Operation Wasp

In keeping with the nature theme I've got going this week (see yesterday's post on the Eagle's nest), today I'm going to focus on wasps.

More specifically, an article I read awhile back entitled, "Scientists recruit wasps for war on terror."

Apparently, scientists at the University of Georgia-Tifton Campus have trained wasps to check for explosives at airports and toxins in subways. "You can rear them by the thousands, and you can train them within a matter of minutes," says Joe Lewis, a U.S. Agriculture Department entomologist. Isn't that unreal?!

But before you envision an army of wasps swarming around the enemy...the scientists have actually developed a hand-held device which contains the wasps while they do their thing. It's now ready for pilot tests and may be available for commercial use in 5-10 years. The wasp brigade could supplement or even replace bomb-sniffing dogs, which cost thousands of dollars and take months to train.

And because wasps are sensitive to a variety of chemical odors, they may also prove helpful in detecting crop fungus while it's still below ground-level, and detecting cancers or ulcers by smelling someone's breath.