Parasites

Nature has a way of really touching you inside
It's a lesson everyone must learn
It ain't no use to try to run away or try to hide
Everyone must finally take a turn

You may be a person who believes it is your right
To be free and independent to the core
But once you learn the ways of these exotic parasites
You'll see that independence is a bore

Toxoplasma gondii is a microscopic bug
Who carries on its genius in its genes
It may be on your fingers or the fibers of your rug
But to this bug there's more than it may seem

When toxoplasma gets inside the system of a mouse
It doesn't make him feel that he's unwell
It gives the mouse the energy to run around the house
And not detect the prowling feline smell

In fact, it makes the mouse become attracted to the cat
He doesn't show a single sign of fright
For toxoplasma seems to know precisely where it's at
It is a very cunning parasite

The cat then turns the mouse into a ghost
And toxoplasma joins its natural host
The cat

Now you are living as a parasite
Ain't it easy living as a parasite?
You can make a living off another's life
When you are living as a parasite

The lancet liver fluke lives in the liver of a cow
And lays its eggs inside the cow's manure
And there it starts an odyssey which somehow will allow
This tiny worm to work its way back to her

The fluke-infested feces is then eaten by a snail
Who turns the larva worm into a cyst
Excreted by the mollusk in a slimy yellow trail
But the snail is only first on this fluke's list

The adolescent fluke worm is then eaten by an ant
And it lives a while an independent worm
But then it does a special thing that other insects can't
It infiltrates a group of the ant's nerves

The ant then spends its daily life as normal as before
Working in the colony all day
But every night the parasite residing in its core
Manipulates it in the strangest ways

By the moon, the ant will climb the tallest blade of grass
And sink its mandibles into the tip
And there he will be paralyzed until the night has passed
When back into the colony he'll slip

And this will happen every single night
Until a chewing cow will come to bite

Now you are living as a parasite
Ain't it easy living as a parasite?
You can make a living off another's life
When you are living as a parasite

The ampulex compressa, or the emerald cockroach wasp
Is famous for her reproductive ways
For when she has a common household cockroach in her grasp
She sinks her stinger twice into her prey

The first attack will paralyze the roach's frontal legs
The second one goes straight into its brain
For if the wasp's to have a nesting place to lay her eggs
The roach mustn't respond to any pain

The venom doesn't kill the roach, but incapacitates
The nerves that tell his body to retreat
And since the wasp has killed the roach's instinct to escape
She takes a roach antenna as a leash

She leads it to her burrow, she climbs upon the roach
And lays an egg upon its abdomen
The larva chews its way into its docile, captive host
And feasts upon the organs there within

The roach will stay alive another week until the worm
Can spin its own cocoon and climb inside
And in about a month the larva worm has finally turned
Into a wasp who leaves its host and flies

And so the natural cycle is complete
So who says reproduction isn't sweet?

Now you are living as a parasite
Ain't it easy living as a parasite?
You can make a living off another's life
When you are living as a parasite

Now you are living as a parasite
Ain't it easy living as a parasite?
You can make a living off another's life
When you are living as a parasite