Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association

Land Mines and Honey Bees

By Tina Casey, CleanTechnica.com

Abandoned land mines have been called the worst form of pollution on earth.  They kill up to 20,000 people every year and, according to one recent study, it will take 450 years to find and clear all of them.  That estimate might be too optimistic because new mines can be laid as fast as the old ones are cleared.  Ridding the world of land mines sounds like a Sisyphean task of epic proportions.  Or is it?  Enter the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) and the humble honey bee. 

Using honey bees to detect land mines has its roots in decades-long research conducted by research professor Dr. Jerry J. Bromenshenk at the University of Montana.  Dr. Bromenshenk and his team have found that bees are expert sample-takers. They collect everything: air, water, vegetation, and chemicals in gaseous, liquid and particulate forms.  A single colony can generate hundreds of thousands of flights every day, each bee returning to the hive with her collection. 

Recently Dr. Bromenshenk and his team began focusing on “odors of interest” under a DARPA contract.  The team was able to document that the honey bees’ acute sense of smell enables them to function as fine-tuned, highly accurate detectors of vapor from chemicals that are present in explosives, bombs, and landmines.  Under certain conditions they can detect concentrations at approximately 30 parts per trillion, with the potential to reach even lower thresholds. 

Like mine-sniffing dogs and other mammals, honey bees can be trained with a food reward.  Within a matter of hours, honey bees can learn to associate designated odors with food.  Dr. Bromenshenk’s team found that honey bees will detect a vapor plume and follow it to its source.  By comparing the density of bees in different areas over time, observers can pinpoint the likely sources.  Lasers, radar, and other new developments in surveillance technology enable researchers to track and count practically every single bee. 

Aside from their accuracy, honey bees have a number of unique advantages when it comes to land mine detection:

• As lightweight hoverers, they can cover an area without accidently discharging a mine. 
• Honey bees are much cheaper than high-tech equipment. 
• Honey bees are easier to train than dogs and other mammals.
• And amazingly, honey bees from one hive will recruit others, so only one trained hive is needed to start surveillance of a large area.

In 2008, the Bush administration halted plans to move these tests overseas.  Conducting tests under conditions in actual minefields is the next crucial step.  With the Obama administration dedicated to providing more federal funds for scientific research, there’s a chance that the research will resume soon.  Negotiations are underway on arrangements for a new round of trials. 

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