http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13860891

I read this item and at once thought of SR. It is a really creepy article about how some wasps lay their eggs in the bodies of ladybugs to guard them and as they develop the wasp's take over the lady bug until they are old enough to eat their way out. It just makes my flesh crawl and it seemed to like certain bug spirits. I thought I would share it.

Are bugs passe now?

There's a fugus that does this to ants. At least a wasp is an insect like an ant. A fungus doing it is about a million times creepier.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/biolo...ungi-discovered

I looked into the history of the Cazadors from Fallout: New Vegas, and, yeah, I hate the damned things all the more!

There's a Tohei horror film, from the 60's I think, about people marooned on an island and anyone who eats the local fungus gets taken over.

You mean the Tarantula Hawk? Why?!? They kill spiders! What's not to like?

<edit> As for the film (not Tohei) it was called Matango.

*Cough* Cazatdores (I found the corrected spelling of the plural) do not hunt spiders. They hunt Couriers and their Companions. (OK, and other Humans and Ghouls in general.).

Companions can't take Antidotes.

You get to watch as your companions slowly die away no matter how many Stimpaks you jam into them... Knowing that they'll soon be egg sacks for yet more of the damned things.

Actually, the stimpacks are bugged and cause them to lose health. Also, if you're up to date on patches, they can take antidotes, and the new one you can make or find in Zion.

PS: Cazatdores have no DT, an SMG, flamethrower, or shotgun will do wonders on them. Grenades and launcher weapons as well. They also lowered the range on that damnable stinger. They lowered their PER as well.

Also, they must not be truly mutated tarantula hawks, because we also see their nests... which are more akin to what a paper wasp would make. Tarantula hawk nests are underground. The poison on them is also strange, in reality their poison is a paralytic so that they can inject the egg sacs into the victim, usually a female tarantula during mating season (as the males are too scrawny).

Yeah, I clutch my shotgun tightly when I see they're around. Good Hunting Shotgun!

I guess that was put in the latest patch, because I gave each companion antidotes and they still died. Good to know about the Stimpaks, however. I'll quit spamming them. Usually I just send the companions off and hope for the best when Cazadores are around.

Damn things freak me out like I bet Bug City would have were I able to play it. Damned not being able to find anyone interested in Shadowrun in any of the places I've lived.

I feel your pain, I hope that Shadowrun web game I read about in the General Gaming section works out, then we can play together over a larger distance.

I actually worked in an entomology lab which studied almost this exact thing. We'd collect caterpillars from corn and cabbage patches and observe them. Every day I'd give them some drops of water, some fresh cabbage, clean up after them and otherwise care for them. Now and again one caterpillar would climb to the top of the petri dish and just hang out there. He'd develop tiny white spots. The spots would start to bulge, then burst, leaking fluid, and a single, white worm would push its way out from each spot. A single caterpillar might carry one or two dozen of these tiny worms. The caterpillar would normally continue to live and move until it finally bled out. The tiny worms would proceed to spin webbing around themselves. It looked like the caterpillar was getting moldy. Once protected, they'd continue to eat all the bits they'd missed on the first run-through.

However, this isn't as crazy as a wasp that actually injects the brain of a german cockroach and *drives* it home. It actually takes advantage of the roach's body and makes it walk there. Of course, the roach is alive and aware for the whole time as it walks to its own death.

OK: I may never sleep again.

Admit it Canray, you don't really sleep now... Too many dreams...

I do find it uniquely odd that thoughts of that would keep you awake at night... but Bubba... actually, you know what, I changed my mind, Bubba is probably afraid of them too.

I don't know whether to be pleased other people are equally creeped out by this or worried there seem to be so many examples.


I thought Tohei was the studio, that is the name of of the film though- Matango- creepy right at the end.

That's more true a statement than you'd think in some ways.
My imagination gives me enough monsters that I don't need reality honing in and adding yet more.

There is something unholy about the whole take over imagry, that seems to rweach into the human mind. Look at the SR bugs. In Foglio's girl genius series that was what the bag guys did with robotic bugs.


Weirdly with work I can handle the monsters in dreams. Though when I'm feaverish I tend to get caught up in loops of the same thing going on over and over again. Like dump tv jingles, I truly loath that guy who did the free credit report .com spots for that reason.

Don't forget about dicrocoelium dendriticum, err... I mean, Captain Higgins!

I was going to ask why you picked that parasite over say river blindness, in which thousands of worms grow inside of your eyeballs until you're blind, but then I read that comic and had to laugh out loud. That's fantastic.

I do appreciate living in Canada when I read these things. Of course, with global climate change upon us, all kinds of nasties are spreading north.

Ahh, for the good old days of -30 C for weeks on end.

Try living in Winnipeg.

I lived northwest of Edmonton for a while. Cold ... and no ballet.

As much as some of you may freak about it, a little perspective might help cool your nerves. The wasps and fungus, you'll note, pick on creatures with very simple nervous structures. It'd be exceedingly unusual, to the point of insignificance, for one to attempt to take over a complex neural structure such as a human body. If you're looking for an example of the very theory of wasps taking over humans, Suffice it to say, even while living in a warm temperate climate, I'm not particularly concerned over the concept of a wasp taking over my body. I'm more wary of spider bites that can rot my flesh and horrible drivers that might slam into me when I'm crossing the road.

Rubic has a point, but some fears are visceral and resistant to logic.

Now... add a little Awakening to some of these beasties, and what wonders might appear? Imagine that liver fluke inside you with a Critter Power or two.

And what does the Brain Slug Party promise it's constituents?

That you won't care about death or taxes.

What about Heckler and Koch?

That right there secured my vote...

since you guys missed the reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZP1LYIXZs