If you’ve never met the emerald jewel wasp, let me introduce you to my little friend.

The wasp (Ampulex compressa) lives the first stage of its life as a parasite, growing inside the body of a living cockroach. That’s absorbingly horrific on its own, but how it gets into the cockroach in the first place is an especially gruesome delight. Its mother has to play neurosurgeon.

A female wasp seeks out a cockroach host and ambushes it. She inserts her stinger into its thorax and delivers a paralyzing shot of venom that immobilizes the insect for a few minutes. She pulls her stinger out and then delivers a second injection. This one goes into the cockroach’s head, delivering more chemicals to two