Zombie Critters!

Discover recently posted up an entertaining slideshow called "Zombie Animals and the Parasites That Control Them." It opens with a one-night stand between a wasp, its larvae and a talented spider, and moves through cockroaches, crabs and — you guessed it — even humans. Cool stuff for the GeekDad with a macabre bent.

While checking the photos, I remembered the older, but still fascinating video of a hairworm turning its host cricket into a suicidal zombie. Along the same lines, Biology in Science Fiction has a list, with some excellent links, of behavior-controlling parasites. In fact, if you start looking around for information on parasitic…well, zombie-ism is sensational, but more fun than "behavior control"…the number of links is surprising.

So a reminder to polish up your zombie survival and defense strategies. Because, after all, you never know.

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