Six-Legged Soldiers Using Insects as Weapons of War

by Lockwood, Jeffrey A.

• ISBN13: 9780195333053
• ISBN10: 0195333055
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The emir of Bukhara used assassin bugs to eat away the flesh of his prisoners. General Ishii Shiro during World War II released hundreds of millions of infected insects across China, ultimately causing more deaths than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. These are just two of many startlingexamples found in Six-legged Soldiers, a brilliant portrait of the many weirdly creative, truly frightening, and ultimately powerful ways in which insects have been used as weapons of war, terror, and torture. Beginning in prehistoric times and building toward a near and disturbing future, the reader is taken on a journey of innovation and depravity. Award-winning science writer Jeffrey A. Lockwood begins with the development of "bee bombs" in the ancient world and explores the role ofinsect-borne disease in changing the course of major battles, ranging from Napoleon's military campaigns to the trenches of World War I. He explores the horrific programs of insect warfare during World War II: airplanes dropping plague-infested fleas, facilities rearing tens of millions of hungrybeetles to destroy crops, and prison camps staffed by doctors testing disease-carrying lice on inmates. The Cold War saw secret government operations involving the mass release of specially developed strains of mosquitoes on an unsuspecting American public--along with the alleged use ofdisease-carrying and crop-eating pests against North Korea and Cuba. Lockwood reveals how easy it would be to use of insects in warfare and terrorism today: In 1989, domestic ecoterrorists extorted government officials and wreaked economic and political havoc by threatening to release the notoriousMedfly into California's crops. A remarkable story of human ingenuity--and brutality--Six-Legged Soldiers is the first comprehensive look at the use of insects as weapons of war, from ancient times to the present day.

Author Biography

Jeffrey A. Lockwood is Professor of Natural Sciences & Humanities at the University of Wyoming, where he teaches in the department of philosophy and in the MFA program in creative writing. An accomplished writer, his work has been included in the popular anthology Best American Science and Nature Writing, and he is winner of both a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award. He is the author of Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving and Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
List of Illustrations	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Stinging Defeats and Venomous Victories
Bee Bombs and Wasp Warheads	p. 9
Toxic Tactics and Terrors	p. 26
Insects as Tools of Torture	p. 36
Vectors of Death
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades	p. 47
The Victories of the Vectors	p. 56
A Most Uncivil War	p. 65
All's Lousy on the Eastern Front	p. 77
Bringing Fever and Famine to a World at War
A Monstrous Metamorphosis	p. 87
Entomological Evil	p. 95
Japan's Fleas and Flies	p. 108
Japan's Pleas and Lies	p. 117
Beetle Bombs	p. 128
Waking the Slumbering Giants	p. 139
Cold-Blooded Fighters of the Cold War
Korea's Hailstorms of Hexapods	p. 159
A Swarm of Accusations	p. 171
An Imaginary Menagerie?	p. 182
The Big Itch	p. 193
Yankee (and Vietnamese) Ingenuity	p. 203
Cuban Missiles vs. American Arthropods	p. 210
A Tiny Terrorist in Castro's Crops	p. 221
The Future of Entomological Warfare
Medflies, Fruits, and Nuts	p. 233
Fear on the Farm	p. 242
Wimpy Warmups and Real Deals	p. 256
Six-Legged Guardian Angels	p. 274
Insect Cyborgs and Roboflies	p. 287
"Vigilant and Ready"?	p. 298
Epilogue	p. 311
Suggested Readings	p. 315
Notes	p. 323
Index	p. 361
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