The Zombie Wasp's Link to Parkinson's Research

By Olivia Barney

Somewhere in the world right now, a tiny insect stings its victim, envenomating it with a multi-component cocktail that turns it into a pliable, persuadable puppet. Headlines reporting this phenomenon cast zombie-brain-control accusations and evoke images from the best Halloween horror flicks — but what if those fearsome comparisons are misplaced?

Lenny Worthington

This isn’t fiction. It’s the story of the emerald jewel wasp, a devoted mom striving to care for her young. 

Also known as the emerald cockroach wasp (Ampulex compressa), this slender, brightly colored animal is mesmerizing in all its metallic glory. Sure, it’s only about an inch in size, but its venom packs a real (and likely deadly) punch.

The jewel wasp is just one of the stars of Bug World, NHMU’s current special exhibition, which runs through September 7, 2026. The species wasn’t included in the exhibit simply because it’s pretty, though it certainly is a beautiful thing to behold. Rather, it was chosen to highlight the wasp’s unique hunting methods and the promising research potential surrounding its venom. In fact, the wasp is so impressive that it’s been chosen as this year’s BugFest mascot — something we’re buzzing with excitement about.

The Venom That Rewrites Behavior

Imagine, for just a moment, that you are an emerald jewel wasp. You’re preparing an underground burrow ahead of laying an egg, but you need to stock it with nutrients to help your offspring grow. Fortunately, you have an evolutionary superpower — all you need is a cockroach.

The hunt begins with a precise sting to a group of neuron cells (ganglia) in the cockroach's thorax. This attack is strategic, causing a temporary paralysis in the cockroach's front legs. With this sudden limit in mobility, the jewel wasp moves in for its second attack, another exact sting — this one to the cockroach’s brain.

Jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) with cockroach cadaver. Wilhelma zoo, Stuttgart, Germany PJT56 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

The second sting causes the so-called mind control you often read about in association with this species. Jewel wasp venom has been perfectly developed to affect the brain chemistry of cockroaches. (Imagine someone creating a medication that would only work on you — a bit like the compatibility of a lock and key.) The wasp and cockroach have co-evolved for millions of years, and the wasp is a parasitoid uniquely attuned to the cockroach.

As venom enters the cockroach’s nervous system, it triggers a flood of dopamine. This rush sends the cockroach into a grooming frenzy, a chemical high that only lasts a few minutes, giving the wasp time to finish preparing her burrow. What follows next is the zombie-like hypokinesia you’ve probably heard of — caused by a sudden lack of dopamine signaling in the brain. As a result, the cockroach seems to lose the ability or desire to move, allowing the wasp to simply grab the cockroach by the antennae and walk it (like a dog on a leash) to the burrow.

Once inside, the mother wasp lays her egg on the cockroach’s leg, seals the burrow, and trusts that when her offspring hatches, it will have fresh food available in its first few days of life. Importantly, the wasp’s venom isn’t lethal or necrotic — meaning that while in its venom-induced trance, the cockroach remains perfectly fine, ensuring the wasp larva has access to healthy food.

Why Neuroscientists Are Studying Jewel Wasp Venom

Jewel wasp venom is a key that only works on the cockroaches it preys upon. Other people and pets don’t have to worry about becoming zombified. But if the venom isn’t a danger to anything other than the cockroach, why are medical researchers studying how it works? Put simply, it’s giving us a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Michael Adams is one of the leading researchers on this connection. He’s both an entomologist and neuroscientist, operating out of the Adams Lab at the University of California, Riverside. Adams has spent his entire career interested in the effects of venom — originally focusing his research on spiders. However, his focus shifted about twenty-five years ago when another researcher, Dr. Frederic Libersat invited Adams to his lab in Israel, where Libersat’s team was investigating the jewel wasp.

Since then, Adams has been hooked, researching how the venom is produced inside the wasp, how it changes the brain function of the cockroach, and what the venom itself is composed of.

When the envenomated cockroach enters a state of hypokinesia, it has limited motor functions. The insect can move, like when it’s guided to the wasp’s burrow, but the venom changes a specific set of behaviors, altering the locomotive functions that would normally enable escape. This state of hypokinesia is temporary. If an egg doesn’t hatch in the burrow, or if the egg deposit is prevented altogether, the cockroach will regain full function of its body after 5-7 days.

Jewel wasp (ampulex compressa) stinging cockroach. UCR, Adams Lab

Ongoing research suggests that this hypokinesia state is related to a lack of dopamine signaling in the brain, similar to the deficit of dopamine seen in Parkinson’s patients. Understanding how dopamine affects the nervous system of other animals, like an envenomated cockroach, could help medical researchers gain a greater understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

“This deficit of dopamine signaling in the envenomated cockroach brain is sort of analogous to the deficit in dopamine signaling that occurs in Parkinson's patients,” Adams said. “In both cases, one has a reduction in the ability to locomote, which has to do with failure of normal dopamine signaling.” Yet, Adams clarified that there is an important difference in why that chemical signaling has failed. “In the case of a Parkinson's patient, it's a consequence of dopamine neurons dying — so the source of dopamine itself is reduced. In the case of this parasitoid host interaction, we think it has more to do with the receptor response being compromised.”

Put simply, in Parkinson’s patients, the cells that normally produce dopamine die, leading to an overall deficit. In a stung cockroach, however, dopamine is produced, but it is temporarily “unrecognizable” to the brain.

Nature Still Has Secrets to Share

Though this research pathway might not lead to an imminent treatment for Parkinson’s, it does provide valuable knowledge about how dopamine affects locomotive function in living things. “Insects are historically models for general biological phenomena,” Adams said, reminding us that basic cellular processes are similar across most animals. “If you talk about heart disease, the immune system, or how the nervous system works, there are a lot of common features.”

Though there’s always the hope that this type of understanding will lead to breakthrough treatments or benefits for human health, Adams’ research will continue, regardless of that. “We always hope that an unanticipated discovery will give us that kind of [benefit],” he said. “But it's hard to predict that. Still, people are interested in stars and the universe just because we want to understand them. [Biologists] get a lot of satisfaction out of investigating basic biological principles, just for the sake of understanding how organisms function.”

A large model of an emerald jewel wasp in NHMU's special exhibition, Bug World.

Adams and his team will continue to explore the components that make jewel wasp venom so unique, improving our understanding of this fascinating insect. Meanwhile, you can see this remarkably beautiful creature up close in NHMU’s Bug World exhibition. Thanks to the brilliant minds at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Wētā Workshop, the special effects masters behind The Lord of the Rings and Avatar, Bug World offers you the opportunity to become bug sized, exploring the fascinating and often overlooked abilities of insects that are inspiring technology, medicine, and art around the world.

Bug World will remain at the Natural History Museum of Utah through September 7, 2026, before fluttering off to its next location. Don’t miss your opportunity to see this one-of-a-kind exhibition while it’s here in Salt Lake City — prebook your tickets here!