Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Zombie Fire Ants



Ovipositor phorid flies cause headless zombie fire ants.

OK, maybe not as catchy a phrase as "Soylent Green is People", but some researchers in Texas are using phorid flies as a tool to control fire ant populations.

One Way To Kill Fire Ants: Turn Them Into Headless Zombies

Fascinating.

What could go wrong?

;-)

12 comments:

The Eyes Of An Angel said...

How interesting.. Kind of reminds me of Obama

Jan said...

Ideas like this sound good at first, but often have unexpected ramifications.

cube said...

The Eyes Of An Angel: heh heh. Which? The headless zombie part or the part where the fly oviposits the crap into the ant's head that causes its head to fall off? A case can be made for both ;-)

Jan: Yeah. That's what worries me. Ecosystems are superbly balanced by nature and it seems as though we just don't have the know how
to involve ourselves proactively.

Ananda girl said...

Aaaaaahhhh! You stole my fire, Cube! I was so excited when I found this today. lol. At long last... vengence on the ants! I just hope it doesn't backfire.

Chuck said...

Sounds like the makings of a cheesy Sci-Fi movie to me.

DaBlade said...

I would inquire as to the possibility of genetically modified phorid flies, but liberals don't use, or apparently need their heads now.

Steve Harkonnen said...

The sad thing about this is, they've probably developed some type of agent that wipes ants out genetically. Because of the rains we've been having, our kitchen has been invaded, but we keep it clean and I am putting down this liquid stuff on paper that's supposed to kill their queen somehow.

BeckEye said...

That's cool AND disgusting.

Unknown said...

From the fire ants around here that I have seen, they could walk off with a house.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, no possible downside to this plan!

Maybe the honey bee plague can be more easily explained now.

QQ

Kent Brockman said...

One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the headless zombie fire-ants 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 sugar caves,

Jen said...

I saw that! Then Anya was trying to explain some other parasite that has a hugely long chain of events to reproduce that also includes brains and I shushed her and tried to crawl back into my happy place...