With
the war on terrorism and in Iraq fresh in our minds it may be interesting
to review how honeybees have been utilized over the years in war situations. Even now scientists are looking for ways to train bees to find mines and
explosives.
September,
2002, Missoula, Montana(AP)
Trained
honey bees have shown a remarkable ability to sniff out land mines, suggesting
a possible new way to find the estimated 110 million unexploded land mines
around the world, according to researchers at the University of Montana.
Jerry Bromenshenk has studied bees as pollution sensors and environmental
sensors for the past 30 years. He said honeybees have proven themselves
to be easier to train, harder working and more accurate than bomb sniffing
dogs.
BEES
OF WAR
This
news article brings to mind an article “The Bees of War” by Nick
Howes, published in the 2001 Farmers’ Almanac. The following
is the first installment of the article.
In
Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book, Mowgli (the
main character) enlists the unwitting aid of the Little People of the Rocks
to halt and invasion of the jungle by a ferocious pack of red dogs called dholes.
A super colony of bees, the Little People of the Rocks, live along the river
Waingunga, stinging to death any intruders. Mowgli leads the ferocious dogs
through their domain, alarming the Little People who swarm and destroy half
of the pack.
The
concept of using bees to protect and defend was not unique to Kipling. Thousands
of years of beekeeping have led people all around the world to search for
a role for bees in wars, as primitive biological weapons. Recognition of
their potential existed in Biblical times, as indicated by several passages
from Exodus 23:28: “And I will send hornets before thee, which will
drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before thee.”
One
of the earliest historical accounts (first century B.C.) that mentioned bees
being used against enemies involves the Heptakometes of Asia Minor (present-day
Turkey) and Pompey the Great. With the aid of their bees, the Heptakametes
temporarily halted an advance by Pompey’s soldiers. The Heptakometes
knew that when bees gather pollen from such plants as rhododendron or azalea
the honey crop produced is loaded with alkaloids which are harmless to bees
but toxic to humans. They were able to obtain and leave a cache of poisoned
honey in the path of 1,000 advancing Roman soldiers.
During
that time, the gains from raiding and looting were part of a soldier’s
pay, so the Romans naturally seized the honey and consumed it. They were
soon deathly ill, and in no shape to resist the attack that followed.
The
Roman legions were less subtle in their use of bees. Their attacks were often
preceded by the catapulting of portable beehives at enemy positions; when
the hives smashed explosively among the enemies, a sudden assault by angry
bees occurred.
At
one point during the many clashes between the Dacians (of modern-day Romania)
and the Romans (between 112 B.C. and A.D. 106, when the Romans gained
complete control), the Dacians used bee hives with effect to, again only
temporarily, halt Roman advances into their homeland. In naval battles of
the time, bees, housed in earthern hives designed specifically for shipboard
use, were catapulted at enemy ships.
BEES
IN THE WALLS
In
medieval times, would-be conquerors laid siege to the cities and castles
the coveted. However, castles were designed and built by builders who included
as many possible defensive features as they could think of. Often, they incorporated
bee hives within the walls, an unwelcome surprise for any attackers who might
breach a wall at the wrong spot. Straw hives were kept out of the way atop
city walls, where they were also at hand during sieges.
There
were advantages to using bees that go beyond the mere unreasoning fear may
have of them. Imagine a mounted knight I heavy armor, fully dependent on
his horse for any real mobility, sharing this helmet with several maddened
bees.
BEES
AT SEA
From
a later era comes another story (of questionable truth) about bees and pirates.
According to the story, a 17th- century-merchant ship, bound for
Cuba and Mexico, sailed from Barcelona carrying bees which had established
a hive under the upper deck near the bow. The crew took the presence of the
beehive as a good omen, and let it alone. Their belief seem justified by
fair winds and a quick trip through the Atlantic Ocean chill, which kept
the bees quiet. In the warmer waters near the Caribbean, the bees continued
to cooperate and merely sortied from their hive for short distances.
Near
the ship’s first destination, pirates struck. Damp powder prevented
the merchantman’s crew from firing their guns, a problem the pirates
did not have. The merchantmen took several poundings from the pirates’ cannons,
including one in the ship’s bow. The pirate vessel closed and the buccaneers
prepared to board at the bow of the merchantman. The vibration of the cannon
ball in the bow, followed by the collision of the two hulls, understandably
set off the bees. The pirates found themselves under attack from an unanticipated
enemy. They cast off and quickly pulled away. Falling to their knees, the
merchantmen’s crew thanked god for their deliverance.
As
the crew enjoyed liberty ashore at Santiago de Cuba, the bees gathered pollen
from the exotic flowers of Cuba. Convinced of the power of the bees, the
sailors were concerned when some to the heavily laden bees fell into the
water. So a canvas platform was prepared for the bees to land on before their
makeshift hive’s entrance. The ship then continued on without incident
to its Mexican landfall.
BACK
ON LAND, YEARS LATER
During
the Civil War at Antietam, attacking Federal ftroops advancing through a
farmyard were routed, not by the heavy gunfire they faced, bu by enraged
bees shattered by Confederate artillery fire. There’s also a well-known
case of British troops, in action in German East Africa during WW1, encountering
maddened bees, but, as at Antietam, it appears accidental.
During
the Vietnam War, Viet Cong guerrillas were masters of improvised weaponry,
and before attacking, were known to lob 30 or more nests of hornets and wasps
into military outposts. They also set up ingenious booby traps, placing nests,
with firecrackers attached, along trails. When an enemy patrol walked past
a nest, a patient VC would set off the firecracker.
FROM
WEAPONS TO CAUSING WAR
On
a few occasions, bees have been less the weapon than the cause of war or
near war. There is a tale in Ireland, that Congal, the king of Ulster, was
stung in the eye and blinded by a bee during a visit to the home of Domnall.
The supporters of Congal Caech (One-Eye) demanded retribution—the eye
of Domnall’s firstborn son. Domnall quickly ordered the bee hive destroyed,
hoping the gesture might satisfy the Ulsterman. It did not. Ulster went to
war against Domnall but lost.
THE “HELPER” BEE
Aside
from military uses, there are instances in the historical record where bees
helped civilians. For example, a group of nuns in Beyenburg (Beetown in English),
Germany, drove off a band of robbers by releasing bees into their convent
yard before seeking cover.
Another
story tells how a Swiss beekeeper smuggled a cargo of fine Italian honey
into Switzerland. He had an Italian beekeeper park a stash of honey right
at the border. The Swiss took his own beehives and set them about 1,000 yards
away. The bees went straight for the available honey and took it back to
their hive, 200 pounds of it.
Today,
bees are being examined as a possibly cheap and effective way to clear deadly
minefields. Landmines are a cheap weapon in war, but they are usually left
in place after the shooting stops. Worldwide, huge tracts of productive land
are unusable, too dangerous to clear because of their mines.
Bees
may provide the astonishing answer to the problem. At Sandia National Laboratories,
New Mexico, and at the University of Montana, researchers hope to make bees
into biological mine detectors. They are trying to train the bees to respond
to the odor of TNT, the primary landmine components, as if it’s food,
and then track the bees into minefields with tiny rice-sized radio tags attached
to the bees’ bodies. Mowgli would be thoroughly confused by the technical
aspects of the proposal, but he would need no convincing of the martial value
of the Little People of the Rocks.
FINAL
NOTE
Recently – July
2003, someone entered a restroom of a department store and released a number
of honey bees. In the ensuing pandemonium, with clerks and guards running
all over, the person who released the bees, a thief, made off with a number
of stolen goods.
SouthEastern
Michigan Beekeepers Association
