUV to get it away from other fire ants (a-la Perry Dawsey's induced paranoia), eat the ant's brains and chop off the ant's head. Nature is so freakin' kick-ass it's downright awesome.

Click here to read the whole article

Excerpt:

The egg develops into a maggot, which appears to control the ant's behavior. The maggot "directs" the ant to a moist, leafy place — phorid larvae are vulnerable to drying out — a safe distance from other fire ants.

The larva then eats the ant's brains, causes the ant's head to fall off, then finally "hatches" from the ant's hollowed-out head about 40 days later.

"Not only is it decapitating it, but it turns the ant into a zombie," said Sanford Porter, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.

5 Comments

Beth_Ailis

On Dec 03, 2009 @ 7:33PM Edited Nov 30, 2011 @ 11:12AM

And they are using these little nasties

Texas and Florida -- releasing the flies on purpose to try to control the fire ant. Nothing could possibly go wrong there, huh?

Go Steelers! Go Dawgs!

Pusher and member of the Gutter Sistren

RohiPnol

On Dec 07, 2009 @ 1:08PM Edited Nov 30, 2011 @ 11:12AM

The zombie invasion starts here

Bigger flies and bigger hosts and we're all screwed

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Pusher, Poet and Pet Protector

Marcella

On Dec 08, 2009 @ 6:21AM Edited Nov 30, 2011 @ 11:12AM

Holy Guacamole!

Could you imagine one of those flies laying eggs in you, and then having them take complete control of your movements? Then eat your brains, and while you're probably dead(hopefully), it hatches out of you're emptied melon?? thats absolutely one of the coolest things I've heard about insects...

BigJohn

On May 09, 2011 @ 3:12PM Edited Nov 30, 2011 @ 11:12AM

More zombie ant behavior!

Check out this other zombie ant posting by junkie rfee:

http://www.scottsigler.com/node/4959

Cross-posting cuz we all need to educate ourselves on how susceptible ants are to becoming zombified, and how they will inevitably bring about the zombie apocalypse.

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Gutter Sistren whipping boy, innoventor of words, Life Coach to the Damned.