Six-Legged Soldiers Using Insects as Weapons of War

by Lockwood, Jeffrey A.

• ISBN13: 9780199733538
• ISBN10: 0199733538
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Six-Legged Soldiers reveals how insects have changed the course of warfare, from "bee bombs" in the Paleolithic period to insect weap-onization programs in World War II (including airplanes modified to drop plague-infested fleas, bombs designed to disperse cholera-coated flies, and prison camps where doctors infected inmates with disease-carrying lice). Six-Legged Soldiers paints a chilling portrait of the many weird-and ongoing-attempts to conscript insects for human combat. Book jacket.

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. 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. xi
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. 362
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