Entomological warfare
Under the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention of 1972, use of insects to administer agents or toxins for hostile purposes is deemed to be against international law.
[2] Entomological warfare is not a new concept; historians and writers have studied EW in connection to multiple historic events.
A 14th-century plague epidemic in Asia Minor that eventually became known as the Black Death (carried by fleas) is one such event that has drawn attention from historians as a possible early incident of entomological warfare.
[4] According to Jeffrey Lockwood, author of Six-Legged Soldiers (a book about EW), the earliest incident of entomological warfare was probably the use of bees by early humans.
[7] Like Germany, the nation suggested that the Colorado potato beetle, aimed at the enemy's food sources, would be an asset during the war.
[7] The nation pursued the mass-production, and dispersion, of the Colorado potato beetle (Lepinotarsa decemlineata), aimed at the enemy's food sources.
The Japanese military dispersed them from low-flying airplanes; spraying the fleas from them and dropping the Yagi bombs filled with a mixture of insects and disease.
[7] It should also be noted that the U.S. and Soviets granted Japanese 731 officials immunity from prosecution in exchange for their research, and members of the former 731 Unit went on to have successful careers in business, academia, and medicine.
Labs at Fort Detrick were set up to produce 100 million yellow fever-infected mosquitoes per month deliverable by bombs or missiles.
[7] The facility could also breed 50 million fleas per week and later experimented with other diseases such as anthrax, cholera, dengue, dysentery, malaria, relapsing fever, and tularemia.
[11] The book received mixed reviews, some called it "bad history"[18] and "appalling",[17] while others praised the case the authors made.
[19] The same year Endicott and Hagerman's book was published Kathryn Weathersby and Milton Leitenberg of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington released a cache of Soviet and Chinese documents which revealed the North Korean claim was an elaborate disinformation campaign.
[3] The cost per death, according to the report, for a vector-borne biological agent achieving a 50% mortality rate in an attack on a city was $0.29 in 1976 dollars (approximately $1.01 today).
The Cubans had been accusing the United States of using insects to spread dengue fever and other crop pests during the Cold War.
[26] In 2002 U.S. entomological anti-drug efforts at Fort Detrick were focused on finding an insect vector for a virus that affects the opium poppy.
[3] Clemson University's Regulatory and Public Service Program listed "diseases vectored by insects" among bioterrorism scenarios considered "most likely".
[27] Because invasive species are already a problem worldwide one University of Nebraska entomologist considered it likely that the source of any sudden appearance of a new agricultural pest would be difficult, if not impossible, to determine.
[29] In one of the few suspected acts of entomological bioterrorism an eco-terror group known as The Breeders claimed to have released Mediterranean fruit flies (medflies) amidst an ongoing California infestation.
[30] They sought to cause the medfly infestation to grow out of control which, in turn, would render the ongoing malathion spraying program financially infeasible.
[32] Article I bans "Weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.
"[32][33] It would appear, due to the text of the BWC, that insect vectors as an aspect of entomological warfare are covered and outlawed by the convention.
[32] US intelligence officials have suggested that insects could be genetically engineered via technologies such as CRISPR to create GMO "killer mosquitoes" or plagues that wipe out staple crops.
