{"id":3020,"date":"2015-08-17T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2015-08-11T14:07:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T19:07:57","slug":"weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_613\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-613\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-613\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg\" alt=\"They Are Zombies Because of Wasps\" width=\"200\" height=\"145\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-613\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">They Are Zombies Because of Wasps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Recently, a lot of stories about a vicious and somewhat frightening species of wasp that has some beneficial pest control traits<em>\u00a0<\/em>have been trending on social networks.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/speaking-of-science\/wp\/2015\/05\/27\/say-hello-to-the-dementor-wasp-it-turns-cockroaches-into-zombies\/\"><em>Ampulex dementor<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a unique type of distinctively red-and-black wasp that was discovered in 2014 in the Greater Mekong River Subregion with 138 other new species of plants, animals and insects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mimicry and Mad Scientist Behaviors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These wasps, besides looking like dementors from the <em>Harry Potter<\/em>\u00a0series of books and films, act in ways that some people might find disturbing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They\u00a0mimic ant behaviors to trick other species into believing that they are ants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>They inject venom into their prey, which are primarily cockroaches, to shut down neurotransmitter octopamine receptors needed to control spontaneous movement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>They do turn their victims into essentially zombies\u00a0that they can then lead around leash-style by the antennae back to their nesting and feeding areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Important Things to Remember<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although\u00a0global travel and commerce might one day result in <em>Ampulex dementor<\/em> wasps finding their way into\u00a0the United States, they are native to Thailand. Additionally, you should never consider them as a cockroach population eradication measure. Any NJ pest control professional will tell you that an exotic species can do more harm than good when introduced into a local environment.<\/p>\n<p>Many other environmentally friendly and efficient pest control measures exist. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/contact-us.php\">Contact our experienced team<\/a> at Allison Pest Control today for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, a lot of stories about a vicious and somewhat frightening species of wasp that has some beneficial pest control traits\u00a0have been trending on social networks. The Ampulex dementor\u00a0is a unique type of distinctively red-and-black wasp that was discovered in 2014 in the Greater Mekong River Subregion with 138 other new species of plants, animals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,5],"tags":[174,243],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies - Allison Pest Control<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies - Allison Pest Control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, a lot of stories about a vicious and somewhat frightening species of wasp that has some beneficial pest control traits\u00a0have been trending on social networks. The Ampulex dementor\u00a0is a unique type of distinctively red-and-black wasp that was discovered in 2014 in the Greater Mekong River Subregion with 138 other new species of plants, animals [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Allison Pest Control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonPestControl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T08:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-11T19:07:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@allisonpest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@allisonpest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies - Allison Pest Control","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies - Allison Pest Control","og_description":"Recently, a lot of stories about a vicious and somewhat frightening species of wasp that has some beneficial pest control traits\u00a0have been trending on social networks. The Ampulex dementor\u00a0is a unique type of distinctively red-and-black wasp that was discovered in 2014 in the Greater Mekong River Subregion with 138 other new species of plants, animals [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/","og_site_name":"Allison Pest Control","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AllisonPestControl\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-17T08:00:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-11T19:07:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@allisonpest","twitter_site":"@allisonpest","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/","url":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/","name":"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies - Allison Pest Control","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-17T08:00:09+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-11T19:07:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/21c9b005b706ad13086caa3e362916f6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/american.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/weird-science-wasps-turn-cockroaches-into-zombies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weird Science: Wasps Turn Cockroaches Into Zombies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/#website","url":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/","name":"Allison Pest Control","description":"Never Worry About Bugs Again","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/21c9b005b706ad13086caa3e362916f6","name":"admin"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3022,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions\/3022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.allisonpest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}