A new study by Japanese researchers has come up with interesting results showing the wasps turn spiders into workaholic zombies. The study showed that a wasp, which lays its egg on the back of a spider, is blessed with the ability of gaining control over the spider’s behavior.

The researchers said it makes it target spider a slave to build a cozy cocoon for its wasp offspring. The spider dies after building the nursery for its ungrateful parasitic host. The ever-growing larvae suck all lifeblood from its body.

Andy Austin from Adelaide University's Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity says you can compare it to the Alien movies but on a miniature scale.

The Kobe University study has been published in The Journal of Experimental Biology. Professor Austin, an expert in the parasitic lifestyles of insects, said the study highlights host manipulation. Austin added that such a behavior is very common in wasps as this is their modus operandi.

“The spider normally builds a retreat for itself to hide in when it is moulting and vulnerable but here the spider is building the retreat when the wasp wants it, not when the spider is moulting and needs it”, said Austin.

For the study, the researchers chose the Reclinervellus nielseni wasp to see how it used and abused the Cyclosa argenteoalba spider. They saw that the wasp took control of its mind and body, forcing it to make the nursery and become the pantry for infant wasp.