Jeweled, Lovely, and Deadly

When you are sitting in an African desert, hundreds of miles between jungle and coastline, the world becomes a blend of browns and greys. Greetings Everyday Spy, When you are sitting in an African desert, hundreds of miles between jungle and coastline, the world becomes a blend of browns and greys. We used to jokingly call it the ‘scab of the world.’ Slightly better than other places, worse than many places, but always irritating. One night, as I was sitting there debating whether to deal with hunger pains or muck down a piece of sandy goat meat, an absolutely beautiful insect appeared from out of nowhere. The gold, green, and blue sheen was impossible to ignore against the desert expanse - even though the intruder was barely as long as a quarter. I must have perked up noticeably because the locals camped out with me laughed and pointed at me. They started using words I never heard before - talking and laughing louder. Then they said a word I did recognize… ‘cockroach.’ At first, I thought they were calling me a ‘cockroach’ - thinking I was hungry enough to eat a strange bug (trust me, I wasn’t… but I was close). Then I thought they were calling the shining, beautiful bug a cockroach. If it was, it was the prettiest roach I’d ever seen! It wasn’t until weeks later, back in a first-world hotel mending my digestive system back to health, that I remembered the bug and jumped into the internet to learn more. The insect I saw that night - the same one you see pictured above - was an Ampulex Compressa (aka: The Jeweled Cockroach Wasp). Far from the typical wasp I grew up with in Pennsylvania, this pretty little thing was a skilled hunter with a brutal mission. The Jeweled Cockroach Wasp hunts roaches to poison their brain, zombify them, and then hatch an egg into the brain-dead roach, turning them into a living buffet for the baby. One egg per zombified, braid-dead roach. That is the pattern for the wasp, hunting and snaring a roach every day for hundreds of days until all the wasp’s fertilized eggs have their own live smorgasbord. It is easy to get lost in your own trials and discomfort when missions get hard. I was far from my happy, jovial self many nights in the bush. But meeting and learning about this nasty, bedazzled little hunter reminded me of a profound truth that carried with me many missions afterward: There is an incredible advantage when you stay sharp in the face of adversity - your competition can even be turned to your aid. The Jeweled Cockroach Wasp takes a roach more than 6x its size and weight and transforms it into a willing slave to the wasp’s offspring. That is the lethal power of keeping your wits and wits-end. Godspeed, #EverydaySpy P.S. - [If you want to go deep into how spies protect themselves and stop bad guys, don’t miss Shadow Lessons, the only digital platform where you can learn first-hand from elite intel operators from around the world!]( Follow @EverydaySpy on Social Media! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Andrew Bustamante, Founder of EverydaySpy.com, is a former covert CIA Intelligence officer, decorated US Air Force Combat Veteran, and respected Fortune 500 senior advisor. Learn more from Andrew on his Podcast (The Everyday Espionage Podcast) and by following @EverydaySpy on your favorite social media platform. This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe]( EverydaySpy, 411 Walnut St. #20309, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043