Bees bred to sniff out explosives in hope of speeding up clearing of a million landmines left during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war
Biologists in France and Croatia have successfully reared “sniffer bees” which they claim could swiftly pinpoint mines and explosives that remain hidden underground in the Balkans.
The insects are said to have an olfactory sense as strong as sniffer dogs, and it is hoped they will speed up urgent operations to clear thousands of landmines left over from the region’s war in the Ninetires that have been disturbed in the Balkans’ worst flooding since record keeping began.
The floods and landslides raised fears about the estimated million land mines planted during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Nearly 120,000 of the unexploded devices remain in more than 9,400 carefully marked minefields. But the weather toppled warning signs and, in many cases, dislodged the mines themselves.
“We knew that bees were sensitive to certain smells, like geraniums or nerol, for example. The challenge was to get them to learn to spot TNT,” said Yves Le Conte, director of the bee and environment unit at agricultural research body INRA in Avignon, southern France.
Four years ago, he was contacted by Croat scientist Nikola Kesic at the University of Zagreb who was concerned about the risks to farmers of unexploded landmines and anti-tank mines.
Source The Telegraph
