Comments on: Killer Fungi and Zombie Ants

By: ke

ke — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:27:37 +0000

you might want to google Paul Stamets on fungi. Interesting video on TedTalks .com
He mentions this fungi as a natural pesticide against wood destroying carpenter ants & termites!

By: Iddo

Iddo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:37:20 +0000

@Ioan No, that actually appeals to the 30 year old in me: how to turn parasitic fungi into cash. Thanks Ioan! That was a very interesting reference.

By: Ioan

Ioan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:57:40 +0000

Your inner 6 years old will probably be as appealed as me as I discovered the the Yartsa gunbu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_fungus

It is very popular in Tibet: “Yartsa Gunbu developed to become the most important source of cash income in rural Tibet contributing 40% of the annual cash income to local households and 8.5% to the GDP in 2004″

By: Christian A.

Christian A. — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:54:13 +0000

That might be the article I was looking for. Thank you! When I’m back to work, I think I will have access to it and read it.

By: Iddo

Iddo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:01:23 +0000

The article has many references to examples of other behavior-altering parasites. I recommend Carl Zimmer’s book: “Parasite Rex” for a fascinating comprehensive review of the changing view of parasites in the history of science, how ubiquitous they are, how parasites affected evolution including how sex has evolved as an anti-parasitic mechanism.

Christian: here’s one on T. gondii

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1286-4579(01)01459-9

By: Christian A.

Christian A. — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:39 +0000

I also saw I bit on these killer fungi. I was creeped out then and I am now. But on the other hand it’s incredibly cool. Think of it, parasites infecting a host and changing its behavior! Every time I hear of something like this, I bring up toxoplasmosis, which at least changes behavior on rats, and might also do so on human beings.

By: shwu

shwu — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:34:14 +0000

I saw this on the “Planet Earth” series and it is indeed creepily fascinating. I also heard that when the other ants detect an infected ant acting strangely, they carry the infected ant far away from the nest to reduce the chances of spreading the infection.