# 'Alien' in reality



## Robert M. Blevins (Feb 5, 2006)

Just when you thought you had seen everything...

I posted up a link to a site, with pictures, that shows how a certain wasp gains actual 'brain control' over a roach _by probing into its brain_...then leading it away to serve as a host for an egg and ....well, just look for yourself. You won't believe what you see. Fascinating, and totally like the film 'Alien.'
Carl Zimmer is a science writer. I wonder where he gets his motivation...

http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasites.php


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## kyektulu (Feb 5, 2006)

*That is absolutely fasinating Robert.
It is proof that life is stranger than fiction and more often than not happenings on this earth are more unbelievable than what we find in the pages of a sci-fi/horroh novel.*


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## sanityassassin (Feb 5, 2006)

If they knew this in the fifties it would have make a great 'b' movie. But seriously that article is amazing and scary if you think about it if genetic engineers could imitate it humans or large animals


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## chrispenycate (Feb 5, 2006)

As it's a predator on cockroaches, I was thinking we could introduce it as a boilogical control in New York apartment blocks. From there, it's only a minor step to getting the zombified blatt to do the ironing…


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## cornelius (Feb 5, 2006)

this is fascinating indeed. If you see a gigantic wasp, flee!


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## chrispenycate (Feb 5, 2006)

cornelius said:
			
		

> this is fascinating indeed. If you see a gigantic wasp, flee!


I tended to do that anyway 
And it's only the females that are dangerous, so check carefully (and you can see from the picture, they don't wear football jerseys)


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## littlemissattitude (Feb 5, 2006)

Zombie cockroaches.  Hmmm.  I predict that there will be a movie before long. 

On another, more serious note, I coincidently discovered Mr. Zimmer's blog in the past couple of weeks while doing research on fossil hominids.  If any of you are interested in such things, I highly recommend searching out his entries on the _Homo floresiensis_ (Hobbit-sized fossils found in Indonesia in the past couple of years).  He offers some interesting commentary.


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## Neal Asher (Feb 6, 2006)

Long ago I picked up a veterinary book on 'Helminthology' which detailed all the parasites animals (and humans) are prone to. All of them were very fascinating and had many stages in their lifecycles. One, I recollect, includes the sheep and the ant in its lifecycle: it actually took control of the ant's brain to make it cliimb to the top of a blade of grass and cling there with its pincers to wait to be eaten by a grazing sheep. Another parasite takes over a snail from which to produce its young. It makes the snail grow a thicker shell to thus protect itself. The snail loses its own ability to produce young but lives longer (I think).


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## kyektulu (Feb 6, 2006)

Neal Asher said:
			
		

> One, I recollect, includes the sheep and the ant in its lifecycle: it actually took control of the ant's brain to make it cliimb to the top of a blade of grass and cling there with its pincers to wait to be eaten by a grazing sheep.



*There was a series of programs on the National Geographic channel a couple of weeks ago about parasites, they featured this one too.

Did anyone else see them?
*


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## murphy (Feb 6, 2006)

It reminded me of a Jo Clayton book, Irsud, where the heroine has a giant, sentient wasp egg implanted in her.  Took her most of the book to get rid of it before it hatched.


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## Sibeling (Feb 8, 2006)

This was disturbing - as if I wasn't afraid of insects already...


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## Hawkshaw_245 (May 29, 2006)

This is fascinating and creepy at the same time.  What's that buzzing sound I keep hearing?  It's like.....sort of like a giant ....OMG!!!!


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## nixie (May 29, 2006)

This goes along way in reinforcing my fear of wasps *shudders*


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