Farmers crusade invasions of fire pismire have a newfangled artillery in their arsenal . It ’s a natural , non - toxic way to kill the ants by work them into zombies whose forefront pop off .
For the preceding several years , people in farming communities in Florida have been using this weapon , and now a grouping in Texas is also take it up . They ’re releasingphorid fliesfrom South America , tiny small humpbacked creature whose lifecycle involve creating ardor ant zombies . The flies dive - bomb fire ants , injecting their bollock into the insects ’ bodies .
When the larvae crosshatch , they worm their way into the ants ’ heads , slow eating their brains . Once the brain is sufficiently eradicated , the ant starts engage in passing strange demeanor . It wanders in random directions , and last the larva eat on enough that the ant ’s nous simply fall off .
The phorid fly continues to gestate inside the zombie head , eventually emerge from the ant ’s mouth as a in full - grown tent-fly , ready to attack another fire pismire . farming experts cogitate this is an in force and environmentally safe way to kill the emmet , whose chompy habits destroy millions of dollars in electrical equipment and threat young cows .
Not only do the flies vote out many pismire , but they commute the behavior of the survivors . Afraid of being set on by the flies , the ants will forage closer to the nest , gathering half the amount of food they normally would . Less food mean the hives shrivel , bringing the fire ant population under control .
No word on what those zombie - making phorids will do when their ant victims die out out . Human nous are tasty , or so I ’ve hear .
viaAP News
envision viaUniversity of Florida
BiologyInsectsSciencezombies
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