Honeybees Trained to Find Landmines

KingMeer writes "A group of researchers at the University of Montana have trained honeybees to seek out landmines. Apparently they are much more effective than dogs, making them a practical tool for finding the 110 million landmines worldwide."

Comments

Another Advantage Over Dogs

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...Bees are much lighter. Unless I'm mistaken, a dog used to sniff out a mine could easily set it off, even if it were careful. The mines are sensitive enough to go off when a small child steps on them, so they are clearly sensitive enough for dogs. Bees, on the other hand, weigh close to nothing and probably would not ever be able to set off a mine.

The question is: once a bee pinpoints a mine (by landing it, I suppose), how is that mine put out of comission?

Finally: I can understand how dogs can be trained and motivated to do this sort of thing. What incentive would make these bees "do our bidding"?