Cibbuano
charlesCrazy grasshopper parasite is like an alien
:
The hairworm is a parasite that infects grasshoppers, then drives them insane, forcing them to plunge into water, drowning the grasshopper, but not before the worm can burst from the body. Then, slimy, wriggling worm mating. Bleaugh!
They can also infest cockroaches, which answers the question: What do cockroaches find disgusting? I assume it's the hairworm.
On average, they're 1 m long, which forces us to ask yet another question: how do they live in a grasshopper?
The answer, my friend, is in this video, when some humans accidentally killed a grasshopper, then videotaped the aftermath:
From New Scientist:
"The parasitic Nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. Somehow mature hairworms brainwash their hosts into behaving in way they never usually would  causing them to seek out and plunge into water.
Once in the water the mature hairworms  which are three to four times longer that their hosts when extended  emerge and swim away to find a mate, leaving their host dead or dying in the water."
Once in the water the mature hairworms  which are three to four times longer that their hosts when extended  emerge and swim away to find a mate, leaving their host dead or dying in the water."
(found on Fazed)
Flick Wit
I do not like grasshoppers and I loathe cockroaches - but this thing is on a whole new level. It has made other bugs underdogs!
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