1. Nature has a way of really touching you inside It's a lesson everyone must learn 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 when you learn the ways of symbiotic parasites You'll see that independence is a bore
Toxoplasma gondii is a microscopic bug Who carries all 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 But not detect the prowling feline's smell
In fact it makes the mouse become attracted to the cat It doesn't show the slightest sign of fright For toxoplasma seems to know presicely where it's at It is a truly cunning parasite
The cat then turns the mouse into a ghost And toxoplasma joins its natural host
CHORUS: Now you are living as a parasite Ain't it easy living as a parasite You can make a living on another's life When you are living as a parasite
2. 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 his way back to her
The fluke infested feces will be eaten by a snail Who turns the chewing larva to a cyst Excreted by the mollusk in a slimy yellow trail But the snail is only first on this fluke's list
The adolescent liver fluke is eaten by an ant And lives awhile an independent worm But then it does peculiar things that other insects can't It infiltrates a group of the ant's nerves
The ant then spends his daily life as normal as before Working in the colony all day But every night the parasite residing at his core Manipulates him in the stangest ways
By the moon the ant will climb the tallest blade of grass And sink his mandibles into the tip And there he will be paralyzed until the night is passed Then back into the colony he'll slip
And this will happen every single night Until a grazing cow will come to bite
Now you are living as a parasite Ain't it easy living when you're out of site Feeding off of others when they take a bite Now you are living as a parasite
The ampulex compressa or 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 the wasp to have a nesting place to lay her egg The roach mustn't respond to any pain
The venom doesn't kill the roach but incapacitates The nerves which tell its body to retreat And since the wasp has killed the roach's instinct to escape She takes the roach antenna as a leash
She leads it to her burrow and 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 stays alive another week until the worm Can spin its own cocoon and climb inside And in about a month the larval 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 Symbiotic living is a natural right When you are living as a parasite