Table of Contents
WEAPONIZING
POOP
Jeff Mapua
10 1 W. 23rd Str eet
Suite 0
New Y ork , NY 10011
USA
enslo w.com
Enslow
P
ublishing
THE
Power
OF POOP
Titles in the series
Visit enslow.com for more information!
Bows and arrows, firearms, missilesand poop? Thats right: we have a rich history
of using poop in all sorts of ways, including military defense. The progress of
invention marched forward as humans discovered a new material to use in the
manufacturing of weaponsone that were usually all too happy to flush away.
Learn all about the interesting development of warfare and the redefinition of
just what a stink bomb is. You wont believe how explosive poop can be!
WEAPONIZING POOP
Mapua
ENSLOW
THE OF P P
Power Power
Creative Ways People Have
Used Poop in Combat
Jeff Mapua
101 W. 23rd Str eet
Suite
New Y ork, NY 1001
USA
enslow.c om
Enslow
P
ublishing
THE OF P P
Power Power
WEAPONIZING
POOP
Words to Know
artillery shell What a large weapon, such as a rocket or cannon,
res or throws forward.
bacteria Tiny single-celled organisms that cause diseases in plants
and animals.
expose To leave without protection.
fertilizer Something to help soil produce larger or more plant life.
import To bring goods in from another country.
infect To cause a disease or illness.
malodorant A chemical that smells so bad that it temporarily stuns
a person.
predator An animal that lives by killing and eating other animals.
virus Simple microorganism or very complicated molecule that
causes diseases in plants and animals.
Contents
Animal Kingdom .........................................................
Poop in the Past ..........................................................
Poop in the Past, Part Two ..................................
Bat and Bird Boom ....................................................
Guano Gunpowder .................................................
Stink Bombs and More ..........................................
Tiny Terrors ..................................................................
Poop Poison .................................................................
Living Weapons ........................................................
Learn More ....................................................................
Index ..................................................................................
Animal Kingdom
All animals poop. It is a basic fact of life. But not all
animals treat poop in the same way. A lot of animals
stay away from their own poop. They do this to
keep themselves clean. For example, birds drop
their poop from the sky to keep it far away from
their bodies. Some animals do something much
different. They turn their poop into a weapon!
Some types of caterpillars get rid of their
waste by ring it away at a distance up to 40 times
their body length.
This is the same as
a 6-foot-tall person
inging their poop
240 feet away. The
caterpillar poop
comes out in a pellet
and travels about
4.2 feet per second.
Scientists found
FUN FACT
One insect uses its poop to
protect itself. Young tortoise
beetles, called larvae, pile up
poop on their backs to make
a shield. This helps keep
predators from eating them.
The orb weaver spiders web and markings make it look like
bird poop, so the birds dont eat it!
that caterpillars do this to protect themselves
from predators, such as wasps.
The orb weaver spider uses poop as a way to
keep predators away, too. It does not use its own
poop. Instead, it pretends to be bird poop. The
spider spins a special shape into its web. When it
sits on the shape, it looks like bird poop!
Poop in
the Past
People use poop as a weapon, too.
In fact, people have been using
poop as a weapon for thousands of
years. Around the year 400 BCE,
archers were known to use poop
on their arrows. In the area now
known as the Ukraine and Russia,
there were a group of people called
the Scythians. The Scythians
dipped their arrows in feces and
dead bodies. The arrows would
cause gangrene, a disease where
esh and tissue die because of an
infection. They would also cause
tetanus, an infection that causes
painful muscle spasms and death.
These poison arrows made it extra
Art from around 570 BCE shows a Scythian archer who used
hemlock poison in addition to contaminated arrows.
deadly for anyone hit by one. It was said
the arrows smelled so bad that people did
not have to be hit by one to suffer!
The ancient Romans had a similar
idea. They would spread manure and the
esh of dead animals on their swords. Just
like the poison arrows, these poisoned
swords were extra dangerous for anyone
cut by one.
A catapult is a machine that launches
an object great distances. They were
used in ancient warfare, and the Chinese
added their own twist to the weapon. In
the twelfth century, they would make a
bomb out of gunpowder, poison, and
human poop. This giant ball was held
together with hemp string. They loaded
the catapult with this smelly weapon and
lit the bomb with a hot poker. With
the poop and gunpowder lit, the Chinese
would ing the ball at their enemies.
The ancient Chinese also invented a smaller catapult that
was very accurate.
Poop in the
Past, Part Two
In the 1940s, the United States invented a weapon
that really stunk. Although it used no poop, it
sprayed a chemical on its targets that made them
smell like they had a bathroom accident. The
weapon, called Who Me, was top secret. There
are no known records of it ever being used, and it
ended up being unsuccessful.
One story from the 1950s shows how creative
people can be. The Canadian government tried to
force Inuit families to move to another part of the
country. One elder
man refused to go.
His family could
not convince him
to move, so they
left him in an igloo
without his tools.
The word toxin comes from
the Greek word for bow.
FUN FACT
Soldiers in Vietnam who were injured by punji sticks had to
be taken to safety by helicopter.
They thought he would eventually change his
mind. Instead, the elder Inuit froze his poop and
shaped it like a knife. He used this poop knife to
kill an animal. He used the body to make a sled and
