I found this by accident while looking up the computer-type zombie:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/03/wasp-performs-roachb.html

can humans use this same technology to control monkeys?

It's the other way around I'd be scared of.

Given our recent political issues, I'd say it's too late already.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060210_technovelgy.html

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/03/1737245

http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/brainwashed-by-a-parasite/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUa7BUAjObU

Whistler: Indeed it is.

no hands: That reminds me of a book I read. Have you ever read William Sleator? He writes science fiction for young adults, but it's good enought to be interesting to any age. One of his books, but I can't remember which one, has an alien Toxoplasma Gondii.

That video is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen, and kind of makes sci-fi movies with aliens that much less interesting. If we can have stuff that weird right here, I wonder what we might find not here?

The lancet liver fluke (sp?) is a cow parasite with 2 intermediate hosts. The liver fluke moves to the gut of the cow to lay eggs, which are deposited in the feces (that scientific for cow poop). Then snails eat the poop, dirty snails. So, the eggs hatch in the snail and begin to drill out of the gut. The snail reacts by placing the larval fluke in cyst. Well, the cysts are deposited, and an ant comes along using snail slime for moisture. Ant ingests the cyst full of larval flukes. The larva turns in to a juvenile and works it's way up the body of the and and embeds itself in a nerve cluster near the esophagus (if i remember correctly). Cool things start to happen here. The ant acts normally all day, but when it gets cooler at night it climes up grass stem to the top and holds on all night. When it starts to warm back up he goes about his business as usual. Every night it does it until a cow comes along and eats the grass he's perched on. And it starts all over.

Oh, and i've used a hairworm infested grasshopper once for bait. when i tossed him into the water he exploded and all the hairworms spewed out, not what i was expecting.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3934788900154749704

Pretty accurate if you just replace Germans with insects.

I remember it was suggested a few times to have spacefaring aliens in Vendetta, that kind of float or swim through space (plants, too). It would be interesting if there was a space parasite that could do this thing to ships, attatch itself and take partial control of the ship. It would be more interesting than the hive, anyway, but it would be tough to do. Just a random thought.

I thought those were called "Serco".. ~.^

Ryce, when I get back ingame, you're a dead man.

Not a roach, but freakish just the same:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/dayinpictures?o=12&f=/g/a/2008/01/17/dip.DTL&type=dayinpictures