Zombie Snails | National Geographic

snail zombies from your backyard the
body of this Amber snail has been
invaded by Luke Okla ridium worms
turning it into a pulsating snails
bizarre result of the microscopic worms
journey from snail to bird and back
again after incubating in the snail huge
numbers of the parasites larvae invade
the snails eyestalks
and puff up the usually slender
eyestalks to resemble pulsating
caterpillars since birds like this pied
flycatcher can’t resist these lures they
pick at them and end up ingesting the
parasite at the same time after all bird
guts are these worms I feel haven for
reproduction eventually the bird
eliminates the new worm eggs through
defecation and the snail laughs up this
poopy egg infested snack yeah and so the
cycle continues but wait there are not
one but two fascinating twists of this
story first the snails mind is seemingly
controlled by the words the infected
snail actually crawls into plain view of
birds as the Sun rises something the
snails never do on their own it’s a
for their own nefarious purpose final
fact some snails that have been infected
actually live longer than those that
have honey how’s that for irony