Zombie Ants
We get it, this can be kind of weird and any sort of mention about “zombies” automatically takes something from potentially real to completely fake. While we’d agree most of the time…that is not true in this case. As these ants quite literally become zombies, and it’s absolutely remarkable. We’ve actually covered how this works slightly in an article from 2019. There is something known as a zombie-ant fungus, going by the scientific name of “Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.” It tends to affect carpenter ants as these ants come across it in the Brazilian jungle.
The fungus will infect the ant and will begin to drain them of its nutrients, thereby hijacking its mind. Over the next week, the fungus will begin to make the ant leave the safety of its colony and go to a nearby plant stem. The ant will climb up around 25 centimeters, which is usually the right temperature and humidity for the fungus to grow. To keep in place, the ant will lock its mandibles around a leaf. All of this will result in a long stalk that goes right through the ant’s head, putting multiple spores on the plant. Since the ant usually climbs a leaf near its colony’s common trails, fungal spores will fall down onto colony members below and zombify them too!