Human Brain-Controlling Cat Poop Parasite
Are parasites in your cat’s litter box turning you into a mind-controlled slave? It sounds far-fetched, but Toxoplasma gondii is no joke. This parasite may be changing connections between neurons in cat owners’ brains, affecting our feelings and behavior, and it has even been linked to schizophrenia. It’s the microbe that causes the disease Toxoplasmosis, which can cause serious damage to fetal brains – that’s why pregnant women aren’t supposed to change the kitty litter.
The effect in an animal host is clear: once transmitted, the parasite needs to get back to the cat in order to reproduce, and this is where the behavior modification is thought to come into play. Mice and rats that are infected with T. gondii present bizarre behavior that makes them easy prey: becoming attracted to the scent of cat urine, and running fast to get the cats’ attention. But researchers aren’t yet certain just how the behavior modification mechanism works in humans.
Jewel Wasps that Walk Cockroaches Like Dogs
When stung by the parasitic jewel wasp, cockroaches actually lose all
free will, mindlessly allowing the wasps to lead them around by their
antennae like dogs on leashes. The wasps pull the cockroaches into their
underground lairs and lay their eggs inside the roaches’ abdomens.
When the larvae hatch, they eat their hosts’ bodies from the inside out –
while the roaches are still alive. The mature wasps emerge from the
roaches’ bodies after about a month.
Walking Corpse Syndrome
People with Cotard’s Syndrome, otherwise known as Walking Corpse
Syndrome, aren’t really zombies – but they think they’re dead. This rare
neuropsychiatric disorder is thought to result from a disconnect between
the areas of the brain that recognize faces, and the areas that associate
emotions with that recognition. The sufferer may not recognize their
own face in the mirror, even though they still know who they are. These
people may believe that they don’t exist, that their brains are still alive
while their bodies are decaying, or that they have lost their blood or
internal organs.
Zombie Snails Controlled by Parasitic Worms
Yes, there is
something very wrong with that snail’s tentacle. It’s not the snail’s
tentacle at all; it’s the Leucochloridium paradoxum worm, otherwise
known as the green-banded broodsac. This parasitic worm travels into
the digestive system of its snail host and grows into a long tube filled
with tens to hundreds of reproductive ‘cercariae’. The tube then invades
the snail’s tentacle and puts on a bizarre, swollen, pulsating display
meant to attract the attention of birds. The birds that eat the snails then
become hosts for the next phase of the worm’s growth; the cercariae lay
eggs that are transmitted through the bird’s waste back down onto
plants, where they’re transmitted to snails, keeping the circle intact.
Mischaracterized Mental Illness
There have actually been documented, real-life cases of zombies in
Haiti, but as you may already suspect, the cases weren’t really what they
seemed. One woman who died at thirty and was buried on the same day
resurfaced three years later walking around her village, appearing mute
and unable to feed herself; her facial marks were recognized by friends
and family. A 26-year-old man became ill with fever and died after three
days; 19 months later, he reappeared at a nearby cockfight, accusing his
father and uncle of zombifying him. And another woman became ill
after attending prayers for a neighbor who had been ‘zombified’. She
died at 18, but resurfaced 19 months later claiming to have been kept as
a zombie in a village 100 miles to the north. Researchers suspected that
the subjects actually suffered from a combination of physical and mental
illnesses including schizophrenia, epilepsy and brain damage, and two of
the three turned out to be cases of mistaken identity.
Wasps Control and Kill Caterpillar, Alien-Style
Imagine parasitic beings laying their eggs inside you, which hatch into
hungry larvae that feed on your bodily fluids. Then, the larvae eat
through your skin and emerge from your body, Alien-style. That’s what
actually happens to poor little caterpillars when they’re chosen as targets
by the Glyptapanteles wasp – but that’s not even the end. After the
larvae climb onto nearby branches or leaves and cocoon themselves, the
zombified caterpillars remain controlled by them. Instead of going on
about their business, they hover over the cocoons to protect them. Once
the wasps hatch as adults, the caterpillars finally die.
Zombifying Puffer Fish Toxin
The second-most poisonous vertebrates in the world, puffer fish contain
a toxin in their skin, ovaries, gonads and liver that’s 1,000 times more
deadly than cyanide. One fish can kill thirty people. That toxin,
tetrodotoxin, causes a tingling numbness that grows into full-fledged
paralysis, one body part at a time. It’s been called ‘zombie powder’
because the toxin could theoretically paralyze someone enough to make
them appear dead. In some subjects, according to Dr. Wade Davis – the
man whose work inspired the zombie movie ‘The Serpent and the
Rainbow’ – the toxin can wear off, leading the victim to wake up and
emerge from their coffins. Davis theorized that this powder could be
behind reported cases of zombies in Haiti and Africa. However, it’s not
clear whether this is actually possible.
Ants with Fungus on the Brain
That right there is a
mushroom growing out of an
ant’s brain – a fungal parasite
called Cordyceps that infects
its host’s brain, directs it to a location where the fungus can best grow
and spread, and then kills it. Researchers believe that there may be
thousands of zombie-creating fungi in tropical forests across the globe.
David Hughes/Penn State University Zombie discoveries are happening
all the time. Just this year, scientists discovered four new types of body-
snatching fungi that prey on carpenter ants. The fungus infects the ants
and then begins to use chemical signals to direct the ant on a very
strange path. The zombified ant then leaves its colony and takes a jaw-
grip on the underside of a leaf, where it stays. When it eventually dies as
the fungus spreads around the ant's body, the fungus produces a stalk
from the dead zombie's head and shoots spores out, trying to lure other
ants to join the party.
Worms That Make Grasshoppers Kill Themselves
Crickets and grasshoppers that pick up the parasitic hairworm
Spinochordodes tellinii develop a death wish. The parasite, which is
transmitted in larval form through water, grows into a worm inside the
cricket or grasshopper’s body to a length that can be three or four times
that of its host. Once mature, the worm directs the zombified
grasshopper to plunge itself into the water and drown. That way, the
worm can reproduce, sending out more larvae to start the process all
over again.
Barnacles Turn Crabs into Mindless Surrogate Mothers
Not only do
Sacculina
barnacles latch
onto crabs as
parasitic
hitchhikers, they
also castrate the
crabs if they’re
male, causing them to lose their desire to reproduce. The barnacle injects itself into
a joint on the crab’s body and molts, since it no longer needs its own shell – the
crab has effectively turned into its shell. All the energy that would normally be
expended on the crab’s own reproduction is diverted to the Sacculina‘s growth.
Then, once the Sacculina releases its eggs, the mind-controlled crab stirs the water
with its claw to help them spread. The crab then cares for the eggs as if they were
its own.
It's a story of crab-meets-barnacle, with a twist. A female Sacculina barnacle wants
to nest inside a crab, so it looks around for a place to get in and when it does, it
leaves that nasty old barnacle body behind. Once inside, the barnacle makes a nice
little home that looks like a tumor, extending tendrils through the crab's body and
slowly eating its host. After killing the sex organs of its new abode, the barnacle
makes the home become the babysitter. As the crab loses interest in anything but
serving its zombie overlord, the barnacle bores a hole in the crab's shell and invites
willing males to come and mate.
Pill Bug Zombies
Roly-poly bugs, potato bugs, pill bugs: they're cute and innocuous
members of the insect world, right? Sure as long as they haven't been
taken over by a nefarious acanthocephalon (Plagiorhynchus
cylindraceus) parasite. The parasite lives in the intestinal tract of birds
called starlings, and gets pooped out right into the waiting jaws of the
pill bug. (Pill bugs relish bird poop.) Once inside the body of the
oblivious roly-poly, the parasite takes over its brain and urges the
zombified bug to do crazy things, such as making its whereabouts
widely known to its predator, the starling. And thus the parasite
completes its journey and runs off to find another bug upon which to
practice mind control.
Cockroach Zombies
A quick stab to the brain turns an innocent onlooker into the victim of a
brutal assault and kidnapping. Except this time, that defenseless victim
is one of the world's most hated insects (the cockroach) and the villain is
a wasp. In this true story, the wasp's venom renders the cockroach
unable to move. After being dragged into the wasp's lair, the cockroach
continues to live even though its abdomen is being implanted with the
wasp's eggs. The larva later hatches and eats the still living but
incapacitated cockroach from the inside out. A month later, the mature
wasp flies away from the scene of the crime, leaving only a rotting
carcass behind. [What If There Were No Cockroaches?]
Zombie Spider
A Costa Rican spider just looking to catch some bugs can be taken over
by a parasitic wasp that plants its larvae inside the spider's body, along
with a new blueprint. Instead of building its web, the spider spends the
last night of its life constructing a silk cocoon, which becomes a home
for its killers. When the silk sack is done, the larvae kill the spider. Then
they take up residence in the cocoon, suspended safely above the
predators of the rainforest floor. That's some gratitude!