May 13 2009SICK!: Fly Turns Ants Into Zombie Nurseries
The phorid fly turns fire ants into zombies by laying eggs inside them. When the larvae hatch, they eat their way to the ant's brain, which they also eat, leaving the fiery bastards to wander around like zombies before dying. Sick.
"At some point, the ant gets up and starts wandering," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at UT.
The maggot eventually migrates into the ant's head, but Plowes said he "wouldn't use the word 'control' to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks."About a month after the egg is laid, the ant's head falls off and the fly emerges ready to attack any foraging ants away from the mound and lay eggs.
ZOMG -- it's head falls off. That reminds me of the time I was getting it on with a velociraptor when my parents came home early so I tried stuffing him in the closet but accidentally slammed the door closed on his neck and his head fell off. I buried it in the backyard, but I kept the body. What? It's okay if it's a dinosaur!
Hit the jump for a video of the flies in action (first video) as well as another of what jewel wasps do to cockroaches (same concept of zombification, but with a completely different method (read: injecting venom straight into the brain)).
Parasitic flies turn fire ants into zombies [yahoonews]
Thanks to STOMPY, not stompy, Chuck Nunchuck, Logan, Josh, Allison, Nathaniel and Shane, who once ate fried fire ants in South America and found them appetizing. But not filling!
Reader Comments
1. $.02 and a pocket full of FAH-Q - May 13, 2009 12:31 PM
Ewwwwwwww!
2. STOMPY - May 13, 2009 12:31 PM
sweet
3. Eric - May 13, 2009 12:31 PM
Heres a whole bunch of zombie bugs
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/04-zombie-animals-and-the-parasites-that-control-them
4. Sick - May 13, 2009 12:36 PM
sick
i guess this days gangstars cant afford to fix their rides
http://www.epiclosers.com/load/8-1-0-353
5. Daisy - May 13, 2009 12:40 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max had to drive to upstate NY to see about a guy who ran over a jogger, and took off. Then on his way back, he got out of the car to look at horses and his car blew up.
6. STOMPY - May 13, 2009 12:44 PM
I thought there were zombie ants in NBD... I though max spilled his ice cream cone on the ground and bunch of zombie ants gathered to eat it and he snorted them up like a line of coke...
7. Gabe to the power of PEW - May 13, 2009 12:55 PM
I've always been an advocate for gun control.
But everytime I read an article or watch a movie about Zombies. I change my mind.
It makes me want to own a few guns, and a few flame throwers.
8. naas - May 13, 2009 12:58 PM
@2 Good call
Botflies also do this, without the zombie after effect though.
I don't look forward to boreflies btw, which do this same thing to humans after eating our eyeballs from our paralyzed bodies after biting us. The process where they feed on our brains also takes a month & we're conscious the whole time, but paralyzed.
They haven't been engineered yet thankfully & hopefully won't be anytime soon
9. dadoren - May 13, 2009 12:58 PM
If we could harness this power and use it on humans I mean ah ah our enemies. ya ya thats what i ment. >D
10. Nero - May 13, 2009 1:00 PM
These wasps have refined their survival technics! Respect for that!
11. antmattmn - May 13, 2009 1:09 PM
This same thing happens with me and your mom.
I'm the fly.
12. Timbo - May 13, 2009 1:10 PM
Thanks GW!
You always save the good one for lunch time!
13. Somebody - May 13, 2009 1:20 PM
This could be tomorrow's "Swine Flu" now tell them scientists not to sleep with flys or fire ants...Resident Evil anyone? Hello?...probably funded by the Umbrella-ella-ella-eh eh Corporation.
14. Eva - May 13, 2009 1:22 PM
O.o Fascinating...
15. Ocelot - May 13, 2009 1:22 PM
@13 I was thinking the same thing! It's totally the plagas.
16. Ocelot - May 13, 2009 1:23 PM
Or the progenitor or whatever
17. STOMPY - May 13, 2009 1:38 PM
What if there were zombie robots... you would need more than a chainsaw or a shotgun...
18. Angel Mass - May 13, 2009 1:40 PM
Nature is such a mad scientist at times
19. gizmoduck - May 13, 2009 1:48 PM
wheres the predator when you need him?
pew pew zap zap!
20. knoxpod - May 13, 2009 2:08 PM
"i'm soooo pwned!!!!" HAHAHAHA
21. Captain - May 13, 2009 2:21 PM
http://captain-hash.mybrute.com
--------------------------------------------
22. Chuck Nunchuck - May 13, 2009 2:57 PM
I hope Michael Bay directs a movie with this as a plot!
23. drugman - May 13, 2009 3:35 PM
very nice
24. NastyBedazzler - May 13, 2009 5:14 PM
Dude... dude dude dude dude dude DUDE.
OH MY GOD. Those videos were horrific. I can't even begin to believe this shit. As much as I hate cockroaches I almost feel bad for them. That is not a good way to go.
25. McCracken - May 13, 2009 5:27 PM
That is creepy!
26. Aids - May 13, 2009 5:54 PM
Next is human zombies Or Killer Robots and zombies!
http://std-aids.mybrute.com
27. Dodo - May 13, 2009 7:06 PM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7226661303929118618
scariest. shit. ever.
28. Dirjel - May 13, 2009 7:51 PM
GW typo'd.
"What? It's okay of it's a dinosaur!"
29. Eddy - May 13, 2009 8:31 PM
....So let me get this straight. The flies are so turned on by the ants panicking that they copulate in mid-air in order to lay their eggs in the terrified ants? That's pretty sick. I mean... imagine aliens doing that to us.
30. Amaranth - May 13, 2009 8:55 PM
lmao "I'm so pwned!" best part of the 2nd video clip haha
31. Wolf King Nightmare - May 13, 2009 9:41 PM
I knew it their starting with the ants then theyl thern the humans into zombies (im glad Im a computer, parialy)
32. Elboxo - May 14, 2009 1:24 AM
this is like the assassin bug ( i thinks its called that)
it stuns desert spiders (yes spiders from the desert, e.g. the one that rolls into a ball to roll down sand-dunes to safety!?)
anyway it stuns them then lays maggots/larvae in them, the point of it is so that when the maggots emerge from the egg that they are in they have a fresh food supply that cannot fight them and has hardly any predators (apart from reptiles)
33. decosta - May 14, 2009 1:24 AM
FIRST ....
YA'LL GOT TO STAY ON TOP OF THE FIRST and sweet i need fire ants to take over the world
34. Jaded Icon - May 14, 2009 8:57 AM
So when is the ACLU going to take up the fight against these flys? I mean come on! These fire ants are harmless to everything that doesn't come into contact with them. On the plus side zombies in whatever form are just plain cool, they are also harmless with everything they dont come in contact with..........what?...........what do you mean they cut the power?!?!........how can they cut the power??!!!?
35. Kacey N. - May 14, 2009 10:47 AM
haha cool
36. AlexanderTheGreat - May 14, 2009 2:04 PM
Daisy - I will forgive you if you are at all sexy...
37. AlexanderTheGreat - May 14, 2009 2:04 PM
Daisy - I will forgive you if you are at all sexy...