The Discovery Channel picked up my cockroach zombie story and interviewed Dr. Fred Liebersat on his research. They included some cool footage of the roach and its sinister wasp brain surgeon. To watch, go to their archives and scroll to "Roach-o-rama."
Unfortunately, there's no footage of young wasps poking their heads out of their cockroach hosts, but perhaps that was too hard to catch. Or maybe just too disturbing...
More like this
If you know your bugs you know that Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana are cockroaches. They aren't the only cockroach species. In fact there are an estimated 4000 different kinds of cockroach, many of them living in fields, forests or jungles.
As some of you know, I live with a large group of cockroaches that boldly infest my apartment, along with those of all my neighbors.
Many parasites alter their hosts behavior by small manipulations in the brain that go largely unnoticed by the ho