Foods that have been weaponized
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Foods That Have Been Weaponized — Daily trivia Saturday, April 4, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which starchy vegetable is fired from makeshift cannons called 'spud guns'?
- APotato
- BZucchini
- CSweet potato
- DCarrot
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Potato
The spud gun has a genuine military ancestor: the Holman Projector, a Second World War shipboard anti-aircraft weapon that used steam or compressed air to lob grenades, and which sailors reportedly test-fired with potatoes.
Q 02Which naturally occurring chili pepper compound is the active ingredient in pepper spray?
- ACurcumin
- BPiperine
- CAllicin
- DCapsaicin
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Capsaicin
Capsaicin: pepper spray's resin is extracted from finely ground chilies, and because it won't dissolve in water, even large volumes only dilute it.
Q 03Which animals was Britain's abandoned WWII 'Operation Vegetarian' meant to poison with anthrax-laced linseed cakes?
- APigs
- BCattle
- CChickens
- DHorses
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Cattle
Cattle: the anthrax-laced linseed cakes were sliced by a soap maker, shelved once D-Day made them unnecessary, and five million were incinerated after the war.
Q 04Which city did Rome supposedly sow with salt in 146 BC, a tale no ancient source records?
- ACorinth
- BCarthage
- CNumantia
- DSyracuse
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Carthage
Carthage: the story seems modelled on the Bible's Abimelech salting Shechem, though Hittite and Assyrian texts really do describe strewing salt over conquered cities.
Q 05Which plant did 6th-century BC besiegers use to poison Kirrha's water pipe, leaving defenders weak with diarrhoea?
- AMandrake
- BWolfsbane
- CNightshade
- DHellebore
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Hellebore
Hellebore: the attackers found Kirrha's secret water pipe after a horse's hoof broke it, and Nebros, the physician said to have suggested the poison, was reputedly an ancestor of Hippocrates.
Q 06Which cooking staple was sometimes heated and poured on siege attackers, though its expense kept it rare?
- AHoney
- BWine
- CMilk
- DOil
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Oil
Because oil smokes before it boils, defenders only heated it rather than boiling it; cheaper boiling water and hot sand were far more common.
Q 07Per Livy, Hannibal's men heated Alpine boulders and doused them with which pantry liquid to crack them?
- AVinegar
- BLye
- CBrine
- DLemon juice
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Vinegar
Historians have doubted the story for centuries; Jonathan Swift had Gulliver summon Hannibal's ghost, who admits the fire-and-vinegar trick never happened.
Q 08Which poison is believed to have killed Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London?
- AStrychnine
- BCyanide
- CRicin
- DBotulinum
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Ricin
Ricin, from castor beans, is the likeliest poison in the tiny pellet jabbed into Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978; ten days earlier defector Vladimir Kostov survived a similar attack in Paris.
Q 09Which tactic did Nigerian authorities explicitly declare and use against Biafra, leading to widespread famine?
- ABiological warfare
- BScorched earth policy
- CStarvation as a legitimate weapon of war
- DChemical defoliation
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Starvation as a legitimate weapon of war
Starvation as a legitimate weapon of war: Nigeria's blockade of Biafra left between 500,000 and 2 million civilians dead of starvation.
Q 10The toxins in the 'mad honey' Mithridates used against Pompey's men come mainly from which plant's nectar?
- AOleander
- BRhododendron
- CBelladonna
- DHemlock
Show answer
Rhododendron
The grayanotoxins in Rhododendron luteum and R. ponticum still cause 'mad honey disease' around the Black Sea today, and Xenophon's Greek army had blundered into the same honey 300 years before Mithridates weaponised it.
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