Tiny Zombie Bugs
Well, with the recent (possibly justified) zombie panic, I was surprised to find this article in my Slashdot RSS feed:
An excerpt from the original article:
It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it’s all too real.
Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound.
Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.
The strange part is that researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M’s AgriLife Extension Service say making “zombies” out of fire ants is a good thing.
“It’s a tool — they’re not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it’s a way to control their population,” said Scott Ludwig , an integrated pest management specialist with the AgriLife Extension Service in Overton , in East Texas.
The tool is the tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants in Texasoriginated. Researchers have learned that there are as many as 23 phorid species along with pathogens that attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under control.
So far, four phorid species have been introduced in Texas .
The flies “dive-bomb” the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior.
“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.
Fire ants are bad enough as it is:
They are highly organized, to the point that they can form a living, crawling raft and float over water.
They work in teams. Look at the poor frog! That frog is probably the size of my hand.
Possibly worst of all, they have a hunger for electronics. Fire Ants are attracted to electromagnetic fields, which pretty much anything with electricity generates. Your computer? Electromagnetic field. Toaster? Electromagnetic field. The light in your bathroom? Electro-motherfucking-magnetic field.
So here we have a pest that is already a huge pain in the ass. Small, swarms in groups, and basically heads towards any kind of civilization. And now we have to worry about them turning into zombies.
The scarier thing? They are turned into zombies by flies who inject their eggs directly into their brains. The flies larvae then pop off the head of the zombie fire ant and eat their brains. We are effectively in the middle of an insect zombie gang war.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are well and truly fucked. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going out to see where I can buy very tiny shotguns.
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May 18th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
What a wonderful use for fire ants! Little, slow moving, zombie, targets. Yippee, more practice for my “Body Piercing by Remington” business.
Captcha = being concurs…Not since…oh, about 1994. Once you have been concurs, it’s all downhill from there.
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May 18th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
shotguns would be ineffective. to fight swarm creatures a flame thrower would be best :P
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Tim Covington reply on May 19th, 2009 5:51 am:
Obviously, you have never heard of the dragon’s breath round. Instead of shot, it shoots magnesium shavings that ignite when the round is fired.
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Kieran reply on May 19th, 2009 8:38 am:
i have heard of incediary shotgun rounds i was just unsure how wide spead they were used.
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Stickfodder reply on May 19th, 2009 3:47 pm:
Does anybody know where you can buy dragons breath? Stores or websites?
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Tim Covington reply on May 22nd, 2009 2:28 pm:
Buy? If I want some, I’ll just make them myself. All you need is a knife, a little tape, and some magnesium tape or shavings.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
The even better part….there is a species of wasp that does this to spiders, too. The bad part is that there is a type of biting fly called the bot fly that likes to likes to drink the blood of, and inject their eggs into a number of species of mammals. Each type of bot fly specializes in a different type of host. The lousy part is that there is one for humans (the human bot fly) and they have been known to inject the eggs into peoples’ heads. The larvae work their way inside and eat whatever they can, including the brain; causing death. Google it, it will make you want to start living in a hermetically sealed room for the rest of your life.
Captcha: supplest New…what the bot flies look for in flesh
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crossingtheline reply on May 19th, 2009 7:29 am:
Now I am going to have to google it, though I know without a doubt I’m going to reget it.
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May 18th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
here is a link… http://www.cracked.com/article_15816_5-most-horrifying-bugs-in-world.html
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Minty reply on May 19th, 2009 8:55 am:
I find it interesting that two out of the five are ants.
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Pte Walker reply on May 19th, 2009 11:27 am:
The giant fucking hornet literly made me nausous…and i don’t get affected all that easily
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Catherine reply on May 20th, 2009 9:32 pm:
So, am I the only one who wants to genetically engineer myself an army of those japanese wasps? I mean, fuck. Those are some badass bugs. I’d dominate the world within a week.
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May 19th, 2009 at 4:42 am
When I was a kid, we used to grab different types of ants, put them in a mayo jar and watch them fight. Now I gotta get some zombie ants!
Pyrotechnics are always good and you can never have too much. I’m still looking for legal, over the counter willie pete for the fire ants in my yard.
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May 19th, 2009 at 6:40 am
I dont post much but the captcha was just too good to pass up.
per unload….How many can I kill per unload of a Dragons breath round?
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Cat reply on May 19th, 2009 7:17 am:
Well according to my captcha, ‘libau 195,509’. So alot.
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May 19th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Well, thanks for the help with my diet. Now I don’t want to eat breakfast, and I want to run around screaming my head off in a horrified panic!
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Stickfodder reply on May 19th, 2009 8:57 am:
So you’re eating less and exercising. But as for me I was eating a sandwich while watching that last video.
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May 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am
I have an elder brother and an RN for a mother. Zombie causing bugs don’t bother me. I’ve been immune since the story of removing the maggots from a woman’s in the delievery room.. Hey, look at that shiny thing.
My Mum always had the BEST dinner stories.
Captcha: Triumph and .. Who needs an and? I’ll take the Triumph ‘bike and head off into the sunset, thanks.
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May 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
So that takes care of the ants but what do we do when those other insects run out of ants to zombify? I really don’t want to wake up one morning and have the dogs in the house giving me weird looks before their head pops off with a monster fly waiting to chase me down and eat my brain!
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May 19th, 2009 at 9:08 am
X_X need thermite and lots of it…. that should take care of slow zombies, big fat zombies and zombie ants… now what to do against fast zombies… shotguns are slow… maybe 50 caliber machine guns….
captcha; in ziegler…… hu?
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May 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I wonder if you can get a Dragons Breath for a 40mm AA gun?
I’m also thinking, lighter fluid, match and have some fun. Boiling water also works well for ants.
EDIT: MORTAR ROUND DRAGONS BREATH!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://anmblog.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/29/dragon.jpg
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May 19th, 2009 at 11:44 am
OH MAN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzCYFg-gYUk
Christ I’d visit America just for the chance to play with some of these.
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May 19th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
and i still remember a special from the discovery channel that showed a spore doing the same thing to ants in africa. Spore infects ant, ant goes crazy, friend ant drags crazy ant away from everybody, crazy ant has plant grow out of his head that makes spores to make other ants go crazy.
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Ali reply on May 20th, 2009 12:01 pm:
Why am I suddenly flashing back to an episode of Star Trek?
captcha: two douse…them ants wit’ kerosene
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