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Cordyceps, the fungus behind The Last of Us, is real, and it actually does turn some species of ants into zombie-like creatures. The fungus penetrates the ant’s exoskeleton and begins to multiply. Eventually, the fungal cells take over the ant’s central nervous system. It causes the ant to fall from its primary habitat in the tree canopy to the forest floor. Then the fungus makes the zombified creature climb a tree to an ideal height of almost a foot off the ground. The ant bites onto the plant so forcefully that not even death can dislodge it. When the time is right, the fungus bursts from the ant’s body, scattering spores across the forest floor. And the cycle repeats. CAES News
Public Health Enemy
As antimicrobial resistance grows, the world faces a deadly adversary few predicted: fungus. The battle against pathogenic fungi is raging, and UGA researchers are on the frontlines. “The fungus starts to direct the ant’s behavior, telling it where to go, what to do, like a puppeteer with a marionette. And it gets worse,” Dr. Neuman begins. “The fungus needs food to live, so it begins to devour its host from within, replacing the ant’s flesh with its own. But it doesn’t let its victim die. No, it keeps its puppet alive.”
Kissing Bug Starved and Engorged CAES News
Faculty Award Winner
Kevin Vogel, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award from the National Science Foundation. Supported by the more than $1 million CAREER grant, Vogel and his team will spend the next five years building upon the still-limited body of research regarding the symbiotic relationship between kissing bugs and a highly specified bacterium that resides in their gut.
Refugees 1 CAES News
Refugee Disease Risk
The destruction caused by war is evident both in its toll to human life and its impact on infrastructure. Those who are lucky enough to escape violence face many challenges, from finding a safe place to live to securing employment, but another threat could further jeopardize their ability to survive — an increased risk of illness. 
The tiny Asian longhorned tick (left) compared to the common Lonestar tick. CAES News
Asian Longhorned Tick
As of Sept. 21, an invasive and dangerous pest, the Asian longhorned tick, has been confirmed in north Georgia. Experts are warning livestock producers and the public to be on the lookout, as the ticks can kill an animal by attaching to a host by the hundreds.
Using hypothesis-driven data mining, a UGA research team led by Xiangyu Deng of UGA’s Center for Food Safety analyzed over 30,000 genomes of Salmonella Enteritidis obtained from global sources and the international trade of live poultry over five decades. CAES News
Salmonella Study
Researchers at the University of Georgia have provided multifaceted evidence to suggest the likely origins behind the global spread of Salmonella Enteritidis, which has caused recurring outbreaks of the foodborne pandemic linked to poultry products.
Cows photo by Andrew Tucker CAES News
Salmonella in cattle
Growing resistance to our go-to antibiotics is one of the biggest threats the world faces. As common bacteria like strep and salmonella become resistant to medications, what used to be easily treatable infections can now pose difficult medical challenges.
The Asian longhorned tick, an invasive tick species recently identified in several Eastern U.S. states, has been documented as far south as North Carolina. CAES News
Tick Smart
Georgia is already home to 22 species of ticks, but there may be another tiny bloodsucker hiding in the woods on your next hike.
Pesticide use is critical in controlling pests like thrips, whiteflies, aphids and beet armyworms. CAES News
Pesticide Training Changes
The way UGA Extension offers trainings, exams and continuing education classes for pesticide applicators’ license renewals will change in the coming months. This change will ensure that UGA Extension can continue to provide pesticide safety education throughout the state, while staying in line with changes mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
As part of the LepNet project, Joe McHugh, professor of entomology at the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and curator of the arthropod collection at the Georgia Museum of Natural History, will help lead the effort to digitize millions of butterfly and moth specimens now locked away in museum collections across the nation. CAES News
Museum Collection Digitized
Locked in museums across the world, millions of insect specimens tell the story of the world’s climatic shifts, animals on the move and changing fauna.