Terrorists could use 'insect-based' biological weapon

[Are_grits_groceries]

Terrorists would find it "relatively easy" to launch a devastating attack using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease, an academic has warned.

Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War, said such Rift Valley Fever or other diseases could be transported into a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon."

He said it would "probably be much easier" than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon, arguing: "The raw material is in the back yard."

He continued: "It would be a relatively easy and simple process.

"A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4123782/Terrorists-could-use-insect-based-biological-weapon.html

If they find something that cockroaches could spread, civilization is doomed.
Fire ants are bad enough. Those are some mean muthas.

[atreides1]

1. One Problem with this method

You have no control over the "delivery" system, and while some terrorist don't have a problem with dying, not all of them are so inclined.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Wouldn't take many to be so inclined. nt

[ThomWV]

9. The trick there is simply to innoculate your people before you release the bugs

Bugs still wouldn't work though. The problem is you could combat the problem with DDT, fast and easy.

[cliffordu]

2. ROFL

......He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon.".....


Yeah, the "small ter'rist" would have to be about 7 inches tall, doncha think????

Makes for easier wrangling.

[MajorChode]

7. Not only that...

They are going to have to find someone at least 2 standard deviations to the right on the bell curve from Richard Reid, the Glasgow airport bombers, and those 7 crackheads that wanted to bomb the sears tower. That in itself is a tall order.

[Deja Q]

4. Now, how do they train the cockroaches and mosquitos not to infect them first?

Better them first than us, I suppose.

Which is ironic; terrorists are insects - are they hiring their cousins? Which they inbred with because no civilized person would even want to commit foreplay with them, much less the full reproductive act?!

[rug]

5. There's already an ant in Guantanamo.

[Oregone]

6. War on Bugs

Starship Troopers, here we come. Mandatory fumigation in all citizens' households

[Avalux]

8. This guy's a nut. The virus that causes Rift Valley Fever -

is spread by mosquitoes to animals and then to humans who consume their meat. Using that disease as an example of a successful terrorist weapon is a huge stretch.

[ThomWV]

10. The plague was spread by fleas as I understand it.