Teague Appleton 2/15/26 Teague Appleton 2/15/26

FACT #4 — The “zombie ant” fungus can control an ant’s behavior

Some fungi don’t just kill insects — they steer them. In one of the most famous examples, a fungus in the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis group infects certain carpenter ants and can trigger a weird set of behaviors that ends with the ant leaving the colony, climbing up plants, and getting stuck in place. That “stuck” moment helps the fungus finish its life cycle. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3118224/

Here’s the part people usually get wrong: it’s not like the fungus is “driving the ant like a remote-control car” from inside the ant’s brain. In fact, researchers have found that in these infections the fungus can spread through much of the ant’s body without invading the brain, and evidence suggests a lot of the control may happen through chemicals and direct effects on muscles (more like a puppet pulling strings than a little pilot inside the head). https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/zombie-ant-brains-left-intact-fungal-parasite