The Generation X Files

I have a phobia of bees and wasps…and distant lawnmowers that somehow sound like both!

I’m not afraid of being stung or anything like that. It’s just an instant flight reaction from my brain as soon as it hears a buzz. I’m outta there…with a surprising burst of speed and windmilling arms!

It’s taken a long time but, I’ve managed to retrain my brain to stop over-reacting…well, to bees at least. I can even sit still now while they bumble about their business around me.

I mean what’s not to love about those little, fuzzy fellas? The planet would be pretty screwed without them, I know that much! 🐝❤️

Wasps on the other hand….

It’s said that animals can’t be “evil”. At least, not in the way humans are. Animals function based on survival, not a moral compass.

With that in mind, fellow Citizens, allow me to introduce you to parasitoid wasps. (You can click on that to go to a Wiki page to learn all about them for yourself!)

I’m going to focus on one called the emerald cockroach wasp or jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa)

It’s well-named isn’t it? Such beautiful colours shining like precious jewels!

They’re also known by another name – Zombie Cockroach Wasp. Perhaps a more fitting title when you learn how they reproduce….

It doesn’t just kill its prey – it turns them into a living “zombie puppet” to serve its offspring!

🔬 The “Zombie Process”: Step-by-Gruesome-Step

1. The Two-Part Sting (Precision Surgery):
   • Sting 1: The wasp stings the cockroach in the thorax, temporarily paralyzing its front legs to stop it from fighting back.
   • Sting 2: With incredible precision, the wasp inserts its stinger directly into the cockroach’s brain, targeting specific areas that control escape behaviours.
2. The “Attitude Adjustment”: The venom acts as a neuro-drug, not killing the roach, but blocking its “escape reflex”. The cockroach can still walk and swim, but loses all free will, becoming completely passive.
3. The Leash: The wasp bites off half of the cockroach’s antennae primarily to drink hemolymph. But, also because, it is believed the antenna-less roach is easier to control and to feed on. Then it leads the zombie roach by the remaining antenna stub to a burrow (like a dog on a leash).
4. The Living Nursery: Inside the burrow, the wasp lays a single egg on the base of the cockroach’s leg. She then seals the burrow with pebbles to protect her baby.
5. The Slow Consumption: The larva hatches, burrows into the living cockroach, and feeds on its internal organs over several days. The wasp larva carefully avoids vital organs at first to keep the cockroach alive and “fresh” as long as possible.
6. Emergence: After feeding, the larva pupates inside the hollowed-out carcass and eventually emerges as a fully grown adult wasp, ready to repeat the cycle.

💡 “Fun” Facts!

• Alien Inspiration: The gruesome process is often cited as a real-life inspiration for the “chest-burster” scene in the movie Alien.
• Mind Control Cocktail: The venom contains dopamine (which triggers the excessive grooming/submissiveness) and GABA (which acts as a sedative). Research also indicates high levels of beta-alanine and taurine are involved in the paralysis.
• The “Attitude” Test: If the wasp’s egg is removed from the zombified roach, the roach will eventually regain its “will to live” (escape behaviour) after a few days.

Okay, so strictly speaking, the wasp isn’t actually evil. It’s just following its evolutionary programming. Ensuring its survival as a species by giving its offspring a literal moveable feast!

Still, it’s a little creepy. Cruel even (and I’m no fan of cockroaches!).

The way they are so precise they are able to sting the exact part of the brain that shuts off the cockroach’s free will. How they’ve developed that sting with a venom designed to specifically target the central nervous system.

Keeping the victim alive but unable to resist or escape…

I don’t know why, but it’s making me think of some of the practices used over the years to “correct” our own faulty brain wiring!

Things we find barbaric today like lobotomies, insulin coma therapy, metrazol convulsion therapy and early electroshock therapy without anaesthetic.

And let’s not even get started on the outdated drug treatments for mental illness that worked on the central nervous system. Not so much “treatment” more forms of “chemical restraint”. 

Thankfully, we understand the brain and central nervous system far better nowadays. (Take with a pinch of sarcasm)

We’ve replaced some of those outdated methods and adapted to the modern world. For example, dopamine “hits” can come in many different forms nowadays. From digital to chemical.

It’s quite easy to hijack the brain’s natural reward system. To create cycles of craving and compulsive behaviour. You could (if you were so inclined) even exploit it to keep users engaged with specific products, platforms or activities.

Not that we would be that easily influenced! We are humans after all! We’re far too clever to fall for that! (Another sarcasm sprinkle here please)

Besides, we’re all too busy being frightened in 2026. There’s so many things to be scared of! It would take too long to list them all!

The worst part is how fearful we’ve become of each other. How easily we can be turned against one another. Even manipulated into fighting and killing each other. As if it’s the average citizen’s fault that the world is in the mess it’s in today!

It’s weird but, I can’t help feeling a little like one of those cockroaches. Like I’ve spent a while being manipulated by something…outside my control.

Except…I’ve managed to shake it off somehow. Regain my own free will. Now I’m left shaking my head. Wondering what the f**k just happened as I slowly reclaim my own brain and thoughts!

But that’s ridiculous isn’t it?……isn’t it?

I mean, it’s not like we’re being controlled by parasitic external forces! Nobody is suppressing our free will are they? There’s nothing out there targeting our nervous system to alter its behaviour is there? Is there?

No, that’s just irrational thinking. There’s no reason to think like that!

It’s not as if there might be actual imminent danger that’s threatening us is there? Nah, that’s probably just another groundless fear….like my phobia of the harmless wasp…..

Citizen Jane x ✌

️p.s. What are you afraid of? Let’s have a chat about it in the comments below 👇