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Wasp Larvae Feed on Zombie Roaches

TheUploader writes "The story leaves nothing to embellish: The wasp, Ampulex compressa, has evolved to inject a toxin into a specific part of a roach's brain, turning it into a zombie. The wasp then leads the zombie roach into the wasp's nest, lays eggs inside it, and waits for its young to hatch, who will then go on to do the same to more roaches."

19 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. More proof.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    of God's Intelligent Design on Earth

    1. Re:More proof.. by no_pets · · Score: 5, Funny

      Too bad He didn't help intelligently design their web server. It's /.ed already.

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    2. Re:More proof.. by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

      Mark Twain is the Prophet of God and the Word that he speaks is True.

  2. No need to rent Kingdom of the Spiders! by kalpol · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have fuel for my nightmares now for several more years, thanks!

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    12:50 - press return.
  3. sounds familiar by Paladin144 · · Score: 4, Funny
    The wasp, Ampulex compressa, has evolved to inject a toxin into a specific part of a roach's brain, turning it into a zombie.

    Man, I think I've been on a date with that WASP. I woke up the next morning with no money, a splitting headache and size seven poopshoot.

    1. Re:sounds familiar by Sj0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      How do you determine poop shoot sizes? Is there a standard scale based on a metric or imperial measurement?

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      It's been a long time.
    2. Re:sounds familiar by heinousjay · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's actually based on hat size, to facilitate understanding how people get their head up there.

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    3. Re:sounds familiar by mrogers · · Score: 5, Funny

      The standard unit is the milligoatse.

  4. Hmm... by MustardMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Somewhere there's a Romero zombie rolling over in its grave. Then crawling out. And eating someone's brains.

  5. I just moved to New York City by SetupWeasel · · Score: 5, Funny

    so I'd like to say...

    SUCK IT YOU FUCKING ROACHES!

    I feel better now.

    1. Re:I just moved to New York City by clump · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yea, typical New Yorker remark. You'll fit right in.

  6. Welcome by mlawmlaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Roaches have apparently been taken over -- 'conquered' if you will -- by a master race of giant space wasps. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the wasps will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground honey caves.

  7. I can't believe nobody has said it yet... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    *Puts on karma-protection suit and helmet*
    *Turns on microphone - tweeeeeeet -*

    *ahem ahem*

    Ready?

    Braaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiinnnsssssssss....

    *Ducks* :P

  8. Re:Real-Live Goa'uld by plalonde2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We already have White Anglo-Saxon Protestant zombie-herding overloads...

  9. Did you ever feel like a zombie roach? by Baldrson · · Score: 4, Funny

    When filling out your tax returns?

  10. Parallels... by Transcendent · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...isn't that what lobbyists do?

  11. hmm... by aeoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    And then there's the sting. Ampulex does not want to kill cockroaches. It doesn't even want to paralyze them the way spiders and snakes do, since it is too small to drag a big paralyzed roach into its burrow. So instead it just delicately retools the roach's neural network to take away its motivation. Its venom does more than make roaches zombies. It also alters their metabolism, so that their intake of oxygen drops by a third.

    This reminds me of a social dynamic between human employees and employers:

    1. Employer doesn't want to kill the employee: check.
    2. Employer doesn't want to paralize the employee: check.
    3. Employer delicately takes away employee's self-motivation: check.

    I bet the stuff about oxygen and metabolism is true as well.

  12. Re:Awsome! by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then, take over the minds of a few select politicians.

          The problem with your plan is that you are forgetting that your host must be in posession of a brain: it won't work on politicians...

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  13. Sounds like human behavior at the singles bar.... by d474 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wasp (guy) injects neurotoxins (buys cocktails) into cockroach's brain (for a hot chick) turning it (her) into a zombie (an easy hot chick) and then leads it (her) back to it's nest (bachelor pad), lays eggs inside it (screws her without a rubber), and waits for eggs to hatch (shotgun wedding!).

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