In the wild, honeybees use a variety of scents and smells present in a complex background of odours as olfactory cues to help them locate food sources. When they find a source of nectar they remember the smell associated with it for subsequent foraging. Inscentinel exploits this learning ability. We train honeybees to associate an odour of interest with a food reward (Pavlovian conditioning). Once trained, bees show a conditioned tongue (proboscis) extension reflex when they encounter the learnt odour. For most compounds, bees are 10x - 100x more sensitive than humans, and our studies indicate that they are at least as good as sniffer dogs. They can detect high parts per trillion (v) concentrations. 

Inscentinel's fully programmable bee conditioning unit (BCU) is capable of training multiple honeybees at a time to a target odour.