Zombie Ants by Sasha Slaughter

I was reading Yahoo! News recently and came across one simple word in an article that instantly caught my attention. Zombies. Yeah, I like me some Zombies. But as I kept reading, it was about much more than Zombies. It was about "Zombie Ants." Yeah, thats right, Zombie ants. Don't believe it? Neither did I, until I read the article. Scientists in Thailand have discovered that a certain fungus grows from a carpenter ants head and causes them to find the perfect place to die so that the fungus can grow and reproduce.

Scientists aren't yet sure how exactly the fungus takes control of the ants brain so effectively. The carpenter ants prefer to nest high in the canopy of Thailand, but once infected with the fungus, it compels the ants to climb down from the canopy to the forest floor where the fungus takes effect and kills the ant.
The fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, prefers to end up on the undersides of new sprouting leaves. The fungus also tends to grow on the northwest side of the plants because thats where temperature, humidity, and sunlight are ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce and infect the ants.
It is said that the fungus manipulates the infected ant into dying where the parasite prefers to be, often making the ants travel long distances during the last few hours of their lives.

The fungus preserves the ants outer shell to proctect it from the elements and also to keep other fungi out. After a week or two, spores from the fungus fall to the forest floor to infect other ants and the cycle continues. Scientists still aren't sure how the fungus controls the ants behavior and they are currently doing extensive research.

I think this just may be the first sign of an impending Zombie Apocalypse. It will start with small, insignifigant creatures, such as ants, and move onto larger, much more intelligent beings, such as humans. Well, I guess they wont be so intelligent once they're infected by a Zombie bite, will they? Or maybe theres some scientific explanation for the so called "Zombie Ants" and possibly the "Zombie" part could be thrown out altogether. Guess we'll just have to wait and see huh??