1Polydnavirus
There are parasitic wasps that produce viruses and inject the viruses into caterpillars along with their eggs. The Polydnavirus suppresses the caterpillar’s immune system, protecting the wasp eggs.
2. Screwworms were last seen in USA in the 1970s and had been considered eradicated. If it returned, its effect could be catastrophic to wildlife and livestock. In 2016, however, this parasite made reappearance, with first signs that seemed baffling. Infected deer were stumbling around in confusion, howling in pain, found with their heads hideously disfigured as if eaten alive.
3. Freshwater snails are one of the world's most deadly animals because they transmit a worm that causes schistosomiasis (aka bilharzia), which is, in and of itself is one of the most deadly parasites on the planet. Nearly 230 million people were infected by it in 2014 and there are approximately 200,000 deaths annually caused by it.
4. Male menstruation was considered a normal part of growing up in 20th century Egyptian culture but was actually due to an endemic parasitic bladder infection from schistosomes causing bloody urine.
5. In 1993, an outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis in a water treatment facility in southern Milwaukee caused what would be the largest waterborne epidemic in US history, making 403,000 people ill and killing 104 people, many of which had compromised immune systems (such as AIDS patients). Cryptosporidiosis is a parasite whose infection causes diarrhea.
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6Trichobilharzia Regent
There is an extremely itchy kind of rash called ‘Swimmer's Itch,’ which humans can experience after swimming or fishing in lakes. It is caused by a very minuscule flatworm parasite (Trichobilharzia Regent) that tries to burrow into human skin. It finally dies in the skin after being entrapped by immune response, which causes the rash.
7. There is one particular species of tick named ‘Lone Star Tick’ that can cause permanent red meat allergies when it bites a human.
8. California condor louse exclusively parasitized the California condor. During efforts to save the condor from extinction, it became extinct itself due to all condors being deloused. This led to major debates about the ethics of saving one species from extinction by killing another.
9. Helminthic therapy is an experimental form of immunotherapy in which a patient is deliberately infested with specific parasitic intestinal nematodes (worms). This form of therapy aims to treat immune-mediated diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and multiple sclerosis by mitigating or alleviating immune responses via the infection.
10. There is a species of parasitic nematode (Myrmeconema Neotropicum) that induces "fruit-mimicry" in tropical ants. Infected ants develop bright red abdomens, tend to be more sluggish, and walk with their abdomens in a conspicuous elevated position. This causes birds seeking fruits to confuse them for berries.
11Plasmodium Falciparum
Plasmodium Falciparum is the parasite which causes malaria in humans. It first infests your liver. It can stay there for months on end developing without symptoms. Afterward, they infect red blood cells and cover themselves with the cell membranes to protect themselves from the body's immune system.
12. There is a parasite that "zombifies" snails and forces them to march to their death to the tops of trees to be eaten by birds so that the parasite can spread via bird droppings.
13. One of the most common causes of seizures worldwide in humans is neurocysticercosis. It is an infectious parasitic disease acquired by ingesting the pig tapeworm, which causes cysts to form after the infection takes hold within the brain.
14. There is a parasitic wasp than infects and then biochemically mind-controls some spiders turning them into zombie architects. The wasp then dictates the spider to build a cozy web and then pops out of its body.
15. The Toxoplasmosis Gondii parasite causes the infected mice to not fear cats because it needs a cat's body as its host to reproduce.
16Ribeiroia Worm
The Ribeiroia worm infects, grows and reproduces inside the snails, which it castrates so that they don’t waste time on making eggs or looking for a mate. Then it moves to a tadpole and causes the frog to develop extra legs, making it more susceptible to birds of prey. Finally, when it is inside a bird, it lays its eggs.
17. There is a wasp named after Shakira called "Aleiodes Shakirae." Since parasitism by this species causes the host caterpillar to bend and twist its abdomen in various ways, and Shakira is also famous for her belly-dancing, the name seems particularly appropriate for this species.
18. To protect themselves from parasitic wasps, fruit flies seek out food with higher alcohol content. One of their most dangerous predators, parasitic wasps inject eggs into fruit fly larva. Larva’s immune system can sometimes resist the wasp growing inside it, but most often the wasp larva eats the fly from the inside out, later bursting out as a mature wasp.
19. Balamuthia Mandrillaris is one of the deadliest parasites in the world. This amoeba lives in soil and enters the human body through open wounds or the respiratory system. Less than 2% of the people it has infected have survived.
20. Honey bees can have a parasite living in their windpipes called tracheal mites. They are relatives of spiders and are so tiny they are less than seven ten-thousandths of an inch. These Acarapis Woodi mites can pierce the bee’s tracheal tube wall, feed on its blood (hemolymph) and weaken it.
21Nosema Bombi
There is a parasite named ‘Nosema Bombi’ which makes male bumblebees too fat to mate. It is one of the reasons bumblebees are dying out.
22. There is nematomorph parasite named ‘Paragordius Tricuspidatus’ which infects crickets but it also needs an aquatic habitat to survive. To achieve this, the parasite infects the cricket’s brain and causes it to seek water and drown itself.
23. There is a parasite named ‘Diplostomum Pseudospathaceum’ that can live inside the eyeball of a fish and control its behavior. When the parasite is young, it helps its host stay safe from predators. But once it matures, it does everything it can to make the fish easy to catch and continue its life cycle.
24. Moose can fall victim to a parasite commonly called a brain worm. In the advanced stages of the parasitic illness, the moose will walk in circles until full paralysis sets in. This brain worm named, Parelaphostrongylus Tenuis, can also infect reindeers, deer, sheep, goats, and guinea pigs.
25. Mosquitoes have parasites of their own. Culicoides Anophelis is a flying midge that sucks blood from mosquitoes.
