The venomous worm can also disrupt air traffic – Leaps onto its victim and kills it

In air traffic there are many kinds of disorder. Sometimes a pelican flies into a turbine or the seat covers have been washed incorrectly.

The fly has it worse. When flying low, a poisonous nematode can electromagnetically latch onto the rudder, and then the fly’s vacation plans are ruined.

Pnas Publication of the American Academy of Sciences presents perplexing finding. There is a nematode that actually can defect to a flying fly and kill it with poison. In addition, the worm seeks out its victim with electricity.

Our story the saboteur is called a little luikero Steinernema carpocapsaesmall nematode in Finnish. These worms, only a millimeter long, are used in biological control. They effectively kill pests.

A predatory worm stretches itself upright and sniffs to see if a suitable victim is passing by. Now it was proven that the static electric field absorbs it to its victim like a magnet.

The test used a banana fly. When a fly flies, the vibration of its wings creates a weak electric field around the fly. The nematode is so small and light that when the worm itself first pops into the air, the electric field of the fly is enough to attract it for the rest of the journey.

It’s about frictional electricity, familiar even in everyday life. If you rub the balloon against a sweater, for example, the balloon charges up and attracts hair and small debris. It has been proven in the past that also ticks can pop out clinging to their victim’s hair, attracted by the static charge.

Fresh in the study, a small wire was attached to a dead banana fly, and an electric field corresponding to the natural one was applied to it.

Time after time, the little worms jumped onto the fly. This did not happen if the electric field was switched off. The worm’s jump was broken like a chicken’s flight.

A worm less than a millimeter in length can jump to a fly flying at a height of a couple of centimetres. Relative to the size, it’s a bit like if a person jumped onto the roof of an apartment building. Once aboard, the worm spreads bacteria that kill the fly in a couple of days.

They say, whoever reaches for the fir, will sprout for the juniper.

So the name of the worm was Carpocapsae When this Carpo has something to do, it snaps at the fly, and the fly snaps.