Zombie virus that makes caterpillars explode

Quote

 

British caterpillars are being killed by a rare 'zombie' virus that makes them climb to the tops of trees before EXPLODING in a shower of infectious goo 'like in a horror film'

    The 'baculovirus' takes over the brains of caterpillars to make them climb plants
    Normally the caterpillars hide from sunlight to protect themselves from birds
    Once at the top of a plant the insects' bodies liquefy and eventually burst
    This helps to spread the highly infectious virus to other insects
    While the virus has been seen in the UK before it is extremely rare

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4752950/British-caterpillars-killed-zombie-virus.html#ixzz4oePRFgFH

 

So can we make this infect humans?

41 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

So can we make this infect humans?

lick an exploded one and we shall see 

38 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

So can we make this infect humans?

There's a really good fiction book, about a guy using 3 different viruses including a Caterpillar one like that one to lower the human population.

I've read before it makes them climb to better spread the virus further across an area. Its been called a type of natural population control amongst insects.  

17 minutes ago, seeder said:

 

lick an exploded one and we shall see 

 

Do you know how bad I could twist those words.

Lol knew someone would be tempted to make a comment after Seeder said that

55 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Do you know how bad I could twist those words.

I'll behave and instead say about another fungus. Cordyceps fungus is another insect one but, instead of turning them to goo it causes a fungal stem thing to grow from the insects head. Once its grown it explodes releasing fungal spores everywhere.

Kind of a 'last of us' zombie apocalypse.

I had heard once that butterfly populations wax and wane do to heavy parasite loads, that when they get too numerous things like this reduce their numbers. Supposedly this also happens with the parasitic fungi in the tropics which keep various insect specie's populations from exploding. 

5 minutes ago, Sundew said:

I had heard once that butterfly populations wax and wane do to heavy parasite loads, that when they get too numerous things like this reduce their numbers. Supposedly this also happens with the parasitic fungi in the tropics which keep various insect specie's populations from exploding. 

Nice word play, mate.

On 02/08/2017 at 7:26 PM, XenoFish said:

So can we make this infect humans?

I dont think the public beach would be a very hospitable place to visit if this were to happen all of a sudden.

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 9:26 PM, XenoFish said:

So can we make this infect humans?

I'm sure some country is working on that right now.  Or maybe a Pharma company.  They'll release the virus after they have a vaccine.

Its the beginning of the end....for butterflies, they're acting out their own 'walking dead' as we speak. I wonder who is Rick?...

Hmm seems odd, since this is naturally occurring, I suppose there is resistance to these diseases?

There are fungus that do this but to ants

On 03/08/2017 at 3:07 AM, seeder said:

 

lick an exploded one and we shall see 

 

The last caterpillar I liked tasted like a butterfly before its done

On 8/3/2017 at 4:24 AM, XenoFish said:

Kind of a 'last of us' zombie apocalypse.

Well more of a "day of the Triffids"