RP307 Mini Mind Control
Deep in the tropical rain forests of Thailand, ant society is facing a terrible crisis. Workers aren't coming home. Queens are locking themselves in their chambers. They' re all terrified of the same thing—zombie ants!
The panic is being caused by a particularly sneaky fungus called Ophiocordyceps. This fungus can literally take over an ant's mind and make it do things that it doesn't want to do.
Imagine an innocent ant out for a stroll on a sunny day. It comes across a strange corpse covered in Ophiocordyceps fungus but pays it no heed. Over the next couple of days, this ant continues its normal routine like nothing is wrong. Three days pass and it starts to experience physical effects. This is the fungus slowly destroying muscle tissue as it takes over the ant's nervous system. In a few more days, the ant starts to convulse and loses control of itself.
This is when the fungus really takes over. It forces the ant to climb up a leaf and bite it. Perhaps strangest of all, zombie ants always perform this final death bite at noon, when the sun is highest in the sky.
Now comes the gross part. After the ant is dead, the fungus starts to grow out of its head like a mushroom. Over the course of two weeks, the fungus converts the ant's insides into sugars, so it has food to grow. When it's ready, it will release new spores that can doom any nearby ants.
Ophiocordyceps is extremely powerful, and it has been known to destroy entire colonies of ants. But ants have gotten used to the threat and do their best to keep themselves safe. If a healthy ant sees another ant displaying zombie tendencies, it will drag the infected ant as far away from all of the other ants as possible. Better to abandon that one infected ant than risk zombie spores being released all over the colony!
It's not just ants that have to live in fear of this zombie fungus. There are lots of different species of Ophiocordyceps. Each of them targets a particular insect, such as moths, mantises, and even spiders.
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