This parasite is called a horsehair worm. They grow in a bunch of different insects. When the worm is fully grown it alters the insect behavoir to make them jump into water, which allows the parasite to leave.
Doesn't necessarily kill the insect, however It often will result in its death. However it's kept in good conditions they can survive and even go on to reproduce.
In some areas the suicidal crickets ( after being manipulated by the parasite) make up 60% of a fish's diet.
There's also a bunch of crazy conspiracies on like Facebook suggesting that the government is infecting people with them, but these are mostly just crazy people
Video
I have a 10 min video that goes in depth about the parasites biology for those that want to know more, it's called "Massive Worms, Tiny Bodies: Why Horsehair Worms Might Be Good for Nature" on YouTube
Source: I have a PhD in biology I run the parasitology subreddit
Edit: thanks to everyone subscribing. But PLEASE DON'T subscribe unless you actually like the content. People that sub to support but don't watch hurts the channel in practice( lowers thumbnail click rate, which if low doesn't get pushed on algorithm)
I need to know if this is a penis diagram that has been exploded to show more detail or a diagram of an exploded penis and more importantly why that is required and even more importantly why do you have one and most importantly please don’t
To be fair it sounds more plausible than the hummus in the anus torture which turned out to be true.
Also didn't they place that terrorist guy in a coffin with cockroaches as a form of torture too?
Maybe horsehair worm was truly a possibility.
Ok_Cycle_6654 deleted his CIA comment so I'll reply to you instead...
Friendly reminder that Operation North Woods was approved by the Pentagon high command.
Our own military were going to bomb Miami in a false flag operation in 1962 called 'Operation North Woods' and kill lots of American citizens and blame it on Cuba using CIA hitmen pretending to be Cubans to have an excuse to invade Cuba. OUR military was going to blow up American elementary schools, hospitals, and businesses while pretending to be Cuban terrorists.
Joint Chief of Staffs Lyman Lemnitzer drafted and approved this plan and was going to put it in action, he had full approval from the other staff in the pentagon. he was going to murder our own men, women, and children in a false flag to get popular support for invading Cuba. He needed the president's signature. JFK said no and refused to sign.
Lyman Lemnitzer was not arrested for conspiracy to commit murder or high treason. JFK may have not approved the plan, but he did not have Lemnitzer arrested and executed or denounce him in a press conference. Instead Lemnitzer was promoted to Supreme Allied Commander of NATO the next year. He is buried with HONORS in a military graveyard. A man who was going to murder our own people in a false flag operation.
No wonder people believe 9/11 was an inside job, when the Pentagon and the CIA were going to do something even worse on a bigger scale in 1962.
I immediately assumed this was bullshit, and starting researching to do a rebuttal.
As best I can tell, you are wrong in specifying the plan was to blow up "American elementary schools, hospitals, and businesses", the plan didn't actually specify what was to be attacked, and the document only specified "carefully chosen spots". Other than that it seems everything you said was accurate... yikes.
One of my sons had a strong interest in parasites when he was small. He would have loved that subreddit. I am not sorry he outgrew it, but thanks for keeping the important but horrifying information flowing
I had an Econ Prof who majored in Biology as well as Econ. They used to describe Parasites as 'Nature's obfuscated externality' because of how their knock on effects weren't so obviously a 'positive/negative' externality and how it could flip back and forth depending on who's perspective you're looking at. It was his way of reminding us that solving A problem doesn't mean we haven't created several more further down.
He was a pretty awesome prof. He also made a "kid" in his early 20s cry in class after berating him for at least 15 minutes for answering the question (paraphrased) "What policies could the continent of Africa benefit from the most?" with "They could stop having so many kids, hyuck hyuck hyuck."
...
He just kept asking question after question (all relevant and educational), and the more the kid tried to squirm out or avoid it, the more he'd dig in and keep asking the kid to explain his point. He cited the average family size of other regions at similar GDP per capita figures and explained that subsistence farmers often needed larger families, noting he was confused as to what point the kid was actually making. He just wouldn't let up. He cited child mortality rates and how families needed older children to work, asking how you manage if you are going to lose 1 to 3 children in your pursuit of 4 to 5 adolescents, and on and on. The more the kid gave up trying to articulate himself, the angrier the prof got, eventually getting personal. After the kid wiped away his first set of tears, the prof just told him to GTFO.
God, I loved that prof. He hated stupid people and stupid questions, but if you were genuinely curious or didn't understand, he had no issue explaining the topic in depth. You just had to try. He was also super loud, which made it all the more fun when he lost his temper.
The best part was after his tirade, he went, "Who else has an idea?" I was the only one who raised my hand (knowing his style) and gave an answer related to credit: "Exactly!" he said, and proceeded as if he hadn't just embarrassed that kid to no end and terrified the rest of the class.
I'm not enough knowledgeable in that topic of ''
What policies could the continent of Africa benefit from the most?'' but i'm really curious about the kind of answer you had given him. What was it ?
Not the guy your looking for, but Botswana has a decent track record for policies after their independence.
The idea is to nationalize your most valuable natural resources (like rare earth metals), then take the profit and invest it into the education of the upcoming generation. They will go off to college in places like London and Boston and Shanghai and Seoul and then come back to become competent administrators, educators, and business people. Thus, your economy will diversify, literacy and health will improve, and everybody wins.
Of course this really, really depends on the state company exploiting the resources. If those guys are corrupt it really breaks the whole system.
We're going back a decade here, so it's not a crystal clear memory (especially with the more exciting portion of that specific lecture).
The core issue was a structural conflict in incentives. Foreign aid programs supplied funding under rigid spending constraints that prioritized debt service. This created an absurd feedback loop where incoming aid was effectively absorbed just to cover debt obligations owed to other international development bodies and liquidity providers.
My suggestion at the time (I think?) was a temporary standstill on both conditional aid disbursements and debt service payments. The goal was to eliminate external conditional constraints, giving national authorities the fiscal sovereignty needed to restructure budgets and allocate funds where most needed before resuming debt obligations.
Please I beg you, tell me more about this prof. I could read a book about him, he sounds like a fascinating person and you have a way of painting a picture with words
Instead of berating ignorant students, making them cry, and then kicking them out of the classroom, he could've taught them in a manner so that they actually understood and learned something.
At the end of the day do you think that student actually learned anything? Or has that student spent the last X number of years of their life remembering nothing but hatred towards that professor?
Instead of berating ignorant students, making them cry, and then kicking them out of the classroom, he could've taught them in a manner so that they actually understood and learned something.
During my undergrad, I took four waitlisted courses, two were with this professor. He was in high demand because he was an excellent instructor. That student's experience was entirely self-inflicted. Bringing a bullshit, bigoted response to a 3000-level seminar deserves immediate challenge. The professor pressing him simply exposed that the student had zero substance to back up his claim.
When classroom seats are limited and serious students are stuck on waitlists, a professor's priority is maintaining academic integrity for the room, not coddling someone who came unprepared.
At the end of the day do you think that student actually learned anything? Or has that student spent the last X number of years of their life remembering nothing but hatred towards that professor?
It does not matter. University is not mandatory education, and a 3000-level lecture is not the place for remedial hand-holding or entertaining bigoted ramblings. This professor had an extensive record in both the public and private sectors, and he went above and beyond for students who came to learn. He was not kicked out of the university; he was removed from a single three-hour lecture for derailing the class. The professor's duty is to the students there to learn, not the one who wasted everyone's time.
Edit: I'm also biased. This is a Prof who helped me salvage my education during a very difficult time. He's a man who on multiple occasions after class drive me home (30mins + depending on traffic) in the opposite direction from where he lived because we would often talk after class.
I once watched a discovery channel or TLC doc about parasites extracted from humans ... it was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. The idea that it can live inside for years without the host knowing is just crazy. They probably can't mind control like they can with insects, but still, horror!
There is actually are several parasites known to cause a “mind control” like affect. ever heard of Toxoplasma gondii? If you or someone you know is around cats a lot they likely have it!
Bacteria within you controls your behavior and emotions. Thats why when you eat well you tend to feel better etc. some science guy said it I don’t remember
I remember the one about the guy who cut/ scratched his leg or arm on a barnacle, then proceeded to have weird symptoms and it turned out barnacles were trying to set up camp in his blood
Thank you for your insight! Is there any truth to this that the mantis was dead already but the parasite was controlling its movements?
“horsehair worm (phylum Nematomorpha). Lil Manny ate infected food and the worm hijacked the nervous system. He was already dead but his body became hell bent on finding water so worm can emerge and reproduce. Nature is wild.”
No, the mantis is still alive. The parasite only has minor influence on its behavior. Not complete controls
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Yeah, when the brainworm is ready to be release, it drives the user to do crazy things, like work out in the sauna while wearing jeans. Only then, ican it be exorcized through exercise.
So it's like a person with diabetes? Like someone has a low glucose lvl and the body just feels it needs something to eat but it doesn't mean that something controls the body to move towards the food on itself?
Its crazy how big it gets while somehow keeping the mantis alive. I assume its feeding on its internal organs and occupying the left over space, but its crazy that the bug can just go on while a huge fraction of its body is eaten by the worm
I would like to join your subreddit, for what godforsaken reason I don’t know.
My PhD was in biochemistry because I figured test tubes contain far less horror, and nature contained too much. What can I say, I must be having a midlife crisis.
You know the feeling when you've been a little constipated and then take a massive dump, so big you feel like you lost some weight and you probably should have lubed up before dropping that brick? Multiply that feeling with about a hundred and that's how the mantis feels. Give him a few minutes to get his bearings again.
Parasitology is creepy af. But there is no perfect parasite that exists, they all harm the host and thus compromise their nutrition supply. It's so dumb right ?
If the perfect parasite existed they would cease to be a parasite. By definition parasitic symbiosis requires the host to be harmed in one way or another.
If a parasite didn't harm the host, it would be commensalism or mutualism. By virtue of their relationship with each other, we harbour a very different opinion of them.
Not many people are rooting for the Horsehair worm, but remora fish and bees are liked, even revered by some.
If the perfect parasite existed they would cease to be a parasite.
I think it has been suggested that some cellular organelles, like mitochondria, might have been parasites originally. Which would make it an example of this.
This happens within a reproductive cycle where they selectively kill off male embryos in insects to give the females the reproductive advantage. Once it's done it's job, it survives by boosting the hosts immune system to maximise life.
There are evolutionary examples as you suggested but there a few that will shift tact to maximise its life inside the host.
No, they are mutualistic. They provide benefit to the plant through pollination and gain the nectar.
I was referring to the broad types of symbiosis. If a parasite didn't harm the host, it would become mutualistic like bees or commensalistic like remora fish or barnacles.
The living dialogue that expresses as hyper specialized pollinators to particular plants and plant lineages, simply falling out of natural process, reflect a certain mind-like aspect to ongoings of nature to me. Not mind-like in awareness, but mind-like in that it’s clever and makes predictions about what will happen—bees and flowers predict one another.
Edit: the other is spiders being creepy bc we can’t predict their movements. They evolved to kinda hack our visual processing & become virtually invisible for brief bursts—meaning the process of evolution penetrates into my consciousness every time I get creeped out by a bathroom spider. I suspect it’s process seeing process, game recognize game.
The whale is not harmed nor it's affected to ability to do usual whale business.
That being said, not all animals attached with barnacles are unaffected, but this doesn't mean they become parasitic but commensal epibionts. This is dependent on the abundance of barnacles on one animal. Sometimes sea turtles become heavily "dosed" with barnacles that they are negatively affected but it is collateral rather than deliberate.
The same with Remora. They will feed on the scraps in the wake of a shark and hitch a ride. The shark gains nothing, but isn't impaired either. Too many Remora attached and it'll be irritated.
Symbiosis is a broad term but there are many examples the bridge between all 3 major categories.
I totally agree they’re fascinating but finding one on your foot when wading through a mountain creek is still a jarring and disturbing experience. Do you get freaked out by surprise encounters like that, or did you somehow overcome that or come into life without it?
I need to look it up more but it has been said that the taxoplasmosis that influences cats and mice can also influence humans....look it up if interested ...
Thank you – this is fascinating. That poor mantis! So is it possible that some gravid-looking mantids that I see are actually not about to lay an ootheca but are rather harboring one of these in their guts? Are there any signs I can see myself to tell if a mantid is parasitized? And if there are, can I do what this person did and use water to get them to exit the mantid's body? I ask specifically because we get a lot of mantids in our yard and community garden and I am very protective of them and want to encourage the population.
Doesn't necessarily kill the insect, however It often will result in its death.
It would seem to take up a huge amount of space inside insects, how the heck can they survive that? what's left of all the organs that normally resides where the parasite is?
I came across a small pool once that I’m almost 100% sure was full of horsehair worms. It was unnerving to see what looked like thick hair swimming around on its own 😬
How/why does a parasite that size able to exist in an insect that small? It makes it seem like their body is a hollow cavity but there has to be some kind of “bug guts” in there, right?
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Whoa, I had no idea! Thanks for the heads-up. Might go through and clean up/out my subs.
No just regular water. The parasite leaves voluntarily when it senses all the water because it needs a body of water to complete its breeding cycle. Unfortunately for the parasite, it got scammed by a cup of water.
They are called horsehair worms. The removal of them will probably save the life of the mantis for a while till it gets reinfected.
Typically a host drinks from an infected watersource grows into worm form then waits till the host gets close to water and they cause the host to fall in where it leaves the host then lives the rest of its life in water making eggs infecting the water source.
Humans cant serve as hosts so they dont really pose any health issues.
As the parasite guy above said, no. The parasite is not inherently lethal to its host, although for many insects jumping bodily into a pool of water is likely to result in their death. The mantis in this video is just fine
I am not an expert, but insects get infected by this particular parasite, like most, by ingestion. It therefore stands to reason that the parasite is, at least in part, in the digestive tract of the mantis. I can't tell if the worm is ripping it's way out xenomorph style, or exiting like a very, very, very long tapeworm
not necessarily, when it realized it was free from the grip of the sticks it could’ve been staying still (to avoid being seen) until the person left so it knew it was free to run from the perceived danger
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u/supervillaindsgnr Aug 04 '26
This is horrifying but I can't look away.