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 startling examples 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 of insect-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 hungry beetles 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 of disease-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 notorious Medfly 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(s): Jeffrey A Lockwood
Edition: First Edition
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 400
0195333055......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 16
List of Illustrations......Page 20
Introduction......Page 24
ONE: STINGING DEFEATS AND VENOMOUS VICTORIES......Page 30
1 Bee Bombs and Wasp Warheads......Page 32
2 Toxic Tactics and Terrors......Page 49
3 Insects as Tools of Torture......Page 59
TWO: VECTORS OF DEATH......Page 68
4 Horseshoes and Hand Grenades......Page 70
5 The Victories of the Vectors......Page 79
6 A Most Uncivil War......Page 88
7 All’s Lousy on the Eastern Front......Page 100
THREE: BRINGING FEVER AND FAMINE TO A WORLD AT WAR......Page 108
8 A Monstrous Metamorphosis......Page 110
9 Entomological Evil......Page 118
10 Japan’s Fleas and Flies......Page 131
11 Japan’s Pleas and Lies......Page 140
12 Beetle Bombs......Page 151
13 Waking the Slumbering Giants......Page 162
FOUR: COLD-BLOODED FIGHTERS OF THE COLD WAR......Page 180
14 Korea’s Hailstorms of Hexapods......Page 182
15 A Swarm of Accusations......Page 194
16 An Imaginary Menagerie?......Page 205
17 The Big Itch......Page 216
18 Yankee (and Vietnamese) Ingenuity......Page 226
19 Cuban Missiles vs. American Arthropods......Page 233
20 A Tiny Terrorist in Castro’s Crops......Page 244
FIVE: THE FUTURE OF ENTOMOLOGICAL WARFARE......Page 254
21 Medflies, Fruits, and Nuts......Page 256
22 Fear on the Farm......Page 265
23 Wimpy Warmups and Real Deals......Page 279
24 Six-Legged Guardian Angels......Page 297
25 Insect Cyborgs and Roboflies......Page 310
26 “Vigilant and Ready”?......Page 321
Epilogue......Page 334
Suggested Readings......Page 338
Notes......Page 346
A......Page 384
B......Page 385
C......Page 386
E......Page 387
F......Page 388
H......Page 389
I......Page 390
K......Page 391
M......Page 392
N......Page 393
R......Page 394
S......Page 395
T......Page 396
U......Page 397
W......Page 398
Y......Page 399
Z......Page 400
