'Wasp Hounds' Sniff Out Trouble

Nov. 16, 2005 — -- As further proof that some of the tiniest critters on the planet can do wonderful things for us, scientists are asking a dinky wasp, only about a quarter of an inch long, to help alert us to the presence of all sorts of terrible things, including explosive devices, toxic chemicals and even cancer.

And what's even more remarkable, this little wasp, Microplitis croceipes, can't even sting humans. It's related to the yellow jacket and all sorts of wasps that sting in self-defense, but it uses its stinger only to insert eggs in another insect, setting off a chain reaction that scientists hope to harness for our benefit.

What makes this wasp something special is an extraordinary sense of smell. All scientists have to do is trick it into thinking a bomb is food, and bingo, we've got a bomb detector.

And that, it turns out, may not be all that difficult to do. It takes less than five minutes to train a wasp to recognize a dangerous substance.

Researchers in Georgia have even developed a prototype, which they call a "Wasp Hound," that uses five wasps to sniff out various chemicals and even set off an alarm.

Glen C. Rains, a biological engineer at the University of Georgia in Tifton, and W. Joe Lewis, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, see a wide range of applications for their Wasp Hound. They unveiled their invention recently in Biotechnology Progress, published by the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

They think the Wasp Hound may even someday replace dogs as toxic sniffers. But that's probably a long way down the road since there are still a few bugs, if you'll pardon the expression, to be worked out. But at least with a Wasp Hound, you don't have to scratch its ears.

The Wasp Hound is based largely on earlier work by Lewis, who found that Microplitis croceipes has an extraordinary sense of smell, which it uses to find food.