True Facts: Fungi That Control The Insects They Eat

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Every fungus video, no matter how humorous, is so freaking disturbing. Fungi are so interesting and terrifying at the same time!

I'd like to point out that fungi technically fulfill every requirement in order to be real-life Lovecraftian abominations.

It will never get old hearing you say the word "babies".

11:49 “The Last A$$ of Us” as pitched by ZeFrank would be an excellent zombie fungus B-movie 😂

One additional interesting fact that ZeFrank didn't mention in this video is that the carpenter ants can actually tell if one of their own is infected. If a worker finds an infected ant, it will grab the infected ant and carry it out of the hive as far away as possible before abandoning the doomed ant to its fate. (The worker that does this is still safe because the cordyceps fungus is not yet in its fruiting stage, so the infectious spores have not emerged yet.) Despite these precautions though, wind can still carry the spores back and infect more ants.

The students at West Virginia University who worked on the cicada fungus referred to the infected cicadas as "saltshakers of death," which is a level of description I now expect from our best and brightest minds.

Only a few weeks ago, I read in the NYT the interview of a renowned scientist or biologist, I didn’t know his name. He was asked: "What keeps you awake at night?” and replied: "Fungi.” Now I understand why.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard while being completely horrified... Only you, Ze Frank, only you...

Friendly reminder that cordyceps not interacting with the brains of their hosts means that they're effectively prisoners in bodies they can no longer control; experiencing everything the parasite is doing to them but unable to resist its influence.

Weirdly enough, even the reliably impeccable humor and wit of the voiceover cannot possibly dull the stomach-twisting horror of this particular topic. These visuals are truly the stuff of nightmares.

You took a truly horrifying corner of nature and made humor out of it. That is quite a gift you have there, ZeFrank!

I studied biochemistry and human biology. Took microbiology as an extra subject. I love science, I love nature, I love biology. I am also accustomed to a fair amount of gore having seen more than most in real life and in media. That said, Ophiocordyceps can fuck right off. Fascinating but remorselessly macabre, horrific, and disturbing beyond description. Great video Ze Frank, and thanks. I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.

"Zombies are just gonna be people all hopped up on mushrooms and cocaine trying to get people to hump a powder ball that ate their junk." What a magnificent sentence. We need a movie immediately.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of the "butt" and "but" mixup gag, gets me every time

I hate looking at bugs. Every time I see a close-up photo of a bug, I get into a cold sweat and start feeling jumpy. However, Zefrank’s videos are just so interesting and entertaining that I, somehow, manage to overcome looking at the bugs. Edit: I still kind of hated the whole experience though.

3:25 "They don't know who makes it, either the fly or the fungs" Crazy!! Is there a way to tell if the adhesive the fly secretes has the same chemical composition as the stuff that makes the spores sticky? Cause that might help answer the question... Also, this is truly horrifying.

The horrifying thing about the way cordyceps takes direct control is that since it's not infecting the brain, the victim is essentially conscious the whole time until the final stage, but helpless to stop itself.

As a "hippie scientist" myself I can't just emphasize enough the huge research labour that Ze (et al.) does... there are more references in these videos than in half of the papers I've read last month. And they are truly a masterpiece of science communication, plus one of the most funny videos you can watch in YT. There should be a new join-category (Nobel-Oscar) for this guy (et al.). Magnificent!

As someone with a morbid curiosity about parasitic organisms, I didn't expect this video to unsettle me. But it did. And on top of that, it was all new information for me. Which is why I love this channel.