# Did the USA research weaponizing ticks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 16, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159 "2019-07-16T03:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/1 "2019-07-16T03:48:13Z")
It sounds like a conspiracy theory. Is it? From [Gizmodo](https://gizmodo.com/pentagon-ordered-to-tell-congress-if-it-weaponized-tick-1836391549): > [@](#): > > Roll Call reports that on July 11, the House stealthily decided via voice vote to support an amendment to the 2020 defense authorization bill that would require the Department of Justice look into weaponized ticks. > > According to the Congress-focused newspaper, New Jersey Republican Rep. Christopher Smith wrote the amendment, which demands the inspector general “shall conduct a review of whether the Department of Defense experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975.” > > For years there have been reports and theories circulating that suggest Department of Defense researchers at facilities like New York’s Plum Island and Maryland’s Fort Detrick may have infected insects for biological weapon tests—and then released those insects outside of the lab, leading to the spread of Lyme disease. A book published in May—Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons—has brought public attention to these notions, which may have inspired Smith to propose this amendment that is co-sponsored by Maryland Republican Andy Harris and Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson > > A review by Outside magazine says Bitten author Kris Newby research shared in the book “rests on shaky ground” and presents a lot of evidence, but no smoking gun proving a connection between government biowarfare research and the Lyme disease outbreak. I considered putting this in a couple forums - General Questions, Politics - but decided this was the best compromise. Any mod can punt it elsewhere if I have chosen poorly. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/2 "2019-07-16T08:44:33Z")
The Lyme advocacy groups here in the UK will love that, right up their street. Lyme disease is found throughout the Northern hemisphere, so could this evil plot have led to global dispersion of the disease? It is not communicable preson to person as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/3 "2019-07-16T10:46:37Z")
The U.S. DoD threw so much money on crazy shit in 1950-1975 that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. Incidentally, the phrase “ticks and other insects” is giving me, well, a tick. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/4 "2019-07-18T00:31:19Z")
Well, we once tried to kill a dictator with an exploding cigar, so anything’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/5 "2019-07-18T02:30:25Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The U.S. DoD threw so much money on crazy shit in 1950-1975 that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. That’s what I was thinking. The US Army Air Force considered using bat bombs against the Japanese during WW II, the British considered a giant aircraft made from arctic ice, and, like you said, the US tried all sorts of crazy shit throughout the 50s and 60s. Quite frankly I’d be shocked if the DoD didn’t look into a way to weaponize ticks and other pests. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/6 "2019-07-18T04:27:25Z")
“Don’t make us bite you in hard-to-reach places!” - The Tick. hmmm, [that invulnerable super hero appeared as an adult in 1990’s](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TheTick), you don’t suppose… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/7 "2019-07-18T04:40:12Z")
That’s been the local lore here in New England for decades - it was created as a biological weapon and accidentally escaped the Upside Down. I mean the lab. However, in this article, [What We Get Wrong About Lyme Disease](http://nautil.us/issue/53/monsters/what-we-get-wrong-about-lyme-disease), it talks about how preserved samples of ticks strongly suggest that Lyme disease has existed for a lot longer than we thought. I guess that _doesn’t_ preclude evil scientists from plotting to facilitate the spread an existing bacteria for militarial purposes rather than cooking it up in their lab, though… ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/8 "2019-07-18T07:40:18Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > That’s what I was thinking. The US Army Air Force considered using bat bombs against the Japanese during WW II, the British considered a giant aircraft made from arctic ice, and, like you said, the US tried all sorts of crazy shit throughout the 50s and 60s. Quite frankly I’d be shocked if the DoD didn’t look into a way to weaponize ticks and other pests. Don’t forget the [chicken-powered nuclear landmine.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/9 "2019-07-18T09:05:17Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Don’t forget the [chicken-powered nuclear landmine.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock) Also the [pigeon guided nuclear missile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon) and [incendiary bat bombs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb). And of course the crazy wasn’t limited to the U. S. military. The Russians had to get in on the animal action with their own [anti-tank dogs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog), which they continued to train all the way up until 1996! China and Japan both got in on the exploding dog action, and the U.S. even looked into it during WWII, but abandoned the idea as unsafe (duh, ya think?). Exploding donkeys have been used since the U.S. Civil War, and have even been used successfully by the Taliban in the last couple of decades. Iraqis tried the same thing, but their donkey exploded before it reached the U.S. check point that was its intended target. Explosives have been strapped to numerous animals in the Middle East, with varying success. The U.S. and Soviets have also weaponized dolphins, though in practice they use them more for finding submerged ordinance since dolphins have difficulty distinguishing friendly humans from enemy humans. But both countries at least researched the idea of deadly dolphins. And the crazy hasn’t been limited to weaponizing animals. There has also been the [gay bomb and halitosis bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb) that were researched, but as far as I am aware were never put into production. So yeah, ticks? Just add 'em to the list. Wouldn’t surprise me at all. In fact, while the military may not have ever gone as far as actually deploying them as a weapon, I would be very surprised to learn that they hadn’t at least looked into the idea. The military researches all kinds of crazy stuff. Fortunately, most of it drops out while it’s still in the early crazy stage. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/10 "2019-07-18T11:23:02Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > That’s been the local lore here in New England for decades - it was created as a biological weapon and accidentally escaped the Upside Down. I mean the lab. When I was in the Gainesville, Florida area several people told me that the “love bugs” (_Plecia nearctic_) were part of a genetics experiment gone awry over at the college (University of Florida). People swore that this was the case, everyone knew someone who worked with someone who was involved in the project. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/11 "2019-07-18T16:41:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > When I was in the Gainesville, Florida area several people told me that the “love bugs” (_Plecia nearctic_) were part of a genetics experiment gone awry over at the college (University of Florida). People swore that this was the case, everyone knew someone who worked with someone who was involved in the project. It is usually said that lovebugs were _created_ by UF researchers - not merely subjects of a genetic experiment but the product of it. A quick look at Wikipedia debunks this particular urban legend: “_P. nearctica_ was in Louisiana as early as 1911, but it did not reach Florida until 1949” (citations omitted; Buschman, 1976). ~Max Buschman, L. L. (1976). Invasion of Florida by the “Lovebug” _Plecia nearctica_ (Diptera: Bibionidae). _The Florida Entomologist_, 59(2), 191-194. Retrieved July 18, 2019 from [http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/57084/54763](http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/57084/54763) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/12 "2019-07-18T17:59:37Z")
Didn’t they once try attaching a bomb to a cat, and send it into an embassy or something? Only the cat was run over by a car before it could get there. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/13 "2019-07-18T23:07:04Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Didn’t they once try attaching a bomb to a cat, and send it into an embassy or something? Only the cat was run over by a car before it could get there. There is also Franz Helm, artillery master for Emperor Charles V of the sixteenth century Holy Roman Empire. He proposed strapping incendiaries to cats and birds and letting them return to the besieged city, to hide in haystacks and thus spread fire. [http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/pageturn.html?id=MEDREN\_9915804513503681&rotation=0¤tpage=277](http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/pageturn.html?id=MEDREN_9915804513503681&rotation=0¤tpage=277) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/14 "2019-07-18T23:26:57Z")
Here is a New York Times article about the Plum Island theory from 2004: > **[Heaping More Dirt On Plum I. (Published 2004)](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/nyregion/heaping-more-dirt-on-plum-i.html)** > > Article on lawyer Michael Christopher Carroll of Bellmore, NY who, after years of researching Plum Island Animal Disease Center, has published book Lab 257; Carroll argues that lab, taken over by Department of Homeland Security in June, is biological... ~Max ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/15 "2019-07-18T23:31:26Z")
Sure, the USA weaponized ticks just after [the CIA released HIV into the wild](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-disinformation-fake-news-elections.html?searchResultPosition=8). The link is probably behind the NYT paywall but it is a remarkable study of how the Soviets were using fake news decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/16 "2019-07-19T00:55:42Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Didn’t they once try attaching a bomb to a cat, and send it into an embassy or something? Only the cat was run over by a car before it could get there. Not a bomb, a microphone and a transmitter. It was a spy kitty, not a bomb kitty. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The first Acoustic Kitty mission was to eavesdrop on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and allegedly killed by a taxi almost immediately.[4] However, this was disputed in 2013 by Robert Wallace, a former Director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, who said that the project was abandoned due to the difficulty of training the cat to behave as required > **[Acoustic Kitty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty)** > > Acoustic Kitty was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project launched by their Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1960s, which intended to use cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. > In an hour-long procedure, a veterinary surgeon implanted a microphone in the cat's ear canal, a small radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and a thin wire into its fur. This would allow the cat to innocuously record and transmit sound from its surroundings. Due to problems with distraction... ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/17 "2019-07-19T11:51:38Z")
No. That’s idiotic. Now, I am sure the government (not just the USA) researched using vector arthropods to deploy biopathogens _as a concept_. And they would have come to the conclusion that it’s not a good idea. Vector arthropods as deployment vectors suck because you can’t control where they go or who they bite. You also have to rear millions of them (doable for mosquitoes maybe but not trivial) and infect them with pathogens (also doable but not trivial). If you decide you want to go the mass destruction route with an uncontrollable weapon, much easier to just use gas. Now, If you’re still hell-bent on doing this, why on earth would you choose a tick-borne pathogen? I’ve reared many species of vector arthropod and take it from me, ticks are the absolute worst. Difficult to rear, every stage needs a blood meal (and they don’t like feeding on artificial membranes), and they take at least a YEAR to go from egg to adult (maybe 6 months if you REALLY push them and know what you’re doing). Mass rearing ticks is a non-starter. And then, why would you use a useless pathogen like Borrelia? It’s slow, not immediately incapacitating, and curable with dirt-cheap antibiotics. If I had the capacity to mass rear ticks for weapon use i’d go with a nasty virus like crimean congo. In short, this is bullshit, horsehit, and many other kinds of shit. Conspiracy theory nonsense that pops up every now and again to give me headaches when stupid reporters call me. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/18 "2019-07-19T12:50:27Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > Now, I am sure the government (not just the USA) researched using vector arthropods to deploy biopathogens _as a concept_. And they would have come to the conclusion that it’s not a good idea. This is very plausible, but it is not known if this actually occurred. > [@](#): > > If you decide you want to go the mass destruction route with an uncontrollable weapon, much easier to just use gas. I wouldn’t put gas in the same league of uncontrollable weapon as a tick-borne pathogen. You can gas a block, neighborhood, hill, or encampment, and it is uncontrollable in that it is likely to go to nearby and different blocks, neighborhoods, etc. The weapon may also be persistent, which is really just awful. But bioweapons are likely to be uncontrollable on a whole different scale, perhaps crossing regions and countries. I strongly disagree with the “they’d just use gas to achieve similar effects” argument. > [@](#): > > In short, this is bullshit, horsehit, and many other kinds of shit. Conspiracy theory nonsense that pops up every now and again to give me headaches when stupid reporters call me. I agree that those who want to blame the government for creating Lyme disease and peanut allergies are off in cuckoo land, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a legitimate question of whether the government invested in some dumb concepts long ago. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/19 "2019-07-19T13:02:53Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I agree that those who want to blame the government for creating Lyme disease and peanut allergies are off in cuckoo land, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a legitimate question of whether the government invested in some dumb concepts long ago. I am certain they did at the conceptual level. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159/20 "2019-07-19T16:11:03Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > I am certain they did at the conceptual level. I’m sure of that, but publicly disclosing what was actually done is a good idea. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-usa-research-weaponizing-ticks/837159.md?page=2)