# Limits of zombie decay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413 "2026-09-27T00:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/21 "2026-09-28T01:11:32Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Nannites! That was the go-to for a while. They seem to have fallen out of fashion. It’s time for a comeback I was thinking that as well. “Nannites” are always presented as this magical material that can make anything out of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/22 "2026-09-28T03:41:32Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Of course there are other issues. What happens to the ‘food’ zombies eat? Addressed in _Day of the Dead_ (1985) where Dr. Logan notes one of his zombie subjects continues eating even when its stomach is removed. The food isn’t digested, so I imagine it just putrefies where it is or possibly bursts if a zombie over eats. > [@msmith537](#): > > Zombies are kind of like the trucks and other vehicles coming to life in Maximum Overdrive. There is no simple technical or medical explanation other than “magic” because circa 1980s vehicles simply don’t have technology that can be “hacked” or “remote controlled” to operate autonomously. Yeah. Any undead zombie, not matter the purported explanation for its origin, is simply magic because a corpse cannot walk, respond to stimuli, or nibble on their neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/23 "2026-09-28T12:16:10Z")
At confusing times like this, I simply rely on what was stated in the OG zombie flick: “Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up.” No need to get more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/24 "2026-09-28T12:54:43Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Yeah. Any undead zombie, not matter the purported explanation for its origin, is simply magic because a corpse cannot walk, respond to stimuli, or nibble on their neighbors. And any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic! Maybe thinking of this in a different way. Muscles and nerves continue to respond to electrical stimuli (let’s say up to 10 to 24 hours) after death. If I were to create some sort of nanotech that could deliver such stimuli in a coordinated manner, would it be possible to create a practical working zombie? But I think we are starting to blur the line between purely biological “zombies” and terminator-like “cyborgs” where it’s just the tech that provides locomotion and the human part is really just a suit for appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/25 "2026-09-28T13:28:55Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > he human part is really just a suit for appearances. “The first zombie terminators had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look like they were human - mostly intact skin, smell of decaying flesh, everything.” Kyle Reese,_The Zombinator_, 1984 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/26 "2026-09-28T19:52:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Slight tangent: > > I remember a horror comic from the Seventies in which a vampire in Africa is attacked by carnivorous ants in his coffin during the daytime. He can’t leave his coffin because of the bright sunlight outside, and all of his flesh is consumed by the ants. The twist: now the skeletonized vampire can’t be killed at all, because he has no heart to be staked! But how much of a threat could he be? If he had no magical powers, he wouldn’t even qualify as a lich. And where would the blood go if he no longer had a stomach? He’d be like the proverbial skeleton who walks into a bar and asks for a beer and a mop. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/27 "2026-09-28T20:49:03Z")
Plus I think the original lore was to destroy the heart, which being devoured by ants would certainly qualify. Nothing magic about wooden stakes, just that they were handy. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/28 "2026-09-28T22:58:10Z")
Not Zombies. As close as I recall, those were “Children of the Night” generated from the teeth of the Hydra. And a little magic. Not Zombies. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413/29 "2026-09-30T01:53:55Z")
In the **Zombie Survival Guide** and **World War Z** all animals, including insects and carrion eaters, instinctively avoid zombies. Presumably this applies to bacteria as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-of-zombie-decay/1033413.md?page=1)