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Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-could-go-wrong dept.

eldavojohn writes "What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and — oddly enough — electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches."

8 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. I want some zombie making flies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I could let them go wild on my wife. Maybe she might do the dishes for once

  2. What stupidity. by MrMista_B · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Introducing foreign species, even to battle other foreign species /NEVER WORKS/.

    Way to fuck over the native ants, Texas. Not to mention any other unpredictable side-effects, which, when talking about introduced species, are /ALWAYS BAD/.

    1. Re:What stupidity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Idk we pretty much pwned the fucking native americans.

    2. Re:What stupidity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Can we stop importing mexicans too?

    3. Re:What stupidity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      I'm curious, did you fail your 6th grade science class?

    4. Re:What stupidity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      I am a sponge, you insensitive clod!

  3. this is like open source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    except for rms lays one of his greasy turds in the heads of the open source victim who becomes a zombie as they endlessly moan on about open source even though there is no brain activity.

  4. Re:Eh. by Runaway1956 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Watched? You WATCHED One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? What good does that do, if you don't turn the pages? Isn't anyone literate anymore? Does no one READ anything that Hollywood doesn't produce? Phhhhtt.

    Oh yeah - that one made the "banned" list. It was handed out as an assignment in 8th or 9th grade. Some parents complained about language, and the books were taken away from us.

    What better way to GUARANTEE that even the illiterate idiots read the book, huh? ROFLMAO

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br