Undercover Bees

A recent article in Science News describes the latest "Sting Operation" - bees and wasps trained to sniff out illegal and dangerous substances. According to the article by Susan Gaidos, researchers have found that bees are adept at discerning the smell of TNT, methamphetamine and other scents. With similar training, wasps have been used to find bodies in search-and-rescue missions. Bees and wasps may be put to work in sniffing out drugs and bombs at airports and border crossings, military installations and schools. Apparently, it only takes a few minutes of training to replace the bees' natural ability to find pollen with the target scent. The photo above shows a honeybee receiving an odor by sticking out its proboscis - filing away orders for the day. 

Chemist Robert Wingo of Los Alamos' Stealthy Insect Sensor Project is quoted in the article as saying, "The general premise is, if it smells, we believe we can train our bees to detect it." Bees are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and seem to be able to pick up scents that dogs cannot. In some cases, the bees perform better than lab instruments. How do they do it? Bees and other insects have antennae covered with thousands of microscopic sensors. Even moths can learn and remember a wide range of target odors. Research in insect tracking began in earnest in the 1990's, but the obvious question was how to harness the effect without letting bees loose in an airport or school. Today, portable bomb detectors are contained in units about the size of a shoe box. Inside, bees are kept in tubes and exposed to puffs of air as a video camera monitors the bees' reactions. They have been taught to stick out their tongues when the air puff smells of TNT or plastic explosives. Using the same approach forager bees can detect a wide variety of compounds, including illegal drugs, even when buried with other scents. Other teams of scientists are working with wasps, giving them similar tasks and training. But for now, the real world applications have been few. With further refinement, you may be facing undercover bees at airports and in the workplace soon. Just a matter of getting the bugs worked out!