MetaFilter posts tagged with parasites

The Fungus Overlords

Dumsnill — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:51:34 -0800

Just look at the face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet.

KokuRyu — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:48:05 -0800

Zombie Animals Includes zombie crabs, zombie cockroaches and a fish with a zombie tongue, plus plenty of interesting links. Via.

Another Reason I'm Glad I'm Not An Ant

XMLicious — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:41:11 -0800

Continuing the recent theme of horrifying parasites, here's an infectious little nematode that makes its host swell up into a plump, juicy, red berry so that birds will mistakenly eat its bloated ichorous abdomen and spread the eggs. (via) By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Wikipedia says that nematodes have amoeboid sperm.

How To Be A Good Host

humannaire — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:53:38 -0800

Bot flies are large, stout bodied, hairy flies that resemble bumblebees. But how they reproduce is what makes them interesting: 1) An egg-laden female botfly captures a night-flying female mosquito and glues her eggs on to it. 2) When the mosquito is released and bites a victim, the host's body heat triggers an egg to hatch. 3) It falls off and burrows in. Even more interesting is that sometimes, this happens on humans! [YouTube/NSFSqueamish] And on humans sometimes, this happens in the most inconvenient [pdf] of places.

The dirt on your doorstep is NOT a bathroom.

miss lynnster — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:08:20 -0800

Listen to the creepy frog puppet & you too will avoid intestinal worms. Why did I post this? Because I care about you. Yeah, you're welcome. Previously.

A Pliocene love that dare not speak its name?

homunculus — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:19:13 -0800

How Do You Get Crabs From A Gorilla? One of many little evolutionary cases Carl Zimmer tackles in The Parasite Files.

Boldly going where no one has gone before (and never coming back)

saulgoodman — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:41:51 -0800

Who will volunteer to be our new Space Messiah? In these selfish times, maybe a little good old-fashioned self-sacrifice in the name of space exploration is just what the doctor ordered to restore humanity's faith in scientific truth and reason. On the other hand, could this bold proposal somehow be connected to recent revelations about the potential influence of mind-controlling parasites on human culture, as discussed in this MeFi thread on toxoplasmosis? Could it be that these little red guys from the sky are actually martian invaders who've been the secret puppet masters behind the world's recent troubles all along, as they carry out their fiendishly clever plot to drive humanity to the brink of self-destruction just so we'll be desperate enough to willingly offer up one of our own in a gesture of symbolic heroism? Will our new astronaut saviour ultimately end up as nothing more than a quick snack for the unnameable horror that awaits on the surface of the red planet?

Lymphatic filariasis

stemlot — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:01:57 -0800

Lymphatic filariasis (or, more dramatically, "elephantiasis") is spread by mosquitoes. The mosquitoes transmit wo rms to your blood, the worms mate while you sleep, and their progeny travel to your lymph nodes to live a happy life. Unfortunately for you, the worms can get too big, allowing fluid to collect in your limbs or scrotum. Lucky for your neighbors, the disease can be controlled using salt. (China already did it).

Ascaris lumbricoides

washburn — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 22:06:44 -0800

Ascaris lumbricoides. According to estimates, about 1.5 billion people--about a quarter of the earth's population--are hosts to the Ascaris lumbricoides parasitic worm. Ascaris worms can grow to be 18 inches in length, and use their host's windpipe and esophagus to migrate between the small intestine and the lungs. A single human host may support dozen of large worms, which can be contracted by contact with fecal matter, animals, or undercooked pork. Under some circumstances (the worms dislike anesthesia, for example) one or more worms may exit from the mouth (a horrifying image), or the anus (one of the most disgusting images I have ever seen, and not safe for work, obviously). Here, the removal of a worm is caught on video (Realplayer). Too disgusting to post? Almost. But 1.5 billion people have got these in their bodies right now. That's what's grosser than gross.

The Return of the Puppet Masters

moonbird — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 11:00:52 -0800

Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people?

It's all in the nose of the beholder

Marit — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:16:30 -0800

What parasite is a meter across, weighs 10 kg, and stinks to high heaven? None other than Rafflesia arnoldii, a remarkable parasitic plant. As amazing and smelly as it is, it's not the only funky flower. There's plenty of stinky fruit to go around too, such as the much-maligned ginkgo nut and the infamous king of fruits, the durian.

The ones that go in/Are lean and thin

dilettante — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:16:01 -0800

I think I'll go eat...

Nature is stupidly clever

orthogonality — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:18:54 -0800

"Creatures are out there that can control brains." [pdf]

The women "spent more money on clothes and were consistently rated as more attractive", but were "less trustworthy and had more relationships with men". The men become "less well groomed undesirable loners who were more willing to fight". All "are at greater risk of being involved in car accidents". Why? Something has its tentacles in their brains. They probably got it from that cuddly old species, the domestic cat, which the parasite infects by making infected rats "almost taunt" the cats into eating them.

Parasites in the brain alter their host's behavior. It's not just video game fiction. Various multi-host parasites make their living by making their hosts less ambulatory and less willing to explore, by castrating them and making them less cautious of predators, or by forcing their hosts to stay out all night so as to be eaten in the morning. These parasites offer yet another example of how stupidly clever evolution can be, and raise questions about how free "free will" really is.

Dracunculiasis

Space Coyote — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:43:41 -0800

A worm that builds a home inside the human body, lives there happily until breeding time, then begins a journey to emerge from the skin and find a body of water to lay its eggs in. Although this may very well be a pleasant journey for the worm, for the human, it's an excrutiating one. And so we begin The Tale of the Guinea Worm.

Batten down the mosquito netting

Postroad — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:19:17 -0800

Batten down the mosquito netting In Iraq: "Now a new wave of unexpected horror, leishmaniasis, is arriving at WRAMC – which has the only accredited leishmaniasis lab in the United States – and its dedicated docs are burning the midnight oil to find a treatment. A model predicts that 1 percent to 4 percent of our soldiers in Iraq can expect to be hit by this potentially deadly parasite, delivered by the bite of infected sand flies as common in the Middle East as fleas on a wild dog. "

Rules? What rules? I can do whatever I want...

troutfishing — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 02:02:16 -0800

Early humans lost hair to beat parasites? (New Scientist) - Human nakedness, a species anomaly among mammals, draws comparisons to the blind, naked mole rat. Meanwhile, seven thousand humans (Italians) recently gathered naked, for unclear purposes.