Show Date: May 10, 2006 
Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line

Float Like a Butterfly
Detect Bombs Like a Bee?

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond. Join us each week on Newstalk K57 on Wednesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. for exciting live science expeditions or listen live on our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com

Don’t you just hate mud daubers, aka wasps or bees? They’re everywhere and anything you leave outside is soon home to all those yucky little dirt pots with the holes in the top. If something has a hole in it, it gets filled up with mud. I once saw a (legal) gun in a house but if the owner had tried to point it at me to threaten me, I would have laughed at him because the barrel was full of . . . you guessed it! . . . . dirt dauber mud! The only good thing you can say about them is that they don’t sting unless seriously provoked. The only time I ever got stung was when I put on my blouse in the morning and there was a dirt dauber inside it. I even knew a special ed kid who liked to put them in his mouth and let them crawl around. They never stung him.

But, they are nuisances, and the wasps that do sting can be seriously harmful. The ones that build paper nests here on Guam are dangerous and more people die from bee and wasp stings every year in the USA than die from snake bite.
So, what good are they? Well, the dirt daubers prey on all sorts of caterpillars that would defoliate the jungle if left unchecked. And scientists have recently come up with a brand-new use for these common pests.

They’re using trained wasps, rather than trained dogs, to detect specific chemical odors. These wasps may be used to find hidden explosives, plant diseases, illegal drugs, cancer and even buried bodies, according to a joint study by researchers at the University of Georgia and U.S. Department of Agriculture. A species of wasp similar to our mud daubers (but much smaller) can be trained in only five minutes and are just as sensitive to odors as man's best friend, which can require up to six months of training at a cost of about $15,000 per dog.The trained wasps are contained in a cup-sized device, called a "Wasp Hound," that triggers an alarm or a visual signal, like a flashing light, when the insects encounter a target odor. With the Wasp Hound, researchers have been able to use the insects to detect target odors such as a toxin that grows on corn and peanuts, and a chemical used in certain explosives.

The wasps don’t live very long, so you constantly have to train new ones, but they are certainly cheaper and apparently more reliable than other methods we’ve tried. What will scientists think of next?

This week on The Deep, we’ll also be talking to Ronnie Sellman about “Water Babies” and how some women are giving birth underwater. There are some surprising benefits and you’ll learn all about it and the trained wasps tomorrow night starting at 6:30 p.m. on Newstalk K57. The Deep is broadcast on Newstalk K57 every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. You can also listen live from our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com. Join Jim Sullivan, Pam Eastlick, and Peter Melyan on the deepest radio show on Earth.