Brain-eating maggots could save Texas $1 billion, create legions of "zombie ants"
Yay, science!
"Braaaains! BRAAAAAAIIIINNNNS!"
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From the "brain-eating maggots solve every problem" file (it's a thicker file than you'd imagine): Researchers from UT and Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service are looking to curb the destructive behavior of the state's fire ant population with a species of fly whose larvae feed on ant brains.
According the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the parasitic phorid fly comes from the same region of South America as the fire ants that were accidentally introduced to the Texan ecosystem at the turn of the 20th century. The fly lays its eggs within an ant's body, and when the larva hatches, they work their way toward the brain. Once all brain matter is consumed, the ant wanders aimlessly for two weeks (like a zombie!) until its head falls off, and the fly emerges, prepared to continue the cycle. (Let's see Andy Howard do that.)
UT research associate Rob Plowes told the Star-Telegram that one or two flies is all it takes to stop a colony of ants from chewing through electrical equipment—a habit that, in addition to being seriously annoying, costs the state approximately $1 billion a year. Keep your fingers crossed that these phorid larvae don't develop a taste for human brains. Or, you know, that those zombie ants don't turn on us. Shit, this has "tampering in God's domain" written all over it, doesn't it? Have we learned nothing from the late Michael Crichton?
