Newly unearthed Pentagon documents indicate that the U.S. military conducted experiments to assess the potential of using swarms of disease-infected mosquitoes as biological weapons. These findings emerge from a declassified 69-page report from a U.S. Army program known as Project Bellwether, made public through the Defense Technical Information Center.

The experiments, conducted between September and October 1959, focused on studying how effectively mosquitoes bite humans in outdoor, hot, and desert conditions. The primary objective was to gather data to evaluate the feasibility of deploying infected insects as weapons against enemy forces or populated areas.

Researchers utilized Aedes aegypti, a mosquito species known to transmit dangerous diseases such as Zika, dengue fever, yellow fever, and chikungunya. The report explicitly stated that 'the deliberate employment of infected arthropod vectors against enemy targets holds great strategic potential.'

These investigations built upon earlier efforts in the mid-1950s, including initiatives like Operation Drop Kick and Operation Big Buzz. Operation Big Buzz, in particular, reportedly involved the release of 300,000 yellow fever-infected mosquitoes over a predominantly Black neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia, in 1955. The aim was to determine if these insects could survive aerial dispersal over targets.

Yellow fever and dengue fever are serious illnesses. Yellow fever can cause high fever, muscle aches, and in severe cases, jaundice, bleeding, and a mortality rate of up to 50% if untreated. Dengue can lead to severe headaches, joint pain, and fatigue, with severe cases resulting in internal bleeding and shock, potentially killing one in five untreated patients.

Operation Drop Kick, another Cold War-era experiment, aimed to ascertain if mosquitoes could serve as delivery systems for biological agents. While the mosquitoes used in these specific tests were not infected, the research focused on assessing their ability to spread pathogens in a potential biological warfare scenario. Studies examined their survival rates after aerial release, their dispersal range, and their propensity to seek and feed on human hosts.

Further details from a 1960 Pentagon report reveal continued research with 52 live trials involving U.S. soldiers who volunteered to be bitten by mosquitoes in a desert environment in Utah. Scientists from the U.S. Army Chemical Corps sought to understand mosquito survival and biting effectiveness in arid conditions, which differ from the tropical climates typically inhabited by Aedes aegypti.

The research also considered the impact of weather factors such as high winds, extreme temperatures, and intense sunlight on the insects. Findings suggested that disease-carrying mosquitoes could still effectively bite and infect targets even when released outside their natural habitats. The insects were believed to remain effective in temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, broadening their potential use across various climates.

In one trial at the Dugway Proving Ground, soldiers sitting in a small ring were reportedly bitten an average of 40 times when exposed to 100 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

These revelations lend credence to past accusations. A 1982 article in the Soviet magazine Literary Gazette claimed that U.S. laboratories were breeding 'particularly poisonous mosquitoes' to infect victims with deadly viruses. At the time, the CIA publicly dismissed these claims as 'ridiculous Soviet propaganda,' despite acknowledging internally the development of biological warfare programs involving insects.

The declassified documents also align with claims of secret CIA research involving ticks as carriers of life-threatening illnesses during the Cold War. Reports suggest experiments involving the release of radioactive ticks in Virginia and open-air tick research at Plum Island, a federal laboratory near where Lyme disease was first identified. These activities are potentially linked to a broader Cold War biological weapons program known as Project 112, which reportedly encompassed numerous secret tests on insect-borne pathogens.