How honeybees were trained in 2013 to detect land mines from the Balkan wars
Honeybees became an unexpected tool for finding land mines in Croatia Scientists taught honeybees to follow the scent of TNT The real challenge was turning
Honeybees became an unexpected tool for finding land mines in Croatia Scientists taught honeybees to follow the scent of TNT The real challenge was turning individual bees into a reliable swarm Why the scent of TNT mattered Thousands of mines had been left behind Dogs and rats had already been doing similar work Croatia was still dealing with the hidden legacy of the Balkan wars when scientists began looking to an unlikely ally: honeybees. Years after mines had been buried across fields, forests and rural land, uncertainty over their locations continued to complicate farming, development and everyday life. Traditional mine-clearance teams faced the difficult task of finding explosives that could remain underground for decades, sometimes without accurate records showing where they had been placed.AP reported that Zagreb University researchers wondered whether bees, with their remarkable ability to detect scents, could offer an extra layer of protection. By training the insects to associate the smell of TNT with food, they hoped the tiny foragers could help flag ground that might warrant a closer inspection.When Croatia prepared to enter the European Union in 2013, the country was carrying a problem that had little to do with its better-known landscapes of forests, mountains and the Adriatic coast. Large areas remained suspected of containing land mines planted during the Balkan wars. Around 750 square kilometres of Croatian territory were believed to be affected, with many of the devices laid during the fighting in the early 1990s.The problem was not simply a matter of clearing old military equipment from abandoned ground.
Mines had been placed in many locations without reliable records or detailed maps. Years later, that uncertainty made it difficult to know whether an apparently cleared piece of land was genuinely safe.For people living around suspected minefields, the issue could intrude into ordinary life. Farming, development and tourism could all be restricted by the possibility that explosives were still underground.At Zagreb University, professor Nikola Kezic and a group of younger scientists were investigating whether honeybees could help locate traces of TNT.The experiment relied on a familiar feature of bee behaviour. The insects are exceptionally good at detecting smells, and they can learn to associate particular scents with food. The researchers used that ability to create a simple association between TNT and a sugary reward.Several feeding stations were placed around the testing area. Only some contained traces associated with the explosive. The bees were then allowed to forage and researchers observed where they concentrated. The insects tended to gather at the stations connected with the TNT scent rather than distributing themselves evenly among the different options.As reported by AP, "The experiment is to condition our bees on the smell of TNT. This scent, it's coming from the TNT. In the centre of this scent, we put the reward. We put sugar solution as a reward to condition the bees that they can find food just in the middle of smell of TNT scent."Teaching an individual bee to recognise a smell was not necessarily the biggest challenge.
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