Homeland security menagerieBee Alert Technology offers new explosives detection system

One of our favorite stories from last year involved an effort at Los Alamos —

relying on previous research by Herts, United Kingdom-based Inscentinel — to train honeybees to detect explosives. The idea was to create portable bee boxes that could be carried from scene to scene. Whenever the bees sensed TNT or other dangerous chemicals, a video camera would capture them sticking out their proboscises and sound an alarm. Now, however, we can report an alternative method of bee-based detection. Missoula, Montana-based Bee Alert Technology (motto: “We are here to serve all your high technology bee needs”) has developed a system that relies on the observation that bees’ buzzes change when exposed to different kinds of chemicals. Beyond homeland security applications, the system could also be used to monitor the general health of bee hives. This is particularly important nowadays, what with recent reports that honeybees are mysteriously dying off nationwide.

Beekeepers have long known that bees’ buzzing changes when the queen bee is removed from the hive, the result of changed chemical transmissions that typically instruct the worker bees in their tasks. Similar changes, it was found, result when various toxins are introduced to the hive. “We found bees respond within thirty seconds or less to the presence of a toxic chemical,” said company spokesman Jerry Bromenshenk, also with the University of Montana. “But the real surprise was that the sounds bees produce can actually tell what chemical is hitting them.” Of course, these changes cannot be detected with the naked ear, so Bromenshenk and his colleagues devised voice recognition software that is able to identify the specific buzz for each chemical. Next on the agenda is a hand-held device similar to the bee box described above. We cannot wait to see which competitor comes out on top.

-read more in Andrea Thompson’s LiveScience report