But when the worm wants to lay eggs, it hijacks the pill bug’s brain, causing the bug to defy its instincts and crawl into bright, sunlit areas. The great brain robberyįor most of its life, a spiny-headed worm uses its nightmarish mouthparts to suck food from a pill bug’s intestines. Soon after, the bee goes belly-up, and the maggots squirm out of its neck to begin turning into adult flies. It bumbles from its hive in a daze-usually at night-and flies toward a light. Eventually, though, they arrive at the bee’s brain and chow down, causing the bee to lose control of its own body.

To keep their meal alive as long as possible, the maggots munch unimportant organs first. The eggs hatch into zombie-like maggots that begin devouring the bee from the inside out. The honeybee is dead at this point-it just doesn’t know it. In the blink of an eye, a tiny, fiendish fly lands on a honeybee, stabs its blade-sharp bottom into the bee’s back, and injects dozens of eggs. For some animals, though, zombies are all too real.

These costumed creatures won’t eat your flesh or hijack your brain-that only happens in scary, made-up movies. This Halloween, you might see make-believe zombies lumbering around seeking tricksand- treats.

Download horsehair worm larvae