Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/horse-hair-worms-in-dead-praying-mantis/

There is a lot to see in the natural world. While there is plenty of beauty to behold within nature, there is also a whole world of bizarre to experience. And some stuff related to nature is very eerily reminiscent of things you’d find inside a horror film. One great example is that of the current video making the viral rounds online.

The strange scene plays out like a real-life horror movie as a dead praying mantis’s body springs forth a collection of alien-looking tentacles! The odd video was then posted to Reddit where it went viral within the first day. As can be imagined, there was a lot of attention paid to this real-life curiosity, and it quickly accumulated more than 1.7K comments from Redditors.

The clip in question starts with a man who is poking the dead insect with a small knife before cutting into the abdomen. The already-weird autopsy then takes a sinister turn when two tentacles begin their materialization from within the mantis. When uploaded to Reddit, the video’s caption made the reference to “Men in Black.” And there were many other comments from viewers who echoed this reaction.

However, there were also a fair number of people who asked the question, why didn’t the person filming do something about the alien tentacles – i.e., why wasn’t fire involved?

One person wrote, “I don’t see a proper amount of fire in this video.” This prompted a second person to add to the statement saying, “WHY IS IT NOT ON FIRE?!?!” And after watching the video, it’s very easy to understand the primal desire for fire in this instance.

It’s a very unsettling thing to view, as someone else stated that he’s a “grown-a** man” but the video still managed to creep him out. He shared that hardly anything scares him, but if he had witnessed that video in real life, he would’ve easily been scared out of his mind. Someone else made the joke that the video was an accurate portrayal of the year that 2020 has been – not that we’d argue against that logic.

But perhaps the one thing that everyone was curious to know, was what were the strange things growing out of the dead insect’s abdomen? As it turned out, the most popular comment on the video was the explanation for this strange phenomenon. It turns out that they’re nothing extraterrestrial, but rather they’re what are called horsehair worms. They’re a pretty common species of parasites that occur in insects. The reason that they appear to be bursting out of the dead praying mantis is that they’re on a mission to find a new host. These tiny parasites can grow to be 2-4 inches long. They normally attach themselves to insect hosts, but if you don’t want to have the misfortune of encountering them then it’s best to stay away from damp areas – good to know!

Check out the disturbing worm video in the clip below:

We’re all doomed. 😳💀 pic.twitter.com/ZIUnPNfHq9

— Fred Schultz (@fred035schultz) November 23, 2020

What do you think? Let us know!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog