SnifferBee PER

This video shows how a trained bee respond to target with Proboscis extension reflex More

Los Alamos National Laboratory

A showcase of Los Alamos research on sniffer bees in 2004. Inscentinel collaborated with Los Alamos to develop a prototype which won them a research grant of £1.3m.

Inscentinel in 2004

The work done by the previous team. This is our first generation detector NORP which was used by Los Alamos for a project with DARPA

A sniffer bee is a trained honeybee

Research into honeybees (Apis mellifera) started in the 1960’s. The researchers were interested mainly in understanding the foraging behaviour of honeybees. These tiny creatures were shown to learn almost any odours and have subsequently inspired numerous researchers to explore the practical application of Sniffer Bees. In early 2004, DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) funded a project to use the honeybees for explosives detection. They discovered that honeybees can detect TNT at parts-per-trillion (ppt) level. That is as sensitive as or better than dogs. It was encouraging but not enough to persuade the military to adopt them in a battlefield. The main concern is the logistics and practicality of using bees in the field – until the invention of Inscentinel patented BeeSensorSystem.

  • Questions and answers

    On the left are all the commonly asked questions: what is a sniffer bee, how to train a bee, what can the bees detect etc. This is a fascinating science to begin with and as the scientists working with the bees day in and out we sometimes do like to get out of the lab to speak to human - you
    We recognize that the questions listed here are not exhaustive. If you have further questions please visit our facebook page and post your questions there, we will get back to you as soon as we can.

  • How long does it take to train a bee?

    A honeybee can be trained to a single odour in just 6 seconds. It is as simple as exposing it to target odour for 3 seconds, during which touch its antenna with sugar water solution. The Proboscis will now extend in anticipation of sugar water and you feed it immediately for 3 seconds. This is one cycle training and on the next cycle the bee would have learnt the smell and would extend its proboscis without touching the antenna<. Occasionally some bees just do not learn well and we therefore repeat the cycle 5 times to make sure all the bees are successfully trained - it has to have certain quality to become a certified SnifferBees!

  • How long does the bee remember the smell?

    How long do bees remember the odour to which they’ve been trained?

    Research shows that they can remember the odour for life! (the reality though is that their life span is approximately 6 weeks)

    There is a catch, it lasts as long as the memory is not desensitised. In other words, unrewarded when the target is present. Imagine that your kid used to get rewarded with sweets if well behaved and one day you decide to break the routine – get the idea?

  • How long does a bee live?

    A honeybee lives up to around 6 weeks. During the first two weeks they stay in the hive to build their nest. At around 2nd week, its olfactory sense matures and begins foraging for food – bringing home the..pollen!
    This is a short life span, in contrast, a queen bee can live up to 7 years.

  • Can the bees come out to sting people?

    No, we work with bees all day long and so far have not been stung. Our Bee Sensor System restrains the bees in a bee holder throughout the process. From outside, you probably will not realise there are 36 bees hiding in the detector to catch the terrorist.

  • How many bees are there in a hive?

    A bee hive can contain up to 60,000 bees! Every single hive has only one Queen bee and she lays around 2000 eggs per day, no wonder their colony balloons so quickly.

  • Where do you get the bees during winter? wait, do they sleep at all?

    We have a purposedly built indoor Bees flight room. This allows us to produced honeybees 24/7 365 days. This is essential as terrorists would not hibernate during the winter.
    Bees do rest during evening hours when the sun sets. They go back to their home to cuddle with their friends and family. They do sleep but not tightly. It is more referred to as taking a nap which depends on their age and job it varies – basically this is complicated. There is an interesting blog written by Brookfield farmbee on this topic – check her out!

  • Where can I learn about beekeeping?

    Any beekeeper would be able to tell you everything you ever need to know about the bees – beekeeping is not only a profession, to them it is their passion. It is easy to track them down, google online for beekeeping society and start emailing them.