Vanderbilt University biologist Ken Catania had heard of fabled kung fu cockroaches that fight off predatory, zombifying wasps with powerful kicks, but no one had ever witnessed the fury… until now.

Catania studies how predators and prey interact in nature, attempting to understand and document the best techniques employed in the animal kingdom.

Rick Grimes has nothing on the humble American cockroach when it comes to avoiding zombification. The cockroach can deliver a stunning karate kick that saves its life, Vanderbilt biologist Ken Catania found. Read more at https://t.co/MCA3dyFYTG#Zombies#Halloweenpic.twitter.com/GoejqrA7xx — Vanderbilt University (@VanderbiltU) October 31, 2018

“The cockroach has a suite of behaviors that it can deploy to fend off the zombie-makers, and this starts out with what I call the 'en garde' position, like in fencing,” Catania said. “It's reminiscent of what a movie character would do when a zombie is coming after them.”

Catania was recently studying how cockroaches defend themselves from the emerald jewel wasp, which attacks its prey using a paralytic sting to the brain before injecting them with eggs, much like the xenomorphs from the Alien movie franchise.

The zombified cockroaches are then eaten from the inside out, once the wasp larvae hatch.

Using ultra-slow-speed videography, Catania managed to document the cockroaches’ self-preserving kicking technique. He found 63 percent of the adult cockroaches that timed their kicks right survived the emerald wasps’ attack - however, juveniles failed almost every time and were stung in the brain.

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“The wasp usually figures out there's a smaller and less defensive cockroach out there to be had,” Catania said of the stinging bugs.

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