Dogs do a great job of sniffing out bombs and explosives, but scientists at a US weapons lab are sending in reinforcements in the form of trained bees. That's right, folks, our busy buzzing bees are the recent recruits in the fight to strengthen the US homeland security.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have found a way to train honeybees to sniff out explosives. In a project dubbed as the "Stealthy Insect Sensor Project", the bees are trained to stick out their proboscises (tubes used to feed on nectar) in the presence of explosives, in exchange for a sweet sugar-water reward.

What's even more remarkable is that these bees were able to recognize dynamites, C-4 plastic explosives, and even Howitzer propellant grains, which are used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Sweet!

Now, you might be wondering how these bees would be used when they start reporting for duty. Well, the bees would be placed in a handheld detector as big as a shoe box. It's quite hard to picture how the final device would look like, but the important thing is that there's another US ally to help fight terrorism. Looks like our bees are going to be busier than usual.