Parasites are amazing!

Something to pass the time:

After reading this wonderful thread: Wonderosity

I remembered about a great documentary I watched about animal parasites! You’ve probably all seen it, or a similar one.

Here they are…. There’s more incredible parasites out there – so please bring your parasite to the party!

Link to site
Here’s an extract from the site:

1-Hymenoepimecis "Build Me a Web!" argyraphaga

Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga is a Costa Rican parasitic wasp that terrorizes the spider Plesiometa argyra. When it's time to procreate, an adult female wasp will seek out a spider, paralyze it and then lay an egg on its abdomen. After hatching, the larva wasp will feed on its host, while the spider goes about its business like nothing's wrong.
Then things get interesting. After a couple weeks of bloodsucking, the larva will inject a chemical into the spider, which causes the spider to build a web like none it's ever built before. The spider sits motionless in its creation — which is far from pretty, but super durable and able to withstand pelts of rain — to await its fate. The parasite then kills the spider with poison, sucks it dry and builds a cocoon that hangs from the middle of the new web.

2-Toxoplasma "Do That Cat!" gondii

I love the idea of this one… Rat’s uncontrollable love for cat 

If Tom & Jerry taught us anything, it's that cats and rodents typically don't get along. In fact, rats inherently know the smell of cat urine and run from it like their lives depend on it (because, well, it does). But if a rat is infected by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii, it loses its instinctual fear of cat pee. Worse yet, the parasite appears to make the rat think it's sexually attracted to the revolting odor. T. gondii does all of this to increase the chances of its host getting eaten by a cat, so that it can happily complete its lifecycle in its new feline friend.

3- Dicrocoelium "Climb That Grass, but Only at Night!" dendriticum

The Lancet liver fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum has a very busy life. As an adult it spends its time in the liver of a cow or another grazing mammal. Here it mates and lays eggs, which are excreted in the host's feces.
A snail eats the poo, taking in the eggs at the same time. The eggs hatch in the snail and make their way into its digestive gland, where they asexually reproduce. They then travel to the surface of the snail's body. As a defensive maneuver, the snail walls the parasites up in cysts and coughs up the balls of slime...doing exactly what the parasites wanted it to do.

An ant comes along and gobbles up the fluke-laded slime balls. The flukes then spread out inside of the ant, with a couple of them setting up shop in the insect's head. When night approaches, the flukes take control. They make the ant climb up a blade of grass and hold tight, waiting to be eaten by a grazing animal. If the ant is still alive at dawn, the flukes release their control and the ant goes about its day like normal (if the ant baked in the sun, the parasite would die, too). At night the flukes take over again and the cycle repeats until the ant becomes cattle food.

I won’t regurgitate anymore of the site…

Click the link and start freaking yourself out with the AMAZING things nature AMAZES us with.

And if you’re anything like me you won’t be able to sleep tonight – thoughts of worms writhing around in my intestinal tract will be keeping me awake 

Source
Disturbingly weird parasites

fascinating and disturbing list, i googled images for the Anelasma...why hasn't it been put in a horror movie yet?

Also, my ex girlfriend didn't make it on the list, i'm surprised.

Cymothoa exigua horrifies me... :/

wikipedia.org

Parasites are the enemy, human parasites and the other kind too, they are nasty and ugly


Cymothoa exigua

The parasite destroys the fish's tongue, and then attaches itself to the stub of what was once its tongue and becomes the fish's new tongue.

They are the worse kind of life on this planet, one parasite transmitted by another kills millions of people in the world each year

Malaria

I remember reading here that there is a virus that dumb people down and like 40% of the population have it, we don't really need to add humans to the cordyceps host list

Anyways if you live in the tropics parasites are the stuff nightmares are made of, from Onchocerciasis to Elephantiasis they are nasty little things that will ruin your life just to get a meal

List of human parasitic diseases

________

Hey Elton got my same fears small world

a reply to: Elton

Yes... that one is commonly seen by fishermen I'm told. What is going on with nature when it decides this s**t is acceptable?

a reply to: and14263

LOL, I took a parasitology class and I suspect nature hates us sometimes.

a reply to: Elton

It does not hate us, it just love us so much it want to live inside us

Crazy list of freaky things.

Problem is, they left the worst parasites off the list. Politicians.

oh yeah, and I almost forgot bankers.

a reply to: and14263
Watch these if you hate yourself or dont want to sleep:




Personally id burn all parasites on sight

originally posted by: eXia7
Crazy list of freaky things.

Problem is, they left the worst parasites off the list. Politicians.

oh yeah, and I almost forgot bankers.

My grandfather on my mother's side was a God-fearing Methodist.
One summer day I was sitting with him on his front porch and he told me that he thought that preachers were parasites.
He said that they get a nice house provided to them for free, they work one day a week, barring the occasional funeral, and they get paid to make sure that you know that you are going to either heaven or hell... depending on your own actions.

I once had a tick in my chest after staying in a rain forest for a week. It was pretty cathartic pulling it out.

Time to systematically go through all the detox's available: Iodide crystals. Will try those again. Also waiting till the end of the month to buy some organic honey, plan on putting some organic tumeric if possible, garlic and a few drops of oil of oregano in this. There are a few other remedies too. Going to give the cats a good dose of an alternative detox too.

originally posted by: and14263
I once had a tick in my chest after staying in a rain forest for a week. It was pretty cathartic pulling it out.

I was just going to mention ticks and saw this post. My friend recently had to move to a temporary house next to the forest here. Fun fact; ticks are arachnids.. and where he moved was seriously infested with ticks. They were crawling around like ants and had a dog die from too many of them in such a short time.

Ticks lay thousands of eggs at a time that can realistically only be killed by fire in the short term. It's really the worst parasitic infestation I've seen. I'd take fleas over that, and fleas are awful, but easier to control.

a reply to: and14263

What is going on with nature when it decides this s**t is acceptable?

This, to me, is one of the reasons why I find it impossible to believe in a benevolent Creator.

a reply to: Indigent

Parasites are the enemy

Plants excepted, is there any kind of life that doesn't live on other life?

I HATE parasites. We in civilized countries sometimes think we're exempt from parasite contamination...but we're not. Unfiltered water, under cooked beef, pork and fish, contaminated vegetables, animals and infected cat litter, soil, can all carry parasites. Too many people think if they ignore this fact, they don't have parasites. It's night-marish to even think about let alone discuss and no one wants to live in a sterilized bubble.

Eliminating the Parasites That You Almost Certainly Have and Curing Lupus

Written by C. Thomas Corriher

Parasitic infestations are an epidemic in the United States, with most sources estimating that a massive 85% of Americans have parasites. Because of this, we recommend a parasite cleanse every six months, care in choosing restaurants, and washing after exposure to animals.

healthwyze.org...

Many people think parasites may be acquired only in developing and third-world countries or as a parting gift on an exotic vacation. However, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds these buggers are very much alive in the U.S.

Millions of Americans develop parasitic infections and symptoms often go unnoticed or are misdiagnosed. These microscopic creatures are typically picked up through food and water. An infection can lead to serious health problems, including seizures, blindness, pregnancy complications, heart failure and even death.
www.cbsnews.com...

So if you have any of these symptoms:

•Repeated diarrhea or constipation
•Chronic, unexplained nausea, often accompanied by vomiting
•Fatigue and weakness
•Intestinal cramping
•Unexplained dizziness
•Foul-smelling gas
•Indigestion
•Bloating
•Multiple food allergies
•Loss of appetite
•Itching around the anus, especially at night
•Difficulty sleeping
•Difficulty maintaining a healthy weight (over or underweight)
•Itching on the soles of the feet, often accompanied by a rash
•Coughing blood (severe cases)
•Palpitations (hook worms)
•Anemia
•Facial swelling around the eyes (round worms)
•Wheezing and coughing, followed by vomiting, stomach pain and bloating (suggesting round worms or thread worms)

Treatments:

Naturally Eliminating Parasites:

•Black walnut hulls
•Wormwood
•Cloves
•Pumpkin seeds or pumpkin seed oil capsules
•Garlic
•Neem *
•Thyme
•Marshmallow root
•Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth is probably the best natural anti-parasitic medication. It is a natural pesticide that does not harm humans or pets. It is believed to kill insects, worms and parasites by dehydrating them. When used on ants, it usually takes approximately 20 minutes before they are all dead. One tablespoon of diatomaceous earth taken by an adult, once a day for seven days, is believed to be extremely effective for killing all parasites. When it is used on children, bear in mind that height is a better indicator of the size of their G.I. tracts than their weights. Thus, a child who is 4 feet tall should take 2 teaspoons, and a child who is 2 feet tall should take 1 teaspoon.

If you take the diatomaceous earth route, then we advise you to only buy it food grade. Industrial diatomaceous earth is used for swimming pool filters, but it has been chemically treated, so this type is not safe to eat.
healthwyze.org...

10 COMMON parasites in humans:

Hookworm

Scabies mite

Roundworm (ascaris)

Symbiotic relationships between a parasite and a host can have beneficial effects (StoutBroux's notation: OR NOT - zombie effect anyone?), even changing human personality and evolution.


www.newscientist.com...

See link for more pics and description

Oh, and have a very un-parasitic day!

a reply to: Astyanax

Plants excepted, is there any kind of life that doesn't live on other life?

Yes but a cow wont eat me a live so they are ok to me

a reply to: Indigent

But think if you were a grass plant. Also alive, and doubtless keen, had you the power of desire, to go on living. How would you feel about cows then?

I find the idea of parasites controlling the behaviour of their hosts fascinating. Imagine: we probably do all sorts of things (like picking our noses or looking the wrong way while crossing the street) because parasites make us do them, and we're never the wiser. Cool, isn't it? It's not MK-ULTRA you should be worrying about, it's ringworm.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

More of the same!

Yuk.