Researchers at the University of Cologne have successfully trained honey bees to detect narcotics.
They claim the insects could eventually replace sniffer-dogs at airports.
University Of Sussex Informatics department professor Thomas Nowotny said, “I suspect it is classical conditioning. Where the bees extend their proboscis in response to one odour and not in response to another. They have been found to do this to all kinds of varieties of odours.”
He said that they had the receptors to do explosives and illegal substances, so it did not surprise him that they could smell drugs.
