Ear drums

[adambot]

i always thought they attached to the ear drum and controlled the hosts via manipulations to the ear drum - sending specific waves so that it would create electical impulses that acted like a buffer overrun/sql injection on a computer

[Current]

It'd be an interesting idea, but it's pretty well established that they enter the brain.

[Sorunome]

Book 13 (I think)

Spoiler:

One of the hork bajirs sliced open his head and you could see his brain to let the animorphs see that they aren't controllers.

[Tim Bruening]

Book 13 (I think)

Spoiler:

One of the hork bajirs sliced open his head and you could see his brain to let the animorphs see that they aren't controllers.

Did the Hork Bajir live?

[Current]

Yes. They are a resilient species.

[Sassy_Cat]

impossibly resilient if you ask me. Doing anything like so as any normal creature would have all those vital fluids spill out before you even got to the brain. Either these guys have no blood, or someone's fooling with me.
Possibly both.

[Sorunome]

Maybe that's why they are not so intelligent, they don't have enough body fluids.

[momma1986]

This used to bother me a lot when I was younger, I mean, even a kid knows that we have eardrums in there (hello ear infections?). But maybe they have some sort of magical ear drum healing mucus they secrete or something? lol

[Menno]

impossibly resilient if you ask me. Doing anything like so as any normal creature would have all those vital fluids spill out before you even got to the brain. Either these guys have no blood, or someone's fooling with me.
Possibly both.

I don't find it very difficult to imagine a species in which the blood vessels contract shut when severed in order to reduce the outflow of blood. I mean, human blood automatically clots when we get cut, so wouldn't that just be taking it one logical step further? Besides, since the hork-bajir were created by the arn to be a not-so-bright species covered in blades and living in trees hundreds of feet tall, it makes sense that the arn would have made them particularly resistant to injury. The only problem I have with it, is that there are so many instances in the series when the Animorphs easily take out hork-bajir with just one swipe of a paw. The resilience of hork-bajir seems rather inconsistent throughout the series.

But as far as the yeerks entering through the eardurm, my understanding is that they can squish and stretch their bodies to pass through spaces even a hair's width. Is the eardrum firmly attached to the inner ear on its entire circumference? I don't know, but if so, I would guess that the yeerks pass through the eardrum via an osmosis-like process. Really, with the insane sh*t that so many REAL parasites do (look up Guinea worm, tongue-eating louse, horsehair worm), is it really so farfetch'd to imagine a parasite that can pass the eardrum?

[loosonghan]

It's definitely a KASU. Although it seems totally absurd that the Yeerks can enter into the brain through the ear, without penetrating the ear drum.

Can't be.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1876

for people who did not, cannot or will not go to the website above, capnnerefir explains

While the ear drum may, in fact, be in the way, it is an established fact within the universe of the series that Yeerks can, in fact, enter your brain that way. This is consistent throughout the series and in no way conflicts with other facts of the series, nor is it ever contradicted by something in-universe.

So There