Flies bite off fire ant heads

Many flies in South America have a unique breeding strategy to the point of being frightening. They lay eggs on the fire ants to feed the host's brain. On a beautiful day, the head of ants leaves the neck to let flies fly out.

Being turned into "zombie" due to flies

Phorid flies seek to lay eggs on fire ants whenever they are outside the nest.(Photo: National Geographic.)

The fire ant home is South America. They emigrated to the American state of Alabama in the early 30s thanks to agricultural products. Then fire ants entered Texas. Today they continue to expand throughout the world. The world economy lost hundreds of billions of dollars every year because of fire ants. They reduce food production, disrupt electrical equipment and threaten the survival of many animals. Many lands became desert because of the invasion of ants.

Over the past several decades, many measures have been applied to destroy fire ants, such as spraying pesticides, burning fire or watering. Most measures "consume" quite a lot of money, but still can not prevent the progress of ants.

Maggots eat off the ant's brain to grow into pupae, but they still control all ant activity.A few weeks later the ants fell.(Photo: National Geographic.)

Ecologists of the University of Texas (USA) and the AgriLife Extension Service want to find a cost-effective ant-killing method that is still effective. They went to Argentina - one of the countries that used to be the home of fire ants - to study. Here, the expert team found 23 species of phorid flies capable of destroying ants in a way no one expected.

Whenever seeing ants outside the nest, the phorid flies immediately followed. They are above the prey and then find a way to 'pump ' the eggs inside the ant body with a sharp tap. When the eggs hatch, maggots immediately move to the ants. They live here for two weeks and eat the host 's brain. After eating up the brain, maggots develop pupae (the transition stage between larvae and flies) in the hollow head of ' miserable host' . The surprising thing is that ants still eat, sleep, wake up, walk normally when there is no brain. Scientists find it seems that ants do things according to the pupil's control.

A fly is coming out of the ant's head.(Photo: National Geographic.)

'Because ants have no brain, they only move inertia. Nymphs have turned ants into walking corpses and manipulated them. This is unbelievable , 'explained Rob Plowes, a member of the research team.

About 30 days after the eggs hatch, pupae take ants to wet places, many humus is far away from ant nests. Here they make the ants leave the body to get out. When they reach reproductive age, they find fire ants to lay eggs.

'Although the phorid fly cannot kill all fire ants in the nest by laying eggs, they are a solution for humans to control the amount of ants,' Plowes said.

A phorid fly flew up after leaving the ant.(Photo: National Geographic.)

Donald Feener, an ecologist at the University of Utah (USA), said fire ants are afraid of phorid flies. If you see lots of flies in a certain area, they will not dare to go there to feed. Thus, the presence of flies can reduce the rate of ants' expansion.

Four species of phorid flies have been introduced into Texas state since 1999. They do not pay attention to native ants but only lay eggs on the bodies of ants from South America. However, scientists need time to find out if they can stop the fire ant invasion from South America.

"We cannot completely eradicate an insect that has spread across the planet, even if all the nations of the world have been waging a chemical war against them. The most important thing now. is finding ways to destroy ants effectively without spending much money, " Feener said.