Posted on 05/07/2021 1:32:18 AM PDT by Libloather
Bees have an excellent sense of smell to detect chemicals, such as pheromones, and Dutch scientists are using their natural power to identify samples infected with coronavirus.
Scientists in the bio-veterinary research laboratory at Wageningen University trained the insects by giving them sugary water after as a reward for spotting the virus in samples and no reward after being shown a non-infected sample.
After numerous tests, the bees were able to spontaneously extend their tongues to receive a reward when presented with an infected sample, said Wim van der Poel, a professor of virology who took part in the project.
The team says that a trained bee is capable of detecting an infected sample in just a few seconds, which drastically reduces wait times of current methods.
'We collect normal honeybees from a beekeeper and we put the bees in harnesses,' he said. 'Right after presenting a positive sample we also present them with sugar water. And what the bees do is they extend their proboscis to take the sugar water.'
Researchers used the Pavlovian condition method to train the bees, which is a learning process through association.
Each time the bees were exposed to the scent of an infected sample, they received a sugar water reward.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Not so. My bee club had a master keeper (who was also a retired judge) that is involved in studying varieties that actually do groom them off one another. There is another variety that, literally, will chew the legs off those pesky little mites.
Sent too soon....NO...not like a horseshoe crab by any means. If you are a beekeeper you’d know that. More like the size of a silver dollar on your back.
Don't be snooty, I might sting you. And you're wrong, they are bigger on a bee than a silver dollar on a human.
Hygienic bees. I'm well aware. But this thread is about training bees, and so was my comment.
ahh...true, very true. I love my bees :)
Being snooty is my specialty. Maybe they have much, larger mites where you live. Where I am they are teeny. VERY teeny. Like a little sugar ant.
Who knew there were bee wranglers.
The microscopic brain of the bee... infinite intelligence of the universe... the hand of God.
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