Anastasia Sergeeva

Forbidden weapons: 7 examples of how insects serve the war

According to some reports, only 8% of the history of mankind passed without wars - the rest of the time in different parts of the Earth, military conflicts broke out every now and then and wars of various scales were waged. And in parallel with this, new and increasingly sophisticated types of weapons have been developed and continue to be developed, which are capable of more effectively destroying the enemy. One of them was biological weapons, in particular, entomological ones, which involve the use of insects for military purposes - we have collected the most famous examples below.

bee threat

To begin with, let's talk about one of the most harmless ways to use insects in military conflicts - the use of "sniffer" bees. About ten years ago, scientists finally decided to use the bee's phenomenal sense of smell not only to obtain honey, but also to detect explosives, and taught a group of bees to recognize TNT. Research has not yet been completed, but perhaps in the near future, bees will everywhere perform the duties of sappers.

Bees were often used as biological weapons in Roman wars. / For example, they came up with the idea of ​​catapulting whole bee hives into the camp of the enemy. Enraged and blinded by anger, the bees, whose house was destroyed, rushed at all the soldiers who could be attacked in the nearest district. Such an entomological weapon has become an effective technique in more than one battle. It is also interesting that the Dacians, attacked by bees, quickly realized what was happening, and repaid the Romans with the same coin, throwing new hives back.

There are also records that bee "bombs" during the Third crusade in the 12th century, King Richard the Lionheart used it. And in the XVIII century, during the battle of Alba Graeka (modern Belgrade), the inhabitants of the city managed to fight off the Turkish soldiers by building barricades of beehives. And that's not all: in the war between Italy and Ethiopia, in the first half of the 20th century, Ethiopian partisans successfully eliminated enemy tanks by throwing bee hives right into the hatch.

Biological weapons in the person of bees were also actively used by representatives of one of the tribes of Nigeria - the Tiv. They caught bees and placed them in special wooden tubes, from which it was then convenient to blow them out in close combat directly at the enemy.

And the inhabitants of the English and Scottish fortresses during the Middle Ages acted even smarter. They prepared for the war in advance, specially attracting bees to their walls so that they would equip their abode right in the fortress. AT Peaceful time insects, as usual, brought honey, and when the fortress was attacked, they rushed to defend their home.

"Grenades" from fleas

Biological weapons were created not only with the use of such obviously aggressive if necessary insects as bees. For example, the second World War knows examples of the use of entomological weapons in the form of fleas that were deliberately infected with the plague - Japan resorted to such forbidden methods. The effectiveness of the method was first tested on local prisoners of war, and then the insects were sprayed over China, which resulted in the death of almost 500,000 people.

In addition to fleas, the Japanese also relied on cholera-infected flies, but they were less effective.

The spread of malaria

Nazi Germany was also engaged in the same terrible tests of biological weapons, but instead of fleas, they tested malarial mosquitoes on concentration camp prisoners! It's good that at least the Nazis did not reach the real mass use of insects, but documents about these terrible experiments surfaced almost 5 years ago.

killer mosquitoes

And the United States in the 20th century resorted to entomological weapons: they also used mosquitoes, but others - carriers of yellow fever. Fortunately, such biological weapons did not go beyond secret tests. However, the Americans seriously considered it as an effective technique in a potential war with Soviet Union- after all, they rarely heard about such a virus in the USSR, and they did not vaccinate.

Colorado Ravagers

This nasty beetle, which is so fond of destroying potatoes and many nightshade plants in our gardens, was also the object of monstrous Nazi experiments during World War II. Zhukov was planned to be moved through the air and dropped over enemy territories so that they would destroy crops and deprive everyone of the harvest, making the enemy hungry, weak and exhausted. Rumor has it that the United States also carried out similar experiments later, but nothing came to fruition.

Cyborg beetles

Although entomological and other biological weapons are strictly prohibited today, they have learned to use insects not only to harm other living organisms, but also for intelligence purposes. So, a microcontroller, a battery and an electrode are implanted into an insect pupa. When she transforms into a beetle, it becomes possible to control it remotely, setting the route and ordering to stop when required. Ideal scout for military service! So far, research is being carried out only in closed laboratories, but the hour is hardly too far off when we will be followed by cyborg insects connected to a Wi-Fi network.

"Bombs" from scorpions

And, finally, an interesting example of biological weapons with the use of scorpions. Although scorpions are not insects, but arthropods from the class of arachnids, many consider them representatives of insects, like spiders. Therefore, why not talk about them in this article?

It turns out that in the II century the inhabitants ancient city-the fortress of Hatra, which was located on the territory of modern Iraq, managed to keep the army of Roman legionnaires attacking them, dropping pots full of deadly scorpions on them from the walls of the city. The only question that remains is: how did the scorpions get into these pots in the first place? Scientists figured out several ways, but none of them were completely safe.

We also invite you to watch an amusing excerpt from an interview with historian and publicist Alexander Eluferiev. You will find out if it is true that animals and insects themselves are watching a person, which animals a person seeks to make a biological weapon, and why some rumors about this are exaggerated:

Take it, tell your friends!

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Entomological weapons(as a type of biological weapon that uses insects to attack), although it is prohibited at the level of international conventions, but, as practice shows, it is quite effective and dangerous. And its history goes back centuries.

Many researchers insist that the first weapon of this kind was used under the emperor Septimius Severus during the war between Rome and Mesopotamia. Fortress Khatroy repelled another attack of the Roman legionnaires, throwing down on them from above ... what would you think? Scorpions!

Bees are not only honey, but also...

Aditya Permana

The use of bees and wasps against their enemy is believed by entomologists to have taken place as early as the Stone Age. The mechanism was elementary. Buzzing swarms were thrown into the cave where the enemy was supposedly hiding in order to lure the enemy and at the same time injure him.

Many examples of bee assistance in military confrontation have been preserved since the Middle Ages. So, for example, in 908 the English city of Chester was protected from the Vikings due to the fact that the British threw bee hives into an underground passage through which enemies tried to get through.

During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the German city of Kissengen was besieged by the Swedes. Someone Peter Hale, one of the residents, suggested dropping bee hives on the besiegers. The bees did not bother the warriors, but they bit the horses, which weakened the Swedish army. Thus, the method worked, the siege ended. And in the city, one of the streets was named after the quick-witted defender. The authenticity of this story is evidenced by the official city portal of modern Bad Kissingen.

The battle of the mercenary army of Mansfeld and the troops of the Catholic League near Tsablat. Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)

England, Scotland and Wales went even further. Instead of using pots with bees one-time, throwing them at the enemy, they preferred to settle the bees in the fortress walls, making special niches for them among the stones and thus providing additional protection from the attackers. This method worked more than once, and the insects disturbed during the attack pounced on the offenders. The only drawback, as it turned out, was the ability to settle bees only on the south side of the buildings.

Nigerian Tiv tribes use bees against enemies and now - in their own, not entirely safe way. They simply launch the winged into the tube and blow from one end, thus directing the stinging weapon at the enemy.

A fairly modern reference to the use of bees as a weapon has been preserved since the confrontation between Italy and Ethiopia in 1935-1936, when Ethiopian guerrillas threw bee hives into enemy tanks.

Plague at went to Europe from the Crimea along with fleas

Flea under the microscope

But not only bees became famous in the war. The American entomologist Geoffrey Lockwood in his book "Six-legged Soldiers" tells how during the siege of the ancient city of Kaffa (the territory of modern Feodosia) by Khan Dzhanibek in 1346, the Tatar army began to die out from a mysterious disease (that was the plague known to us). Janibek ordered catapults to throw the corpses outside the gates of the city of the Genoese. Together with the corpses, the true carriers of the disease entered the city - fleas, which from Feodosia on the ships of the fleeing Genoese then came to Europe. Thus began the plague (black death) pandemic, which claimed then, according to various sources, up to half of the European population.

Fleas in German bombs

The brutal experiments of "Squad 731". The results of the experiments were transferred to the United States after World War II.

The Japanese undertook to repeat the experiment with plague fleas during World War II. For the development of such weapons, a special department was created - "Detachment 731" under the leadership of General Shiro Ishii. The plan was as follows: fleas - carriers of the plague, placed in "bombs" and dropped over enemy territory, were supposed to infect the enemy with plague. Difficulties arose with the transportation of fleas, which died at the high temperatures of the explosion of prepared bombs. In the end, a special type of ceramic bombs was developed and their explosion took place as close to the ground as possible. About 30,000 infected individuals were placed in each charge. Tests were actively carried out on sites where captured soldiers were tied to poles and the possibility of infection was checked on them. It is known that the Japanese planned to use plague fleas in 1944 on the Mariana Islands, captured by that time by American troops. But a US submarine sank a Japanese ship. Later, after the offensive of the USSR troops in Manchuria, the special detachment was liquidated, and a plague broke out in the vicinity.

In the autumn of 1943, the previously drained swamps south of Rome were flooded by the Germans. Malaria-carrying mosquito larvae, Anopheles labranchiae, were also launched there.

However former commander Shiro Ishii continued his work on the development of entomological weapons, but already in the United States. It is known that in the post-war 50s, tests were carried out similar to the Japanese ones, where live fleas and mosquitoes were used to fill the bombs. The Americans were no longer going to infect their enemies with the plague, but with yellow fever. It was assumed that the spread of this disease would be especially effective on the territory of the USSR, where there were no vaccinations and developed drugs for the treatment of this disease. Fortunately, things did not go beyond field tests.

Malaria mosquitoes in the service of the Nazis

malarial mosquito

But the use of malaria-carrying mosquitoes German troops in Italy showed its practical effectiveness during the war years.

Modern science is now completely focused around creating a new generation of chitinous cyborgs. Using electrodes and attaching electronic micro-boxes to the beetles' backs, scientists managed to control the insect's flight, giving commands from a distance.

Germany, trying to stop the Allied invasion of Italian lands, decided to use its laboratory developments to infect the enemy with malaria. According to Yale University professor Frank Sowden, this was the only use of entomological weapons in World War II. In his work The Conquest of Italy by Malaria, Sowden relates that in the fall of 1943, the previously drained marshes south of Rome were flooded by the Germans. Malaria-carrying mosquito larvae, Anopheles labranchiae, were also launched there. The operation was led by German entomologist Erich Martini. 1217 cases among 245,000 people were recorded in 1943 and almost 55,000 in 1944 - these are the official statistics. But the Germans did not achieve their goal: British and American soldiers who took antimalarial drugs were spared the disease.

Have you ordered Colorado beetles?

An 1877 English cartoon of The Great Beetle Panic. The author draws an analogy between the invasion of Colorado potato beetles on British farms in the Victorian era and the high popularity among the population of that time of traveling abroad.

A biological or bacteriological weapon is a type of weapon mass destruction(WMD), which uses various pathogens to destroy the enemy. The main purpose of its application is mass destruction enemy manpower, in order to achieve this, epidemics of dangerous diseases are provoked among his troops and civilians.

The term "bacteriological weapon" is not entirely correct, since not only bacteria, but also viruses and other microorganisms, as well as toxic products of their vital activity, are used to inflict damage on the enemy. In addition, the composition of biological weapons includes the means of delivery of pathogens to the place of their application.

Sometimes in separate view an entomological weapon stands out, which uses insects to attack the enemy.

Modern war is a whole complex of actions aimed at destroying the enemy's economy. Biological weapons fit perfectly into his concept. After all, it is possible to infect not only enemy soldiers or its civilian population, but also to destroy agricultural crops.

Biological weapons are the oldest type of weapons of mass destruction; people have tried to use them since ancient times. This was not always effective, but sometimes led to impressive results.

Currently, biological weapons are outlawed: a number of conventions have been adopted prohibiting their development, storage and use. However, despite all international conventions, information about new developments of these prohibited weapons regularly appears in the press.

Many experts believe that bacteriological weapons are in some ways even more dangerous than nuclear ones. Its properties and features are such that they may well lead to the complete destruction human race on the planet. In spite of modern advances in the field of medicine and biology, it is not yet possible to talk about the victory of mankind over diseases. We still cannot cope with HIV infection and hepatitis, and even a banal flu leads to regular epidemics. The action of biological weapons is not selective. A virus or a pathogenic bacterium does not make out where its own and someone else's, and once they are free, they destroy all life in their path.

History of biological weapons

Mankind has repeatedly faced devastating epidemics and waged a huge number of wars. Often these two disasters went hand in hand. Therefore, it is not surprising that ideas about using infections as weapons came to the mind of many military leaders.

It should be noted that high levels of morbidity and mortality were common in the armies of the past. Huge crowds of people, vague ideas about sanitation and hygiene, poor nutrition - all this created excellent conditions for the development of infectious diseases in the troops. Very often, much more soldiers died from diseases than from the actions of the enemy army.

Therefore, the first attempts to use infections to defeat enemy troops were made several thousand years ago. The Hittites, for example, simply sent people sick with tularemia into the camp of the enemy. In the Middle Ages, they came up with new ways to deliver biological weapons: the corpses of people and animals who died from some deadly disease were thrown into besieged cities with the help of catapults.

The most terrible result of the use of biological weapons in antiquity is the epidemic of bubonic plague in Europe, which broke out in the 14th century. During the siege of the city of Kafa (modern Feodosia), the Tatar Khan Dzhanibek threw the corpses of people who died from the plague over the walls. An epidemic broke out in the city. Some of the townspeople fled from her on a ship to Venice, and in the end they brought the infection there.

Soon, the plague literally wiped out Europe. Some countries have lost up to half of the population, the victims of the epidemic were in the millions.

In the 18th century, European colonialists supplied the North American Indians with blankets and tents, which had previously been used by smallpox patients. Historians still debate whether this was intentional. Be that as it may, the epidemic that broke out as a result practically destroyed many native tribes.

Scientific progress has given mankind not only vaccinations and antibiotics, but also the possibility of using the most deadly pathogens as weapons.

The process of rapid development of biological weapons began relatively recently - approximately at the end of the 19th century. The Germans during the First World War unsuccessfully tried to cause an epizootic anthrax in enemy troops. During World War II, Japan created a special secret unit - Detachment 731, which carried out work in the field of biological weapons, including experiments on prisoners of war.

During the war, the Japanese infected the population of China with bubonic plague, as a result, 400,000 Chinese died. The Germans actively and quite successfully spread malaria in the territory of modern Italy, and about 100 thousand Allied soldiers died from it.

After the end of World War II, these weapons of mass destruction were no longer used, at least no signs of their large-scale use were recorded. There is information that the Americans used biological weapons during the Korean War - but to confirm given fact did not succeed.

In 1979, an anthrax epidemic broke out in Sverdlovsk on the territory of the USSR. It was officially announced that the cause of the outbreak was the consumption of meat from infected animals. Modern scholars have no doubt that real reason The population was affected by this dangerous infection in an accident at a secret Soviet laboratory where biological weapons were being developed. Per short period 79 cases of infection were registered, 68 of which were fatal. This is a clear example of the effectiveness of biological weapons: as a result of accidental infection, the mortality rate was 86%.

Features of biological weapons

Advantages:

1. High application efficiency;
2. Difficulty in timely detection by the enemy of the use of biological weapons;
3. The presence of a latent (incubation) period of infection makes the fact of the use of this WMD even less noticeable;
4. A wide variety of biological agents that can be used to defeat the enemy;
5. Many types of biological weapons are capable of epidemic spread, that is, the defeat of the enemy, in fact, becomes a self-sustaining process;
6. The flexibility of this weapon of mass destruction: there are diseases that temporarily make a person incapacitated, while other ailments lead to death;
7. Microorganisms are able to penetrate into any premises, engineering structures and Combat vehicles also does not guarantee protection against infection;
8. The ability of biological weapons to infect people, animals, and agricultural plants. Moreover, this ability is very selective: some pathogens cause human diseases, others infect only animals;
9. Biological weapons have a strong psychological impact on the population, panic and fear instantly spread.

It should also be noted that biological weapons are very cheap, it is not difficult to create them even for a state with a low level of technical development.

However, this type of WMD also has a significant drawback that limits the use of biological weapons: it is extremely indiscriminate.

After the application of a pathogenic virus or anthrax, you cannot guarantee that the infection will not devastate your country as well. Science is not yet able to provide guaranteed protection against microorganisms. Moreover, even a pre-made antidote can be ineffective, because viruses and bacteria are constantly mutating.

That is why in recent history biological weapons were practically not used. It is likely that this trend will continue in the future.

Classification of biological weapons

The main difference different types A biological weapon is a pathogen used to defeat an adversary. It is he who determines the main properties and characteristics of WMD. Various pathogens can be used: plague, smallpox, anthrax, Ebola, cholera, tularemia, dengue, and botulism toxins.

Can be used to spread infections different means and ways:

• artillery shells and mines;
• special containers (bags, packages or boxes) dropped from the air;
• aviation bombs;
• devices that disperse aerosols with an infectious agent from the air;
• contaminated household items (clothes, shoes, food).

Entomological weapons should be singled out separately. This is a type of biological weapon in which insects are used to attack the enemy. AT different time bees, scorpions, fleas, Colorado potato beetles and mosquitoes were used for these purposes. The most promising are mosquitoes, fleas and some types of flies. All these insects can carry various diseases man and animals. At various times there have been programs to breed agricultural pests to cripple the economy of the enemy.

WMD protection

All methods of protection against biological weapons can be divided into two large groups:

• preventive;
• emergency.

Preventive methods of struggle are the vaccination of military personnel, civilians, farm animals. The second direction of prevention is the creation of a whole range of mechanisms that allow to detect infection as quickly as possible.

Emergency methods of protection against biological threats include various ways treatment of diseases, preventive actions in emergency cases, isolation of the source of infection, disinfection of the area.

During the Cold War, exercises were repeatedly conducted to eliminate the consequences of the use of biological weapons. Other modeling methods have also been used. As a result, it was concluded that a state with a normally developed medicine is able to cope with any famous species similar weapons of mass destruction.

However, there is one problem: modern work on the creation of new types of combat microorganisms is based on the methods of biotechnology and genetic engineering. That is, the developers create new strains of viruses and bacteria with unprecedented properties. If such a pathogen breaks free, it can lead to the start of a global epidemic (pandemic).

AT recent times rumors about the so-called genetic weapons. Usually, it means genetically modified pathogenic microorganisms that are capable of selectively infecting people of a certain nationality, race or gender. However, most scientists are rather skeptical about the idea of ​​such a weapon, although experiments in this direction have definitely been carried out.

Biological Weapons Convention

There are several conventions prohibiting the development and use of biological weapons. The first of them (the Geneva Protocol) was adopted back in 1925 and expressly forbade doing such work. Another similar convention appeared in Geneva in 1972; as of January 2012, 165 states have ratified it.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

published an article titled "Agricultural research or new system biological weapons?” signed by five reputable scientists from the University of Montpellier (France), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (Germany) and the University of Freiburg (Germany). They suggest that within the framework of the project of the Office of Perspective research projects US Department of Defense (DARPA) "Insect Allies" insects can be used to spread genetically modified viruses in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.

The Insect Allies program involves, in particular, the use of insects, such as aphids, to change the genes of plants. In this way, DARPA hopes to instill in plants immunity to diseases, drought and other threats typical of crops. These studies began in 2016 and were funded by $45 million.

European scientists believe that these developments are unlikely to be applicable in agriculture and may be "an attempt to develop biological agents and their means of delivery for hostile purposes", which violates the Biological Weapons Convention.

“The convention prohibits the development of any biological agents that are not intended for preventive, protective and other peaceful purposes,” said Silja Woneki from the University of Freiburg. - The method being developed is difficult to control, and its use is unlikely to be allowed in peacetime. In addition, it is easier to inoculate viruses in plants - through spraying. If a peaceful purpose project is about plant protection, there are many unanswered questions about it.”

Manager of the Pentagon project "Insect Allies" Blake Bekstein in an interview "Washington Post" immediately dismissed all the suspicions of European scientists: “DARPA does not create either biological weapons or methods for their delivery,” he assures. “If we wanted to develop biological weapons, would we ask universities to submit their ideas for research?”

At the same time, in an interview, he acknowledged that a number of technologies developed under the Insect Allies program can have a “dual purpose” and be used both for defense and for attack. “I think that in the development of any revolutionary technology there is a potential for its dual use. But that's not what we do. We improve plants, we are focused on a positive goal. We want to ensure food security, because food security is National security in our eyes,” says B. Bekstein.

In turn, Silja Woneki, mentioned above, said "Washington Post" that the peaceful orientation of this program is doubtful. The use of insects is of particular concern to her and her colleagues, she said, as "using insects to spread disease is a classic bioweapon."

European scholars are not alone in their suspicions of the United States. On October 4 of this year, Major General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops (RCBZ) of the RF Armed Forces, said at a briefing at the RF Ministry of Defense that since 2001 Washington has been blocking all international initiatives to verify the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons of December 16 1971, excluding the possibility of checking their laboratories.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Pentagon has set up biolaboratories that are a "permanent source of biological threats" in the immediate vicinity of Russia and China. $1 billion was allocated for their financing of this activity in 2017-2019.

“The priority of their activities is to collect information on infectious diseases and export national collections containing strains of pathogenic microorganisms, including those that overcome the protective effect of vaccines and are resistant to antibiotics,” said General Kirillov. According to him, Washington oversees laboratories that can develop biological weapons in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation paid special attention to the Center for Public Health. Richard Lugar, which is located in Georgia near Tbilisi. This center houses the medical departments. ground forces USA.

Igor Kirillov presented documents that prove the development in this technology center combat use infected insects, in particular with the help of drones. So, in the description for patent No. 8967029 issued by the US Patent and Trademark Agency, it is indicated that with the help of such a UAV, enemy troops can be destroyed or disabled without risk to US military personnel. "Other patents show different types ammunition for the delivery of chemical and biological formulations. In their description, such characteristics as "low unit cost of destruction and the absence of the need for contact with enemy manpower" are noted.

Boss Russian troops The RKhBZ believes that the United States is developing biological weapons as part of the concept of non-contact warfare, and the US Armed Forces already have the ability to equip capsules "with poisonous, radioactive, drugs, as well as pathogens of infectious diseases.

In November 2016, RISS researcher Dmitry Popov published a report titled "US Military Biological Activities in the Post-Soviet Space", in which he suggested that the Pentagon plans to "solve wide range tasks that undermine the security of not only the Russian Federation, but also its partners in the CSTO "and for this purpose is conducting research on the creation of" a new generation of offensive biological weapons.

The report says that in the future, the Pentagon will be able to "carry out sabotage actions" that can destroy livestock in Russia and CSTO countries, as well as reduce the immunity and ability of the population to reproduce.

In 2005, Senators Barack Obama and Richard Lugar visited one of the Ukrainian biological laboratories operating under an agreement with the Pentagon. What he saw horrified the future US president: “... at some point during our tour, after contemplating the open windows (due to the lack of air conditioning) and strips of metal roughly screwed to the door jambs (to drive away mice), we were led to a small refrigerator, sealed with just a thread. A middle-aged woman in a lab coat and a surgical mask took out several test tubes from the belly of the refrigerator, waved them 30 cm from my nose and said something in Ukrainian.

“This is anthrax,” the interpreter explained, pointing to a test tube in right hand ladies. “But this,” he said, pointing to the test tube in the woman’s left hand, “is the plague.”

I turned back and noticed that Lugar was already standing at the far wall of the room. "Would you like to take a closer look, Dick?" I asked, taking a few steps back.

We saw everything,” he answered with a smile.

Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center - in Georgia. It is located 17 kilometers from the American air base "Vaziani" near Tbilisi.
Biologists from the Georgian Medical Research Unit of the Pentagon are doing research here. The third level of this laboratory has access only to US citizens who have access to classified information. All of them have diplomatic status under the 2002 Intergovernmental Agreement between the US and Georgia on defense cooperation.

The contractual obligations of contractors of the Lugar Center, which are posted on the website of the Federal Register of Contracts, include, for example, the study of strains of anthrax and tularemia, viral diseases including Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and collection of biosamples for experiments. Much of the work has been outsourced to private companies not accountable to the US Congress. Three of them work in the US Georgian Biolab - CH2M Hill, Battelle and Metabiota. In addition to the Pentagon, these companies conduct biological research for the CIA and other US government agencies.

In 2014, the Lugar Center was equipped with special insect breeding equipment and began three projects to study phlebotomine sand flies and test their level of infectivity. One of the projects was called “Raising awareness of sandfly barcoding in Georgia and the Caucasus”.

In 1982, the Pentagon Medical Research Companion conducted an experiment investigating whether sand flies could carry Rift Valley fever or dengue fever.

It is symptomatic that a year after the start of research at the Lugar Center in Tbilisi and Russian Dagestan bordering Georgia locals sand flies have been reported. These insects settled indoors, in bathrooms and sewers, and bit people while bathing, which caused severe rashes.

Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who became famous as the author of articles about the supply of Bulgarian weapons to Syrian militants, writes in her next investigation that the Lugar Center is also involved in the production and testing of bioagents in the form of aerosols. In 2014, the Department of the Army of the US State Department purchased 100 milligrams of locally produced botulinum toxins for testing. In 2012, botulinum toxins and aerosols of anthrax, plague bacillus and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus were tested at the Lugar Center.

According to a Bulgarian journalist, the Pentagon is developing bioweapon dispersal technologies, including explosives and bioaerosol dispensers. Such devices are called Micronair, and they have already been adopted.

It is possible that these sprayers were tested in Chechnya in the spring of 2017, when local residents reported a drone spraying white powder on the border with Georgia. The Pentagon Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has access to the area under the Georgia Land Border Security Project. The border is controlled by the American PMC Parsons Government Services International, with which DTRA has signed a corresponding agreement.

Dilyana Gaytandzhieva writes that DARPA is conducting a number of projects to create genetically modified insects, rodents and bacteria. In particular, the Insect Allies program is researching insects so that they can transfer modified genes to plants. The next step will be to create organisms that can withstand certain temperatures, change habitats and food sources.

Thus, the Pentagon intends to create, in fact, an arsenal of combat strains that can be used in various theaters around the world. Many developments of such strains are carried out in laboratories located on the territory of the republics. former USSR, where, as Barack Obama testified, even basic safety standards are not observed. These studies, banned by international law, primarily threaten the citizens of Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan, whose governments, in pursuit of the “long” dollar, put their citizens in mortal danger.

On the first evidence of the military use of insects. If we neglect the details, these stories come down to who, at whom, when and how successfully the bee hive was thrown. And although the enemy attacked by bees had a hard time, and the course of the battle with the help of this tool was sometimes able to turn, insects could not be called a very formidable weapon. Much more dangerous fighting insects became later, when the biological knowledge of mankind expanded and new prospects for the military opened up. Therefore, if earlier we talked about the use of insects in war, then new experiments can be called the creation entomological weapons.

There are two varieties of this weapon. Firstly, when it became clear that insects are responsible for the transmission from person to person of pathogens of many dangerous diseases (malaria, typhoid, plague, etc.), the idea arose to send such insects to the enemy en masse, causing epidemics. Secondly, you can also send insect pests behind the front line Agriculture to undermine the food base of the enemy. In this case military applications insects becomes part of a phenomenon called agroterrorism. Both the epidemic and the famine caused by the death of the crop, in terms of the number of potential victims, far exceed several bee hives launched from a throwing weapon.

Entomologist Geoffrey Lockwood, author of The Six Legged Soldiers, tends to find entomological weapons wherever possible. In 1346, in the Crimea, the army of the Mongol Khan Dzhanibek besieged the Genoese in Kaffa (now Feodosia). When in Mongolian army a plague epidemic began, the khan ordered to throw the corpses of the dead into the fortress with the help of catapults. Thus the disease also penetrated the besieged. But the siege was still unsuccessful, the Mongols retreated, and the Genoese brought the plague to Constantinople and Western Europe. Since plague is carried by fleas, Lockwood believes that in this case The Mongols used entomological weapons. Another example given by Lockwood comes from the American Civil War. There was a moment when the northerners deliberately blockaded the Confederates in the swampy areas, where they carried big losses from malaria.

But still, these two cases cannot be fully considered the use of entomological weapons. Khan Dzhanibek guessed about the infectious nature of the plague, but he hardly knew that fleas served as carriers. The generals of the US Army knew that malaria was common in swampy areas, but the mechanism of its transmission was not finally figured out by Ronald Ross until the 1890s. It would be more correct to consider the use of entomological weapons as the deliberate use of insects to harm the enemy.

When did this happen for the first time? It is difficult to answer, since those who used entomological weapons rarely admit this. Therefore, one has to be content with rumors, suspicions and conjectures. Perhaps it was indeed first used by northerners during civil war in the USA. At the very least, the Confederates accused the northerners of deliberately bringing the harlequin bug south ( Murgantia histrionica) - a serious pest of plants of the cruciferous family, which destroyed large plantings of cabbage. However, this accusation is questionable, moreover, according to scientists, the harlequin bug entered the United States rather from the south, from Mexico.

Documented cases of the use of entomological weapons date back to the Second World War. The most famous are Japanese projects.

During the hostilities between Japan and China, in 1936, a special unit of the Kwantung Army, Detachment 731, was created near Harbin. The official task of the detachment was "epidemiological prevention and supply of water to the army." However, in reality, Detachment 731 was engaged in the development of various types of biological weapons. The bacteriologist Ishii Shiro led the detachment. Experiments were made on captured Chinese soldiers. According to various sources, from three to ten thousand people became victims of the "Detachment 731" during the war.

The areas of activity were varied, they can be found in the memoirs of Hiroshi Akiyama published in Russian "Special Detachment 731". The author, hiding under a pseudonym, served in this detachment in his youth and did not consider himself entitled to keep the truth about his activities a secret. The history of the detachment was also described by the Japanese writer Seiichi Morimura in the book The Devil's Kitchen.

We are only interested in the activities of Detachment 731 that are associated with insects. Convinced of the effectiveness of biological weapons, Ishii Shiro thought a lot about ways to deliver bacteria to the target. He considered sending saboteurs behind enemy lines to be an insufficiently large-scale means. Airborne spraying of water containing bacteria proved to be ineffective. Then "ceramic bombs" were invented: containers containing a nutrient medium from agar with a bacterial culture. They shattered on impact with the ground.

In parallel, methods were being developed to use insects as carriers of bacteria. Experiments were carried out with fleas infected with plague. Flea production was put on stream. In 1945, Detachment 731 operated 4,500 flea breeders, supplying over 100 million insects in a few days. A population of rats was kept as a plague reservoir. Developers are faced with a number of problems. When a bomb filled with live fleas exploded, which should have scattered them across large area, fleas died from high temperature. To avoid this, a modernized type of bomb was developed in which the charge was placed in grooves on the outside of the case. The bombing took place at a low altitude above the ground, the fleas remained alive.

Tests of these bombs took place at the test site, where experimental prisoners were tied to poles. The plane dropped bombs, then the Japanese waited for the fleas to spread through the range and start biting people. Each bomb contained about 30,000 infected fleas. After that, the area and people were disinfected, the prisoners were untied and placed in prison, where they were observed to see if they would develop the plague.

Experiments were made several times on the use of such bombs against Chinese troops, but they did not bring much effect. In 1944, a sabotage group was prepared, which went to the island of Saipan (Marian Islands), already captured by US troops, where it was supposed to spread plague bacteria in the area of ​​​​a military airport. But the ship with this group was sunk by an American submarine.

When, after the onset Soviet troops in Manchuria, the detachment was liquidated, in the vicinity of the village of Pingfang, where it was deployed, an outbreak of plague began. She is associated with rats that have fled from abandoned buildings.

The inhuman experiments that were performed on prisoners in German concentration camps are widely known. However, with regard to the use of insects, until recently, only experiments were known to infect humans with malaria (using mosquitoes) and typhoid (using lice) in order to monitor the development of the disease and test various methods treatment. But recently it turned out that experiments were also carried out in Dachau, the purpose of which was to create an offensive entomological weapon. The protocols for these experiments were presented by Klaus Reinhardt from the University of Tübingen in December 2013 in a publication in the journal Endeavor. The Germans tried to develop ways to use large numbers of malaria-carrying mosquitoes against enemy soldiers and civilians. The work was carried out in a laboratory headed by Eduard May. Another lab was working on the project Siebenschlafer(that's the German word for dormouse). He, like Japanese developments, provided for the use of plague-infected fleas.

A number of other examples of the use of insects in warfare, as well as information about biological weapons in general, are hypothetical, often remaining unconfirmed rumors. Suspicions of the use of such weapons arose in relation to the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR. It is reliably known that several Japanese specialists in the development of bacteriological weapons worked in the United States after the war, including the former commander of Detachment 731, Ishii Shiro.

It is known that in the 1950s, bombs carrying living insects (E14 and E23 ammunition) were tested in the United States. During the tests, there were fleas inside them ( Xenopsylla cheopis) or mosquitoes ( Aedes aegypti) capable of transmitting yellow fever. The possibilities of their combat use were studied during Operation Big Buzz in 1955 at the Georgia training ground and the following year during Operation Big Itch at the Dugway training ground in Utah. In the second case, the E23 bomb once opened on the plane, and the crew were bitten by fleas. But in general, the test results were successful: a significant part of the insects survived after landing and successfully found victims, which were guinea pigs.

In 1956, the Drop Kick and May Day trials were conducted, in which mosquitoes ( Aedes aegypti) were released from a ground source. Their ability to bite people was tested. Further work with Aedes aegypti continued. mosquito seemed promising weapon in an imminent war with the USSR, since the yellow fever that he carries is not common in the Soviet Union. Consequently, the population does not have immunity to it, and the medical services do not develop appropriate immunization programs. A series of tests took place in 1959-1962 Bellwether, during which the effectiveness of mosquitoes was evaluated depending on the distance to the target, the movement of the target, the speed of dispersal of the released mosquitoes, their ability to penetrate dwellings. Different genetic lines were also compared with each other. Aedes aegypti. The subjects were US Army soldiers. But the military soon found that using aerosols to spread bacteria was more effective than using insects, and the program was ended.

A number of information about the use of entomological weapons refers to the infamous Colorado potato beetle. This was first discussed in 1943, when the British suspected the Germans of dropping containers of beetles on the fields of the Isle of Wight. The containers themselves and the beetles were not found, but according to experts, the damage on the leaves of the potato was caused by the Colorado potato beetles. In the years cold war Suspicions have repeatedly arisen that the United States is using Colorado potato beetles against the countries of the socialist bloc.

Colorado potato beetle on GDR posters from the 1950s

If in the USSR these suspicions most often circulated as rumors, then in the GDR in the 1950s, accusations of agroterrorism against the United States sounded quite officially. They are also reflected in the East German posters of those times. East Germans even nicknamed the Colorado potato beetle Amikafer by connecting the words americanischer"American" and Kafer"beetle". Similar statements were made in the 1950s by the governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Repeatedly, accusations were made by the Cuban authorities, who claimed that the Americans were throwing pests of sugar cane onto the island. But all these suspicions have not yet received documentary evidence.