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!