5. Bug Warfare
As comical as it might sound to modern readers, insects actually have been used as weapons dating as far back as Ancient Greece. There are countless stories of hives of wasps and bees shaken and thrown over an enemies walls to help break sieges. While this may seem like something out of a skit, imagine how you’d feel trying to withstand a siege while being stuck by dozens of bees!
There are also stories of giving baskets full of venomous scorpions to enemies, which is as terrifying as it is poetic and creative. This method of insult (or murder) seems as though it would be at home on the pages of one of the great Greek tragedies.
In a more serious and malign iteration, Japanese force in World War II invested a great deal of time, money and energy into attempts to weaponize plague fleas in order to cause plague epidemics among allied soldiers. They loaded plague fleas into clay bombs, which they tested on some remote areas in China. Those areas did sustain small plague outbreaks, but the Japanese forces never achieved the level of contagiousness or lethality that they required for an effective weapon.
