Honeybees being trained to find land mines – Bee Alert Inc. looking for funding

Honeybees could be the key to ridding the world of a deadly scourge.

Researchers at The University of Montana and at Montana State University have teamed up on a project to use bees to find unexploded land mines.

By RON TSCHIDA Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/06/01/news/02minesbzbigs.txt

The United Nations estimates warring countries have left more than 100 million mines buried around the world. Each year 20,000 to 30,000 innocent people are killed by mines.

"In Bosnia they estimate there are 30,000 mined fields, not mines, but mined fields," said Jerry Bromenshenk, the UM professor who came up with the idea of using bees as detectors.

If successful, the venture could be a great boon for humanity. It could also be an economic booster shot for Montana, Bromenshenk said: De-mining is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Bromenshenk has worked with bees for years and has used bees to detect pollutants.

The insects are orders of magnitude more sensitive than the most advanced man-made instrument, and more sensitive than dogs, which are also used to find mines, Bromenshenk said.

And bees are easier to train.

They get a reward of sugar syrup for finding a mine and learn to associate the odor of explosives such as TNT with food.

The problem is keeping track of the bees. Even high-resolution video equipment can’t track the insects more than a few yards out.

That’s where MSU scientists came in. They’ve been working with a laser system to detect small particles in the atmosphere.

It’s called LIDAR, for light detection and ranging. Joe Shaw, an associate professor of engineering, had been designing LIDARs for atmospheric research.

"Whatever the laser beam hits, light scatters everywhere," Shaw said. "Some of that light scatters back and is picked up by the telescope" next to the LIDAR. A computer program stores the images.

So the bees find the mines, the LIDAR tracks the bees and a deadly mine field can be mapped without anyone stepping onto the mine field. Humans would still have to go in to remove the mines, but their work would be safer and more efficient.

Last fall, the researchers tested the idea successfully on a mine field at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.

"We basically answered the show-stopper kind of question," said Lee Spangler, an MSU chemist involved in the project.

But there’s still fine-tuning needed.

First, they need to design and build a LIDAR specifically for the job.

"It’s a very tricky measurement," Shaw said. "What you’re trying to determine is where the bees are spending most of their time."

One thing Bromenshenk finds exciting is that all the technology and expertise needed is already in Montana.

Bromenshenk estimates they could be in business with about a $1.5 million investment, money that they so far haven’t been able to secure. He already has a private company, Bee Alert Technologies http://beekeeper.dbs.umt.edu/bees/ , and said memorandums of understanding have been signed so the technology could be licensed from the universities.

"I’d like to see a Montana-based de-mining company," Bromenshenk said. "If we had the funding we think we could get this thing going in 18 months."

Spangler said the researchers believe they have something to offer the de-mining field.

"I think it’s something that should be solved," Spangler said. "We think we’re working on something that could make a difference."