Terrorist Grasshopper Bombs

A headline today from the UK says that terrorists would find it easy to decimate the west using suitcases full of ordinary insects as 'biological weapons'.

Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War, said such Rift Valley Fever or other diseases could be transported into a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.

Governments, he advised, needed to have robust "pest management infrastructure that's able to absorb and respond to an introduction" of infected insects, he said.

Sounds like a custom made scary-tale that would make a perfect CBC TV Special Report followed by a 'concerned' bureaucrat calling for more government funding.

Just in case there are any Canadian politicians reading this today and gleefully rubbing their hands, I have this to say to you.

I am not afraid of terrorists, and certainly not afraid of insects. I stopped being afraid of both around age 12.

And I don't give you permission to be afraid of stupid stuff on my behalf.

So please don't get any dumb ideas.