Throughout the centuries, many things have been used as weapons.

Insects have been found to be incredibly effective.

Follow me down the rabbit hole. I'm your host, Danny, and today we are talking about weaponized insects. This might be a two-parter. I'm not exactly

sure. Just depends like how long it takes me to get through all of my notes. So if it's two

parts, cool. If not, cool. Here we go. And also part, different parts of this episode have been suggested as like individual episodes,

but they all actually fit into this one episode.

So when we get to those parts, I will thank the people that have requested those parts of the episode.

Anyway, let's get into the history of weaponized insects.

This actually was really, really interesting. I had no idea. So first of all, why should we use insects? Well, they can infect enemies by delivering deadly pathogens and they can destroy agriculture, which will cause like widespread sickness and hunger. So make sense to use insects.

At the end of the second century, Romans were hit with the first insect weapon. So scorpions

were known in the region for their painful stings and their venom, which makes sense,

because it would cause irregular breathing, slowed pulse,

convulsions, and sometimes even death.

In fact, the Persian kings would regularly order scorpion hunts and offer bounties to assure safe

passage for caravans on the Silk Road.

So they had like scorpion hunters, and you would get paid a decent amount for hunting scorpions.

But with the Romans at the walls of Hatra, just about to take control of Mesopotamia, scorpion

bombs rained down upon them. How cool. I mean, okay, it probably wasn't cool for them, but like, what a cool,

like, idea. Sorry, I don't know why this, like, really was really interesting for me. Um, so this

actually caused a lot of issues, like, with the Romans, where skin was exposed. So their legs, their

arms, their faces, and their eyes were attacked.

And this attack actually held the Romans at bay for 20 days before the troops finally broke off the battle and retreated.

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