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Science

Honeybees Trained to Find Landmines 55

Posted by timothy from the because-cats-were-too-smart dept.
KingMeer writes "A group of researchers at the University of Montana have trained honeybees to seek out landmines. Apparently they are much more effective than dogs, making them a practical tool for finding the 110 million landmines worldwide."
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Honeybees Trained to Find Landmines More

Honeybees Trained to Find Landmines

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  • Now I wonder (Score:2, Interesting)

    by inerte ( 452992 )
    If you could "mark" the bees with a substance that could be seen by a radar and automatically launch something to explode the mine.
    • From here [cyberbee.net]:
      In coming weeks, the team plans the first field tests of a new radio transmitter, the size of a grain of salt, that could allow individual bees to be tracked as they follow diffuse trails of bomb ingredients to a source. Such a system would help if bees were used to search a wide area for hidden explosives.
  • A bee goes near a mine.

    Bee: "Are you a mine or a rock?"
    Mine: "Uerm.. A rock?"
    Bee: "Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!!! WRONG"
    Mine: "Oh yea???"

    *BOOM*

  • Another Advantage Over Dogs (Score:4, Interesting)

    by greenhide ( 597777 ) <`moc.ylkeewellivc' `ta' `todhsalsnadroj'> on Wednesday September 25, 2002 @04:38PM (#4331190)
    ...Bees are much lighter. Unless I'm mistaken, a dog used to sniff out a mine could easily set it off, even if it were careful. The mines are sensitive enough to go off when a small child steps on them, so they are clearly sensitive enough for dogs. Bees, on the other hand, weigh close to nothing and probably would not ever be able to set off a mine.

    The question is: once a bee pinpoints a mine (by landing it, I suppose), how is that mine put out of comission?

    Finally: I can understand how dogs can be trained and motivated to do this sort of thing. What incentive would make these bees "do our bidding"?
    • they would all converge on the package, and a guy walking around would spraypaint the spot, and the demo guys come in after and blow it up, after all the bees are back in the beehive-box (army-green of course)

    • Sugar is the reward (Score:5, Informative)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2002 @05:11PM (#4331487) Journal

      Scientists have found that it takes less than two hours to use sugar-water rewards to condition a hive of honeybees to eschew flowers and instead hunt for 2,4-dinitrotoluene, or DNT, a residue in TNT and other explosives, in concentrations as tiny as a few thousandths of a part per trillion.

      Taken from a previous NYT article (mirror 1 [cyberbee.net], mirror 2 [gyre.org])

      GMD

      • Scientists have found that it takes less than two hours to use sugar-water rewards to condition a hive of honeybees to eschew flowers and instead hunt for 2,4-dinitrotoluene, or DNT, a residue in TNT and other explosives, in concentrations as tiny as a few thousandths of a part per trillion.
        The downside is that you have to be very careful when you're processing the honey they produce....

        Karma: Overated: mostly due to - oh, WTF, who cares any more?

      • If it's so easy to train them, I wonder if it would be easy to un-train them. For instance, someone wanting to smuggle something could quietly spill some sugar water on the road, and when that first bee finds it, the whole hive will be too distracted to look for explosives or drugs.
    • They do their bee dance of course. Bees have a very intricate dance that shows other bees where pollen is, I think scientists had learned how to interpret this dance, if the bees returned and did their dance, humans could go and detonate the mine, or the bees could collectivly sting it repeatedly.

      • They do their bee dance of course. Bees have a very intricate dance that shows other bees where pollen is, I think scientists had learned how to interpret this dance, if the bees returned and did their dance, humans could go and detonate the mine, or the bees could collectivly sting it repeatedly.

        A rare video clip of a person trying to imitate the bee dance can be seen here [fuckedcompany.com]. Although he's a bit heavier than a bee and the dance isn't very intricate, if you saw this happening, it would sure get your attention!

        GMD

    • True true, well said... but I can't help but think that the best solution would be dogs that shoot bees out of thier mouths. :)
    • > Unless I'm mistaken, a dog used to sniff out a mine could easily set it off, even if it were careful.

      So why stop using dogs? They find the mine and set it off. Problem solved.

      Bees on the other hand only do half the job: Finding the mine.

      - No, I'm not a dog owner
    • "The question is: once a bee pinpoints a mine (by landing it, I suppose), how is that mine put out of comission?"


      I understand they're training ants to dig them up...

  • Now I am stuck with a whole warehouse full of landmine scented aftershave.
  • that this works out better than our last experiment with using bees to our advantage ;)
    • that this works out better than our last experiment with using bees to our advantage ;)

      The whole "making honey" thing? Yeah, that was SUCH a mess! I mean, that never worked, did it?

      • The whole "making honey" thing? Yeah, that was SUCH a mess! I mean, that never worked, did it?
        Heard of killer bees? They were invented by combining African bees with European Honeybees, in order to get a honeybee that could thrive in the more tropical regions in Brazil. Of course genetic engineering will take the two best features, right? But no, it picked the two worst. Instead of quickly reproducing gentle honeybees, they got quickly reproducing aggressive attackbees... So, yeah, it was "SUCH a mess".
        • Heard of killer bees?

          Sure...

          They were invented by combining African bees with European Honeybees, in order to get a honeybee that could thrive in the more tropical regions in Brazil.

          That was the plan.

          Of course genetic engineering will take the two best features, right?

          It wasn't genetic engineering, it was cross breeding...

          But no, it picked the two worst. Instead of quickly reproducing gentle honeybees, they got quickly reproducing aggressive attackbees... So, yeah, it was "SUCH a mess".
          That's not exactly what happened.
          They were halfway throught the cross breeding program, using hives with metal plaques nailed to the only opening that had a slit wide enough for workers but too narrow for queens, hence preventing "swarming" and the release of reproducting bees in the environment.
          One weekend, someone came to the hives, removed the plaques using tools found on site and let the bees out.

          It wasn't science run amock, it was either willfull sabotage or tremendous human stupidity.
          Someone made the effort of removing nailed plaques, not the scientist's fault.

          • Actually, it wasn't either willful sabotage or tremendous human stupidity. It was a crossbred species doing something that no other bees do: http://www.txtwriter.com/Onscience/Articles/killer bees.html [txtwriter.com]: Once a normal bee lays eggs, they don't leave their hive. Not so with killer bees. But regardless, that has nothing to do with your original point. Someone said that they hope the bees don't turn against us, and you stupidly (or attempting to be funny) made your honeybee comment. It's obvious the poster was referring to killer bees, and your claiming that they are ignorable because killer bees were a mistake is just silly. We can ignore Chernobyl because it was a mistake too, right?
            • and you stupidly (or attempting to be funny) made your honeybee comment.

              Takes one to know one, stupid.

              It's obvious the poster was referring to killer bees

              Yes, and therefore only the very stupid would go out of their way to point it out, stupid.

              Ok, and I read that article (horrible, horrible web site BTW), and it WAS tremendous stupidity. Some guy shows up on a beehive he doesn't own and knows nothing about, and proceedes on removing the plaques keeping the queens inside. The fact that in his ignorance he didn't see any harm in doing so doesn''t make him, or you, any less stupid.

              and your claiming that they are ignorable because killer bees were a mistake is just silly.

              And you think that european honeybees are naturally found in man-made beehives? I was pointing out by way of sarcasm that we have already learned to use bees sucesfully, and just because it went wrong once (because somebody as stupid as you interfered in something he shouldn't have because he knew nothing about it, and was stupid) doesn't mean that it will go wrong everytime.
              I find it annoying that with every single science story you get these guys making dumb post-modern "science is bad" comments. Yes, accidents happen, yes, scientists make deadly mistakes. We know already!

              I also find it annoying when stupid people assume that I'm stupid because they didn't understand my comment. I thought about making some witty sarcastic reply but I think this way is better: You, Kelmenson, are very stupid!

              BTW you are stupid.

              Ah, wasting karma on some stupid retard just because he called me stupid...fun fun fun.
              kelmenson is stupid, pass the word.
              (hint to moderators: either +1 funny or -1 Troll ;- )
  • I can see the landmines taunting the landmine-finding crew:
    "What are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Release the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths so that when they bark they shoot bees at you?"

    Sorry, but when someone mentions bees and dogs, I can't help but think of that quote from Homer.
  • I mean, really -- think about it. What advances have there been in landmine-finding technology in the last thirty years? We're pretty well using the same technology and same strategies to find, mark and "safely" detonate the mines. I'll grant this isn't actually a "technology" per se, it's definitely a development that will improve a lot of peoples' safety...

    That is, of course, until the bees go berserk and start stinging the little children playing in the minefields...! ;-)
  • I think I'm going to stop flying altogether if I have to get checked by bees.

    What happens if you swat one of them? They try and charge you with killing a federal officer if you kill a police dog, so what about the bomb-sniffing bees? Would I find myself in the federal pen for smashing a bee?

    On a more serious note, what if the bees all swarm over the bomb-disposal equipment instead of the landmines? The article says that they are just looking for DNT particles, in the parts per trillion range, so wouldn't this be present on the bomb-disposal equipment?
  • Yes, yes, See see, Here here

    On on, Slashdot shlashdot [slashdot.org]
  • BZZZZZZZzzzzzzz......*BANG!*........BZZZZzzzzzz... ..*BANG!* :-)

  • Yep, keep training those Bees, folks!

    Now that we know they can be put to use
    for post-military purposes, we might see
    them replace Trouffle Dogs someday... :-)

  • Holy crap -- are there really 110 million landmines buried around the world? According to the article 26,000 people are killed or injured yearly by them. This blows my mind. I'm seriously asking: where are these things?

    If I'm doing my math right, which I'm probably not, assuming each land mine is a cylinder 1 inch tall and 6 inches in diameter, 110,000,000 of these things would form a cube 33 miles on each side. Are there really that many?

    • Actually they'd explode if you'd stack'em like that ,)
    • Found this quote on the net:

      "Eighty-nine nations have ratified the treaty, which became binding international law on March 1, 1999. Every country in the Western Hemisphere has signed, except the United States and Cuba"

      Guess who is the largest producer of land mines?

    • If I'm doing my math right, which I'm probably not, assuming each land mine is a cylinder 1 inch tall and 6 inches in diameter, 110,000,000 of these things would form a cube 33 miles on each side. Are there really that many?

      Well, at least you were right when you said you were probably doing your math wrong.

      If they were 1 inch tall and 6 inches in diameter and you stacked them based on a square grid:

      The space each mine occupies in the grid is:

      1 in x 6 in x 6 in = 36 in^3
      36 in^3 / 12 in / 12 in / 12 in = 0.0208333 ft^3

      So 110,000,000 of them are:

      .0208333 ft^3 x 110,000,000 = 2,291,666.666 ft^3
      2,291,666.666 ft^3 ^ (1/3) = 131.841 ft

      So, they would make a cube only 131 ft 10 inches.

      Of course, if they are really round, you could stack each layer honeycomb-style and the cube would be even smaller. As they say, the solution is left as an exercise for the reader.


  • I want landmines trained to hunt down bees.

    Pesky annoying fuckers.

  • Oh great!

    Now when you step on a land mine, you'll get stung as well!

    -Peter
  • What might they train them to sniff out next? "Several potsmoking teenagers are under arrest and being treated for multiple bee stings..."

    If they could train killer bees or wasps, they'd be all set with a little attack force. They might even qualify as a SWAT team.

  • New York - Household products conglomerate SC Johnson Wax was found guilty in a US Federal court today on charges of treason, stemming from their release of a new product - the Raid Mine (tm). The Raid Mine (tm) was an extension of the extrememly popular Raid (tm) product line of bug-killing products, into the newly discovered anti-bug-and-personnel mine market that showed much promise after recent developments in mine detection technologies. The product in question was developed to counter the new detection methodology, which employed airborne insects to identify antipersonnel mines. While the US Department of Justice has refused to release full details of the technology by request of the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency, many defense experts claim that spraying a mine with insecticide would probably produce the desired effect.

    SC Johnson was accused of selling over 10 million units of Raid Mine (tm), mostly to Russia and Germany. They were also accused of selling 60 million canisters of Raid Flying Insects bug spray - a variant of the flagship Raid bug spray, targeting airborne insectoids for termination - to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. The company was forbidden to export the Raid Mine to the latter three countries as it was not considered to be a commercial household product.

    SC Johnson has announced it would appeal the decision.
  • I recently had an exterminator flush out a bee hive that was growing in my attic. He said its a good thing they were yellowjackets because honeybees are on (or nearly on) the endangered species list. (And as such would have required a beekeeper to harvest them instead of him killing them). Seems odd to use a dwindling (useful) species for something that would seem to hurry them along the path of extinction.
  • John Belushi: "OK guys, we are the first bee bomb disposal unit, it's important that we make a good impression." 2nd Bee: "Do you think these bee suits and little ping pong balls will fool the mines?"

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