“The arms are fair when the intent for bearing them is just.”

Shakespeare - Henry IV

Pests, Plagues & Politics Lecture 21

INSECTS AND WARFARE

Key Points: Insects and the principles of warfare

• Which principles used by insects in general and social insects in particular influenced warfare

• What principle do bee-boles make use of?• In the Vietnam War: Cu Chi, what principle resulted

was used against US troops.• In which way did the hessian fly undermine the

Americans in the revolutionary war?

There’s even a book on the

subject

Insects and Principles of Warfare

A long history: >10,000 years

*“…insects in general and social insects in particular,

• with their spears (stings), (weapons) • chemical poisons (venoms), (bombs, poisons)• and the apparent discipline of their social existence,

have served as models for man to emulate in hisdevelopment of the art of warfare.“J.T. Ambrose (1974) in the journal ARMY

HYMENOPTERA (membranous wing)

• The bees, wasps & ants– The STINGING insects– The leading cause of ENTOMOPHOBIA

• for good reasons = venomous• Venom

– complex with large inter-generic differences• mostly proteinaceous & almost always

ALGOGENIC – producing pain– Wasps & Ants: food gathering & defense– Bees: defense only

Qualifications of social insects as weapons

• Social– lots of individuals in a compact space – the original “cluster bomb”

• Irony: Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 - Israel charged with an illegal use of American supplied cluster bombs.

• Ha!! The Tribes of Israel were using biologic “cluster bombs” thousands of years earlier!!

Living with insects

Merrily we grow along, grow along…………….

Feed me, feed me

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

• Exodus 23:28“And I will send HORNETS before thee,

which shall drive out the Hivite, Canaanite, the Hittite, from before thee.”

• Deut. 7:20“Moreover the Lord thy God will send the

HORNET among them until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.”

BIBLICAL REFERENCES, cont.

• Josh. 24:12“And I send the HORNET before you, which

drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword nor with thy bow”

[“…it would only be reasonable to regard these (biblical) narratives as excellent illustrations of the early form of biological warfare.” E. Newfeld]

Chinese bee nests

Honey Bees as bio-warfare: Medieval Europe

Bee boles in an English castle wall

Honey Bees and the U.S. Civil War

• The battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg– Antietam; a small creek– Sharpsburg; a small town in western

Maryland• Time: September of 1862• Situation: A Confederate army had

crossed into Maryland and was poised for a strike north: Pennsylvania, or worse, Washington, D.C.

Honey Bees and the U.S. Civil War• Troops

– Union: 87,000– Confederate: 25,000, later reinforced to

40,000• The Battle

– Produced the greatest number of casualties of any Civil War battle (4,000 dead; 20,000 wounded.

• A near victory for the Union, but indecision & fear prevented a complete victory

Cannon Ball Through the Bee Hives

The Roulette Apiary, AFTER the cannon ball!!!

Hunger games Tracker Jacker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AYElSbTxYA

American Revolutionary War• HESSIAN FLIES

– What’s a Hessian?• Native of the present day state of Hesse in

Germany• formerly an independent kingdom/duchy of

Germany• In the Revolution, they were mercenary troops

hired by the British.– What’s a Hessian Fly?

• Order Diptera– family Cecidomyiidae - the gall midges

American Revolutionary War

• Hessian flies are pests of wheat– eggs laid in stem of young wheat plant– larval flies feed within the stem, weakening it

and ultimately killing the plant.• Hessian troops accused of bringing the

fly with them and spreading it about the northeastern colonies to sabotage the food production by the “rebels.”

A Hessian mercenary

30,000 “hired” by the British

Ca. 7,000 K.I.A.

Ca. 4,500 stayed in America

Cricket Fighting

Ancient &Primarily Asia

Key Points: Insects and the principles of warfare

• Which principles used by insects in general and social insects in particular influenced warfare

• What principle do bee-boles make use of?• In the Vietnam War: Cu Chi, what principle resulted

was used against US troops.• In which way did the hessian fly undermine the

Americans in the revolutionary war?