The mere mention of parasites can make the skin crawl, and yet these organisms provide some astonishing examples of biology. Take crickets, and their fraught relationship with water. Once infected by parasitic worms, they hurl themselves into water where they can easily drown. This apparent suicide bid enables the worms to reproduce. Toxoplasma parasites make rodents attracted to open spaces and the smell of cats, which, in turn, eat them and help the parasite complete its life cycle. Parasitic wasps turn cockroaches into "zombies" that they drive back to their burrows. The cockroaches act as both home and larder for the wasps' developing young, which devour them from within.
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