The Plague of Flies, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
One of my favorite insect books is called Bugs in the System, by rock-star entomologist May Berenbaum. According to Berenbaum, six of the ten plagues of Egypt may have been caused by insects.
The ten plagues were ten calamities that are described in the book of Exodus. Yahweh, the Israelites’ god, inflicted the plagues upon Egypt to encourage the Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. This is not one of the Bible’s cheerier tales. When the pharaoh finally relented, the Jewish people commenced with their Exodus from Egypt.
So the plagues go as follows:
- blood-red water, which killed all the aquatic life.
- a rain of frogs
- lice
- flies
- livestock got sick
- people developed awful boils on their bodies
- hail and thunder
- locusts
- darkness
- death of the Egyptians’ firstborn
You can see right away that three of the plagues feature insects (lice, flies, and locusts). But Berenbaum’s theory is that the cattle diseases could have been caused by biting flies. The boils might have been buboes (and bubonic plague is transmitted by fleas). Or, she exuberantly continues, they might have been scabies or bot flies. And the darkness (#9) might be a continuation of the locust plague darkening the sky.