10 Most Terrifying Parasites That Control Their Victims

From a brain-eating amoeba to caterpillars possessed by wasps, here are 10 parasites that control their victims. Follow us on instagram! https://www.instagram.com/katrinaexplained/ Subscribe For New Videos! http://goo.gl/UIzLeB Check out these videos you might like: Unbelievable Animals SAVING Other Animals! 🐯https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxehUWvMr38 LARGEST Animals Ever Discovered! 🐙https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yj7F_tPYsU Wild Animals That SAVED Human Lives! 🐻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mllqeVSsIl0 10. Zombie Ant Fungus In the rainforests of Thailand, Africa, and Brazil, a parasitic tropical fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis latches onto and controls foraging ants (Camponotus leonardi) as if they had a life of their own. The fungus’s spores attach to the ant’s exoskeleton, and then penetrate the creature’s insides, slowly taking control of its behavior. 9. Brain-Eating Amoeba Commonly known as the “brain-eating amoeba,” Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism that can cause a devastating condition in humans called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). This amoeba species has a particular fondness for human brain tissue, and often finds its way into humans via warm, stagnant freshwater bodies. 8. Castrator Barnacles Most barnacles are harmless to their surroundings, generally spending their lives stuck to rocks and other features of the seafloor, where they siphon food particles from the water. Sacculina carcini, more commonly known as castrator barnacles, are an uncommon exception to this. 7. Tongue-Eating Louse This creature does just as its name suggests. It lives inside fishes mouths, eating their tongue and then taking its place. Found in the Gulf of California, this parasite (Cymothoa exigua) infiltrates the fishes gills and consumes the tongue, and then the fish will use it’s new “tongue”/parasite to eat and grind the food against its teeth located on the roof of the mouth. 6. Toxoplasma gondii Toxoplasma gondii is one of the world’s most common neurological parasites. It infiltrates the brains of its hosts, including rats, cats, and sometimes even humans, and can severely alter an individual’s behavior in some cases. While most people think it comes from cats you are more likely to get it from eating undercooked or contaminated meat (especially pork and lamb) or shellfish. 5. ZOMBIE FLY A parasitic fly called Apocephalus borealis injects its eggs into paper wasps, bumblebees, and honeybees, causing them to act completely out of character by flying around at night. Tons of insects fly around at night attracted to light but you may have noticed that bees normally never do. At night they are all tucked in, but this parasitic fly causes them to completely change their behavior and act disoriented. 4. GREEN-BANDED BROODSAC The green-banded broodsac (Leucochloridium paradoxum), enters its host when an amber snail consumes bird droppings containing the parasitic worm’s eggs. The worm grows inside the snail, eventually burrowing its way into the creature’s eye stalks, where it builds fat, throbbing brood sacs. 3. Fish Tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus is a tapeworm with a complex life cycle that involves three different hosts -- fish, water birds that eat fish, and rodents. Adults develop inside a bird’s intestines, where they lay eggs, which are passed through the bird’s feces and into the water. There, the eggs hatch, leading to the first larval stage, the coracidium. 2. Zombie Caterpillars & Voodoo Wasps Glyptapanteles is a parasitoid wasp that lays up to 80 eggs at a time into young geometrid caterpillars. The larvae feed on the caterpillar’s bodily fluids until they’re fully developed, at which point they eat through the caterpillar’s skin and leave its body to find a branch from which to form their cocoon. 1. Sleeping Sickness “Sleeping sickness” is caused by Trypanosoma brucei, a microscopic, brain-feasting parasite that is typically transmitted to humans via the tsetse fly. It only occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, where two very similar species of the parasite are known to spread. #scariestparasites #mindcontrol #zombieparasite #originsexplained