No graphic pictures, but if you’re excessively creeped out by the idea of predatory insects, this might not be for you.
That is too cool for words! We need more of these wasps. I hate roaches.
You hate roaches, but wasps that have evolved to take control of other animals’ brains are ok? I don’t know, roaches are definitely icky, but that wasp thing . . . that seems like an unsettling development.
I saw this on Wikipedia the other day, and I thought it was one of the most amazing things I’ve read in ages.
Let’s just hope these wasps don’t get bigger and start zombifying people.
Thanks. I didn’t think of that. Now I’ll have nightmares! 
I, for one, welcome our new wasp overlords. Seriously though, this is astoundingly cool. I love a chance to marvel at the complexity of nature.
I think that if a wasp managed to get through my skull and inject vemon into my brain, I’d let its young grow in my body and eat my organs. Then again, that’s exactly what the vemon works so I guess the wasp wins either way.
Too Late! :eek:
Hey, I can’t get the link to work and none of the keywords I’ve tried have been especially useful. How about a species name or somep’n?
The name of the wasp is Ampulex compressa. The link is to Carl Zimmer’s blog. Zimmer wrote Parasite Rex, about the world of parasites. Maybe if you start with the main page of the blog, and drop down to February 2nd, the link will work.
I agree with this statement wholeheartedBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
PUNY HUMANS BOW BEFORE THE SUPERIOR LIFEFORM!
BZZZZZZZZZ
TAKE US TO THE JUICY HUMAN BRAINS
Oh, I dunno…I can think of people I’d like to quietly zombify, if I could.
“Attenntionnn followwerrz…Al Qaaeda commaaandss you layy down your arrrrms and surrrennderr. Allah demaaands it…aand yourr juuuicy braaains.”
Oh, not wuite as unsetting as this.
I knew those felines where up to something evil.
thanks, that was an excellent read.
This does beg the question of how the wasp could have learned to zombify the wasp without knowing what it was doing – performing the equivalent of brain surgery by instinct. Can’t think of a more fitting fate for a cockroach, though.
Here is a somewhat blurry picture of one of these critters.
Sitting outside one night a couple of summers ago, looked down and there he was. I jumped three feet. I thought he was a mutant dragonfly or something.
They’re even uglier in real life.
My memory’s fuzzy on this, but I remember seeing something on Animal Planet about a larvae that turns birds into “zombies,” and the birds who were infected actually had a better chance at survival than non-infected birds. Does anyone else remember this?
That’s reminiscent of phorid flies and fire ants. Whee!
Amazing coincedence – it all includes Carl Zimmer Hmmm… :dubious:
Ooh, ooh… hot on the heels of puppeteering wasps comes the potential human mind-control parasite! The article says half of all humans are infected. Wikipedia further claims that the parasite turns women into schizophrenic, manic-depressive sex kittens…
Wow 