To Starve a Fleaver Summary . Counselor Nice Housenik , ambassador from Marpaplu , beams up to the " Enterprise " to complete negotiations with Captain Kirk . Kirk leads the counselor on a tour of the bridge , and when Housenik asks about the controls on his command chair , Kirk starts a fit of uncontrolled laughter , and begins scratching himself . McCoy , Uhura and the others on the bridge follow suit , as does Scotty ( who beamed Housenik aboard ) and – eventually – most of the crew , save Spock . When McCoy leads the counselor to sickbay to examine him , he discovers hundreds of microscopic bugs on both the counselor ' s and his own skin . When shown the bugs , Housenik claims " " they ' re only meegees " " , presuming everyone has a colony of the bugs on their person . When Spock relates that the opposite is normally true , and that meegees seem to be native only to Marpaplu , the counselor apologizes profusely and explains that they have a symbiotic relationship with the bugs , who feed on the happy thoughts and pleasant emotions of their hosts . They have had to come to this arrangement because the meegees cannot be destroyed without seriously damaging their host . Suddenly , a frustrated Scotty enters sickbay to complain that his whole engineering crew has succumbed to the meegee attack , leaving them unable to tend his beloved engines . The situation has left Scotty severely depressed , even to the point of tears . When McCoy notices that Scotty isn ' t laughing or scratching , he takes a skin sample from the chief engineer , only to discover the meegees on Scotty ' s body are dead . McCoy theorizes that strong " negative " emotions – such as Scotty ' s frustration and sadness – can starve the meegees to death . Kirk makes a ship - wide announcement ordering the crew to think such sad thoughts so as to kill off the infestation . This leads Kirk to comment to McCoy that such an announcement was " the saddest order I ' ve ever had to give " , thus leading both officers to a depressed state . This quickly kills off the meegees , who are not used to such a concentration of negative emotions . Even Counselor Housenik ' s own colony of meegees seems to have died off . Eager to return to Marpaplu to regain a thriving colony of the bugs , Housnik asks if they can still complete the membership process . Kirk says they can , as long as a provision is put in place that Marpaplu be temporarily quarantined until a method is found to prevent the spread of meegees from the planet . Back on the bridge , McCoy comments that Spock seemingly did not succumb to the meegee attack – he didn ' t laugh or scratch at any time that he noticed . However , Uhura then comments that she heard Spock giggle earlier . When McCoy prods the Vulcan into giggling again , Spock claims he has never giggled and goes back to work , pushing the rest of the crew on the bridge into their own meegee - less bouts of giggles and laughter . Memorable quotes . " " Humanoid alright , Cap ' n , but they ' re not verra big . I ' ve got a ten - year - old cousin about that size . . . " " " " I am charmed beyond words , Uhura - she . " " " " Me too ! " " " " C ' mon , Spock ! Giggle for us again ! " " " " Doctor McCoy , I do not , will not , and never have giggled . And now , if Lt . Uhura has had her fun , I have important work to attend to . " "