View Full Forums : Sniffer Wasps


Panamah
12-04-2005, 11:18 PM
Well... not looking forward to this day but...

It is apparently easier to train wasps than it is dogs to sniff out bombs and stuff.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051203/ap_on_sc/bomb_sniffing_wasps;_ylt=AheOsVg8fGHqcVS0Zpc65jus0 NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-



By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 3,11:49 AM ET

TIFTON, Ga. - Trained wasps could someday replace dogs for sniffing out drugs, bombs and bodies. No kidding.
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Scientists say a species of non-stinging wasps can be trained in only five minutes and are just as sensitive to odors as man's best friend, which can require up to six months of training at a cost of about $15,000 per dog.

With the use of a handheld device that contains the wasps but allows them to do their work, researchers have been able to use the insects to detect target odors such as a toxin that grows on corn and peanuts, and a chemical used in certain explosives.

"There's a tremendous need for a very flexible and mobile chemical detector," said U.S.
Department of Agriculture entomologist Joe Lewis, who has been studying wasps since the 1960s. "Our best devices that we have currently are very cumbersome, expensive and highly fragile."

The "Wasp Hound" research by Lewis and University of Georgia agricultural engineer Glen Rains is part of a larger government project to determine if insects and even reptiles or crustaceans could be recruited for defense work. That project has already resulted in scientists refining the use of bees as land-mine detectors.

Through the years, Lewis and a USDA colleague, J.H. Tumlinson, discovered that a tiny, predatory wasp known as microplitis croceipes had relied on odors to locate nectar for food and hosts for its eggs — caterpillars that damage crops.

While they don't sting humans, the female wasps use their stingers to deposit eggs inside caterpillars, producing larvae that eventually kill the caterpillars.

The scientists also discovered that plants being attacked by the caterpillars give off SOS scents to attract the all-black wasps and that the quarter-inch-long insects could be trained to associate other odors with food and prey.

"They have to be good detectors because their whole survival depends on it," Lewis said.

Rains said the wasps can be trained to detect a specific odor very quickly. The researchers expose hungry wasps to the target odor, then let them feed on sugar water for 10 seconds and then give them a one-minute break. After three repetitions of sniffing and feeding, the wasps associate the odor with feeding.

Since the scientists couldn't put leashes on their trained wasps, they needed a way to contain them while monitoring their reactions to odors.

Enter the Wasp Hound — a 10-inch-long plastic cylinder made of PVC pipe with a hole in one end and a small fan on the other. Inside is a Web camera that connects to a laptop computer for monitoring the behavior of five wasps housed in a transparent, ventilated capsule.

When the wasps detect a target odor, they converge around the vent, creating a mass of dark pixels on the computer screen. Otherwise, they just hang out inside the capsule.

They can work for as long as 48 hours, then they're released to live out their remainder of their two-to three-week life span.

"What we have ... is a technology-free organism that you can quickly program and use in a highly mobile way," said Lewis, who believes the Wasp Hound could be used to search for explosives at airports, locate bodies, monitor crops for toxins and detect diseases such as cancer from the odors in a person's breath.

"They're very cheap to produce and very sensitive," Rains said of the wasps. "Dogs take months to train and they need a specific handler. Wasps can be trained on the spot."

Rains believes the Wasp Hound could be available for sale in three to five years. He and Lewis are still exploring ways to breed more wasps and to train hundreds simultaneously.

"We've done enough on it to know it's technically feasible to do that," Lewis said. "It's just a matter of completing and refining the methodology."

Lewis believes many other types of invertebrates — bees, other types of parasitic insects, even water bugs — can be trained to sniff out trouble.

"It's opened a whole new resource for invertebrates as biological sensors," he said.

Other scientists also are working to harness the sniffing power of insects.

In 2002, the
Pentagon considered fitting sniffer bees with transmitters the size of a grain of salt to locate explosives and relay that information wirelessly to laptop computers.

A British firm, Inscentinel Ltd., sells trained bees and mini-hives where the insects' response to scents from natural and man-made chemicals can be monitored. The company says the system can be used to screen for explosives, drugs, chemical weapons, land mines and for food quality control.

Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at Montana State University, is using bees for mine detection. The bees congregate over mines or other explosives and their locations are mapped using laser-sensing technology.

"Insects and their antennae have an olfactory system that is pretty much on a par with a dog," Bromenshenk said. "They're a whole lot more plentiful and a lot less expensive to come by."

Bromenshenk said bees may be more appropriate for open areas, while the Wasp Hound may be better in buildings.

"The difference is that we let our bees free fly," he said. "That's not good in confined areas like an airport."

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Arienne
12-05-2005, 12:21 AM
Ahh! A sting operation! (sorry I had to be first. Someone was gonna say it)

Fyyr Lu'Storm
12-05-2005, 12:43 AM
These would be great to detect human hormone levels, in bosses, coworkers, mates and prospective mates.

Microplitis croceipes is considered a beneficial crop insect, I wonder if there is a agricultural supplier for them. Hmmm.

Jinjre
12-05-2005, 10:03 AM
There would be the minor issue that a dog can move itself from point A to point B when doing its sniffing. The wasps will have a harder time getting around, what with that pvc pipe they're enclosed in.

Uses which dogs will still be better than wasps:

1. Urban search and rescue (after earthquakes/bombings etc)
2. Body recovery efforts (searching large amounts of ground for a scent)
3. Drug searches at container yards for incoming/outgoing freight shipment by sea
4 Avalanche/ski patrol dogs (I don't imagine the wasps do well in very cold weather)
5 Water rescue (really, sir, just grab onto that raft of wasps floating your way!)

I must admit, if they didn't keep the little buggers penned up in their pipe, and if they had stingers, they might be more terrifying than a dog when it came to criminal pursuit, but I'm pretty sure after the first innocent person got stung to death, that would be the end of that.

The wasps would work well in places like airports and security screenings where the situation is highly controlled.

Cantatus
12-05-2005, 10:35 AM
These would be great to detect human hormone levels, in bosses, coworkers, mates and prospective mates.

Nothing says, "Wanna go out?" like sending a pack of bees at someone. ;)

Panamah
12-05-2005, 11:13 AM
LOL! Cantatus! :D

Yeah, this sounds like it'd be good where you could point it at a piece of luggage, or a person. But perhaps even just using it as a directional thing would work too. Lets say you're trying to sniff out something in a large area. You point the thing north and see what they do. Then walk that direction still watching them. If you could measure the intensity of their response then it'd be useful.

B_Delacroix
12-05-2005, 11:40 AM
I do not like bees or bee like creatures.

I do not like them in a house I do not like them with a mouse.

Panamah
12-05-2005, 11:53 AM
But these wasps kill nasty catepillars that eat my tomatoes! I love these wasps.

Arienne
12-05-2005, 12:43 PM
I like bumble bees. They always think twice before they sting you! :D

B_Delacroix
12-05-2005, 07:57 PM
Snake is to Indy as Bee is to....

Arienne
12-05-2005, 08:45 PM
Snake is to Indy as Bee is to....B_Delacroix?? :D