Bugs Straight Out of a Horror Movie

Parasitized aphid with exit hole

Matthew 13:39
“The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”

The ability to control someone else’s will is the stuff of classic horror movies. Thankfully, science has never devised a way whereby one person can take over another person’s will and control their every action. But there is a certain parasitic wasp that may, in fact, be able to control the actions of the aphid that it uses.

This tiny, parasitic wasp injects its eggs into the body of the aphid. The larval wasps are nourished by the aphid’s body. Aphids do not like this and some will actually commit suicide after they have been injected with eggs. Others, according to scientists, seem to follow the commands of the tiny wasp parasites within them. Aphids, carrying wasp eggs that will require hibernation over winter, often leave their plants to die in a protected spot. There the young wasps will have the best chance of making it through the winter. Aphids carrying eggs that will hatch before winter remain on their plants to die to provide the best place for the young wasps to start their adult life.

Jesus Christ pointed out that until He returns to this world, His enemy and ours, the devil, will try to get us to follow his evil commands. But unlike the aphids, we have a way out of his control because of what Jesus Christ Himself has done for our salvation.

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Notes: R. Weiss. “Dying Aphids obey wasp’s commands.” Science News, April 15, 1989.
Photo: Courtesy of Sarefo. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
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