Honeybees to the Rescue on Battlefields

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

If cost-cutting Defense Secretary Bob Gates really wants a bargain, we've got word of a surefire and very cheap way to check battlefields for mines: bees. A research team working for the feds is looking into using bees and their acute sense of smell to track the vapors explosives emit. Bee Culture editor Kim Flottum, in his "Catch the Buzz" column, says that bees can be trained and that they are better than dogs because they hover over mines. While more tests are needed, expectations are that the Obama administration will push for funding by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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