Operation Big Buzz was a U.S. military

entomological warfare Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to interrupt supply lines by damaging crops, or to directly harm enemy combatants and civilian populations. There have been several programs which have attempted to instit ...

field test conducted in the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in 1955. The tests involved dispersing over 300,000 mosquitoes from aircraft and through ground dispersal methods.

Operation

Operation Big Buzz occurred in June 1955 in the U.S. state of Georgia. The operation was a field test designed to determine the feasibility of producing, storing, loading into munitions, and dispersing from aircraft the

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

mosquito (though these were not infected for the test) (''

Aedes aegypti ''Aedes aegypti'', the yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that can spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, Mayaro and yellow fever viruses, and other disease agents. The mosquito can be recognized by black and white markings on its l ...

''). The second goal of the operation was to determine whether the

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

es would survive their dispersion and seek meals on the ground. Around 330,000 uninfected mosquitoes were dropped from aircraft in E14 bombs and dispersed from the ground. In total about one million female mosquitoes were bred for the testing;Novick, Lloyd and Marr, John S. ''Public Health Issues Disaster Preparedness'',
Google Books
, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2001, p. 89, (). remaining mosquitoes were used in munitions loading and storage tests. Those mosquitoes that were air-dispersed were dropped from airplanes above the ground, spreading out on their own and due to the wind.

Results

Mosquitoes were collected as far away as from the release site. They were also active in seeking blood meals from humans and

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...

s.Rose, William H.
An Evaluation of Entomological Warfare as Potential Danger to the United States and European NATO Nations
, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command,

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway P ...

, March 1981, via '' thesmokinggun.com'', accessed December 27, 2008.

References

{{U.S. biological weapons Big Buzz Big Buzz Big Buzz Big Buzz 1955 in the United States

Operation

Results

See also

References