Entomological Warfare: History of the Use of Insects as Weapons of War

Abstract

The use of living organisms to wage war dates back thousands of years; poisoning enemy wells wid, decomposing corpses is an ancient practice. In the 14th century, the Tartar army captured Kaffa by catapulting the bodies of plague victims into the city, and the Russians are said to have used a similar technique against the Swedes in the 18th century (Harris & Paxman 1982). In the 19th century, the British used blankets infected with smallpox in an attempt to wipe out whole tribes of North American Indians (McCarthy 1970, Harris & Paxman 1982). However, entomological warfare (i.e., the use of insects and other arthropods to vector diseases or destroy other resources [e.g., food supplies]) is a relatively new military concept.