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Wednesday 7 January 2015

Entomological Warfare

Entomological warfare is a specific type of biological warfare that uses insects in a direct attack or as vectors to deliver a biological agent, such as plague or cholera.

The earliest incident of entomological warfare was probably the use of bees by early humans. The bees or their nests were thrown into caves to force the enemy out and into the open.

In about 254 AD,  the Persians gassed 20 Roman soldiers by burning bitumen and sulphur crystals in a tunnel as they fought for control of the city of Dura-Europos in what is modern-day Syria.

In medieval times, corpses of sick people were used as catapult ammunition, as a form of biological weapon.

Japan's entomological warfare program in China during World War II used plague-infected fleas and cholera-coated flies to kill nearly 500,000 people.

During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use the Black Plague as a biological weapon against the population of San Diego in California. It was scheduled for September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered just five weeks before it could happen.

The Biological Weapons Convention came into force on March 26, 1975 when twenty-two governments deposited their instruments of ratification.


The Rajneeshee bioterror attack took place in The Dalles, Oregon in 1984 when a group of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh sprayed salmonella on doorknobs and food. They hoped to poison people so they would be too sick to vote and the cult's own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. As a result of the attack, 751 people contracted salmonellosis, 45 of whom were hospitalized. The incident was the largest biological attack in U.S. history

As of July 2016, 175 states are party to The Biological Weapons Convention, in which they commit to the prohibition of the development, production, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons.

Source Wikipedia

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