Meet Buzzdetect: An Open-Source AI Tool for Listening to Pollinators

Buzzdetect, a new open‑source AI tool, uses simple microphones and machine learning to continuously detect pollinator activity. A new study shows how the tool can offer researchers and growers a low‑cost way to “listen” for bees in real time. Shown here is a buzzdetect recorder deployed in a pumpkin field. (Photo courtesy of Luke Hearon, Ph.D.) By Fabiana Fragoso, Ph.D. Fabiana Fragoso, Ph.D. Imagine you are standing in the center of a soybean farm, thousands of acres stretching out around you. What do you hear? Maybe a tractor working a few fields over, the wind rustling the leaves? Or perhaps a faint buzz, barely noticeable against the background hum of the landscape. For most of us, the sounds of the outdoors are usually just that: background noise. But what if we could tune our ears to uncover hidden layers of data within the environment? That is exactly what researchers from The Ohio State University (OSU) Department of Entomology and Dartmouth College’s Department of Computer Science set out to do. In a study published in December in the Journal of Insect Science, the team describes a new open-source tool called “buzzdetect,” which uses machine learning and passive acoustic monitoring to detect pollinator activity. The Limits of Traditional Sampling Anyone who has done pollinator fieldwork knows: Collecting data across an entire day—or an entire season—is a serious logistical challenge. “Let’s say you want to study the daily trend of pollination activity with a 30-mi...