Our parasites manipulate the behavior of their hosts, sometimes by direct brain hijacking

Our parasites elegantly achieve this by manipulating their host's behavior, sometimes through direct brain hijacking. For example, this is the Gordian worm.One of its hosts, this cricket. The Gordian worm needs water to mate, but the cricket prefers dry land. So once it's big enough to reproduce, the worm produces proteins that garble the cricket's navigational system. The confused cricket jumps around erratically, moves closer to water, and eventually leaps in, often drowning in the process.