Bees are an important animal as they pollinate a whole lot of plants. and its not just Honey bees, but Bumble bees and Carder bees, indeed bees of all shapes and sizes. A study done ten years ago thought Europe alone had about 2000 species of bee, and America has 4000 species of native bee. This study was done in 2015 by the International Union for conservation of nature, and told us that nearly 10% of bee species faced an immediate threat and that 6% faced a near future threat. So here we are in 2025. Its a long way from when Gregor Mendel tried to experiment on bees ( and produced bees that stung everyone for miles around!)
Molly Glock wrote in 2023 that robot bees could come to the rescue if natural bees perished (in Scientific American issue (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/robotic-bees-could-support-vertical-farms-today-and-astronauts-tomorrow)).
But This technology has , like every technology a dark side. it is the tragedy of science, the tragedy of mankind that every invention since fire has good and bad in it and it up to individuals as to how we continue .
An assassin could place a hive of robot bees with some kind of poison in their sting (say botulism with a lethal dose in nanograms, there is a cure but by the time you get to hospital you are in a bad way or dead, or ricin , another small dose fatal poison, this time with no cure ) Ricin was notoriously used in the "poison umbrella assassination" in London during an attack on Georgi Markov, which was successful and Markov was assasinated. Allegedly, an adapted umbrella fired a tiny pellet into the target's thigh, and the pellet was hypothesized to have had Ricin in it. Bulgarian agents were suspected and a failed attempt in Paris on Vladimir Kostov using the same method also took place, a mere 10 days earlier in 1978, also involving Bulgarian agents
Of course letting go a hive of nature bees that are swarming in the same zone as your killer robot assassin bees would give you cover and you could guide the robot to your target, inject the poison and then either destroy the bee or guide it back. There bees become mini drones , aimed at killing.
Imagine, if you will, a swarm of natural honey bees being deliberately released and a swam of robot bees added, the chaos would be enormous as the clouds of bees engulfed the target and audience. The robot bees could repeatedly sting the target for assassination, with the toxin(or toxins) of choice. In theory, a killer could inject a target with Ricin, with a lethal dose of 10 micrograms or Botulism with a lethal of 1,3–2,1 ng/kg (so if my target weighed 150 kg then 315 ng is enough, a tiny amount) and your target would be compromised. And no need to take long range pot shots at political or religious leaders.
Out of the strength came forth sweetness, the quote from the Bible when a carcass of a lion is found to have bees making their nest inside. Out of the sweetness, came forth strength is the new idea for robot bees.
Lets get back to the bees and move away from political assassinations. We should try to save bees and their environment BEFORE we spend money on developing artificial bees to do the work for us IF POSSIBLE. We've fallen into the trap of thinking technology is beating nature but in fact a quick glimpse of a volcano, tsunami or earthquake will tell you that this isn't true.
And we need robot bees that cant be used to kill (but I've the feeling they probably exist already!).
I'm NOT calling for clever clogs to adapt robot bees into killing machines, or people to kill others.
I think we can save bees and we should work on that !
Since the publication of