Zombie ants?

Grindspine

Grindspine

Moderator
So, can a zombie apocalypse really occur? It has for the ants in this National Geographic article...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110303-zombie-ants-fungus-new-species-fungi-bugs-science-brazil/#/zombie-fungus-infects-insects-mind-control-ant-infected_32848_600x450.jpg

zombie-fungus-infects-insects-mind-control-ant-infected_32848_600x450.jpg
 
This one reminds me of a scene in Aliens:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071206-roach-zombie.html
 
I wonder if such things will be put to practice by certain groups to see if they can be adapted into drugs or components that can be used in other matters on different subjects.

Know what the odd thing of that theory is? There's people who probably already have/are. Oooh, yes, science is fun! :D
 
It's a generic term they're using in place of just saying that they are for a mater of saying, "dead", mentally. They're technically still alive while the fungi has taken control over the host, but it is the chemicals used which now control the host, not the ants brain.
 
That's why I said "dead" mentally.

Makes you wonder though. How much of this fungi would need to attach to say, you average sized house cat, to be able to (if it's genome is capable of creating a chemical for felines) to be able to take control. That said, if it had the ability to do so in the first place, it probably wouldn't need as much as you'd think.
 
Toxoplasma infection (which primarily is associated with cat feces) can cause rodents to go toward instead of away the smell of cat urine. If they go toward cat urine, they're more likely to be eaten by cats, who then poop out more parasites.

Toxoplasma can also affect humans, although its effects are less pronounced. That's why cat litter has warnings that pregnant women should not be near litterboxes during cleaning.

Maybe we're closer to a zombie apocolypse than you all think!
 
Perhaps we are. But it'd be a different perspective all together, away from the traditional "Eat the flesh of the living" Zombie, and simple mind control "zombie like" states.
But there's a lot of different things out there that can cause that, but few that can cause control. Technically, that parasitic infection isn't the same kinda Zombie as the Fungi, whereas the Fungi pants n the brain and takes control, those parasites simply change the chemical composition of cat urine to something that attracts rodents. Which isn't really mind control, as much as it's deception.
 
Hell Scyth said:
Perhaps we are. But it'd be a different perspective all together, away from the traditional "Eat the flesh of the living" Zombie, and simple mind control "zombie like" states.
But there's a lot of different things out there that can cause that, but few that can cause control. Technically, that parasitic infection isn't the same kinda Zombie as the Fungi, whereas the Fungi pants n the brain and takes control, those parasites simply change the chemical composition of cat urine to something that attracts rodents. Which isn't really mind control, as much as it's deception.
Click to expand...

No no, the parasite doesn't change the urine, it changes the rodent brain to be attracted to the urine.
 
Ah I see. Sorry, the way I read what you put sounded like the parasite was present in the cat.

Indeed, Zombie state for the rat.
 
that is very creepy and ugly! man i hate ants in general. but there is nothing more in the insect family that scares me more than bees, wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets!

i have a mild allergy to all of them :(

i was at a summer camp when i turned seven and they had this dumb ass addition to the happy birthday song, they would sing "around the trees you must go, around the trees you must go!" and i had a bad feeling about it and asked my counselor if they could skip that part, but of course, other campers were singing it, so i was running around the pine trees and suddenly felt an extremely sharp pain all over my back! i started to swell up and they took me to the nurse. they found SEVEN stingers in my back! and i looked like a hunchback! it sucked. they gave me benodril to stop the swelling, and it was working. they called my mom and she picked me up, which i thank God for that because that place sucked! there were spiders EVERYWHERE! i hated it there and will never forget that place.
 
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