Israeli tanks penetrate the centre of Rafah and air attacks persist across the city despite global calls to end the carnage.

 There's a deadly sexually transmitted disease that turns cicadas into "zombies" -- and it's already been detected in parts of the Midwest, experts said.

It's a real problem that “is even stranger than science fiction,” University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley said. “This is a sexually transmitted zombie diseaseFungus that turns cicadas into ‘zombies' detected in Midwest: ReportThe fungal parasite is called Massospora cicadina and it targets periodical cicadas in particular.

"It turns infected cicadas into “zombie insects” that disperse more fungus by causing males infected with Stage I to produce wing-flick signals as if they were females– making them highly attractive to cicadas of both sexes," according to the University of Connecticut.

The white fungus takes over the male, their gonads are torn from their body and chalky spores are spread around to nearby other cicadas, Cooley said. The insects are sterilized, not killed. This way the fungus uses the cicadas to spread to others.

“They're completely at the mercy of the fungus,” Cooley said. “They're walking dead.”.”