Potato Beetles and Biological War in Europe

In the meantime a limited release of the Colorado potato beetle may have taken place in 1943.  Between 1939 and 1942 potato production on the Isle of Wight had inceased dramatically. It had become one of the important potato growing areas of England.  As such it was a likely target.  In 1970 Richard Ford, a highly respected entymologist, told a local newspaper that he had been involved in collecting the beetles in 1943.  These were easy to collect because the Germans had released the beetles in lots of 50 or 100 individuals.   

However, there is more.  The Germans were frightened by the beetle.

As the Second World War advanced the Colorado potato beetle infestation spread across Europe.  The Germans made repeated comments that the United States was engaged in biological warfare and was spreading the disease.  Even at the dock in the Nuremberg trial Goring protested that the Allies were spreading the infection across Germany.

After the war a major infestation took place in the Soviet zone of occupation in eastern Germany. In 1950, over half of their potato crop was destroyed by the Colorado potato beetle.  It was a tense time in the Cold War and once again, the Germans accused the American of waging in biological warfare. The East Germans introduced some strange facts.  The day before the outbreak Germany had been overflown by American planes. The beetles had arrived very early in the season, before the potato was in leaf, and all the beetles were of the same size, as though they had been bred. The East Germans even alleged that it was a plot to compel them to buy Western insecticides.  The announcement covered up the German mis-management of the infection. In the Western areas of Europe the Colorado beetle infections were being contained through the use of insecticides such as DDT.

I think that this story shows how the fear of a natural pest become greatly distorted by war.  The beetles that were found beside an English railway line that escalated the whole affair might well have escaped from an American army camp.  The American army almost certainly helped the Colorado beetle spread across Europe.  This would be almost innevitable given the shear volume of supplies that moving across the continent.