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I keep coming upon these articles and videos of mind control in nature.  I’ll be honest, it’s starting to freak me out a little.  It seems that there are numerous examples in nature of Zombie like behavior being caused by various creatures.  The scariest ones are the wasps.  It seems to be “par for the course” for certain species of wasp to enslave their victims in some way.  But these attacks are not limited to wasps.  It also includes worms and fungi.  That’s right freaking fungi!

Fungi

Cordyceps

This is a type of fungi that infects ants.  Once infected, the vicim ant is compeled to climb high and clamp onto a stem until it dies.  Once dead, the fungi sprouts from the ant’s head, grows for a bit, then burst’s it’s spores out.  By climbing high, this increases the likelihood that the spores will attach to more ants.

Worms

Leucochloridium paradoxum

This worm crawls into a snail’s tentacles and mimics a maggot.  Once there, it compels the snail to crawl high up where it can be seen by birds.  The birds then peck the worms out and eat them.  The worms eggs are then eaten by the bird, crapped out and then these horrible worms are contracted by other unlucky snails who eat the bird droppings.

Lancet Liver Fluke Worm

This little devil compels infected ants to crawl high onto appealing plants when grazing animals come near.  If the animal passes on without eating that plant, the ant will go back to acting normal until another grazing animal comes along.

Freaking Wasps

I know what you’re thinking.  Wasps…  Really?  Yep, many breeds of ant control their prey in very interesting ways.  It begs anyone who has ever been bitten by an ant to ask “Am I the mindless zombie of that wasp that bit me last summer?”.

Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga

This guy will inject an egg into it’s prey spider. The spider will then cary on as if everything is cool. Once the egg has matured for a couple weeks, it will secreet a chemical into the spider that compels the spider to build a web unlike any it has ever built. This one will be stronger and designed to support a centralized cocoon. The spider will build the cocoon then the wasps will begin eating their way out of the spider.

Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga

Plesiometa argyra (very similar wasp)

Jewel Wasp

This wasp will carefully inject venom into a particular beetle’s brain. This injection seems to make the beetle very susceptible to suggestion. The wasp will then lead the beetle to it’s nest, injects an egg near the beetle’s shoulder, then burry the beetle in the nest.  The beetle will then sit there in the nest without attempting to escape while the wasp develops next the beetle.  Meanwhile the larve wasp is living on the beetle’s blood.  The larve will then eat it’s way into the beetle while it’s still alive and consume it’s organs while completing it’s development.   Then the wasp eat’s his way out of the now dead beetle.

Glyptapanteles

This wasp will lay up to 80 eggs into it’s host caterpillar.  The larve will carefully eat all the non-vital parts of the caterpillar.  Once the wasp are ready for their cocoon stage, they will eat their way out of the caterpillar.  The caterpillar will then stand guard of the wasps protecting them until the caterpillar dies of hunger.

More on Glyptapanteles

Cotesia Glomerata

This wasp is very similar to the Glyptapanteles with only a couple distinctions.  This wasp will “only” inject 30 or so eggs into it’s host.  And in this case, the caterpillar will not only protect the wasps that emerge until it dies, but the caterpillar will also assist in cocooning the wasps.

More information on Cotesia Glomerata

So there you have it.  Plenty of examples of mind control in nature.  I wonder where I can get my hands on some of this venom…

Cheers,
Jonathan