Peter Kevan at Guelph pioneered this research many years ago.
Ironically, he was using bees to carry fungi for uses such as control of lygus bugs;  while I was using bees as environmental samplers of biological warfare such as anthrax.  Part of what makes bees good carriers of particulates (physical, chemical, and biological) besides the obvious foraging and the hairs on their bodies is their electrostatic surface charge.  In addition, we examined both absorption and adsorption (e.g., anthrax)) of materials.  Bruce Lighthart, EPA's microbial terrorism expert for decades did the research for me shortly after he retired.  I contracted him under our DARPA work.  Google Lighthart and Prier for papers.
Another beekeeper and military scientist, about the same tiime, published a paper on how vulnerable crops are to sabotage by bees vectoring plant diseases.  In other words, he was warning the US to develop a plan to counter the weaponization of bees. 

From our landmine work, a common ploy is to bury landmines in croplands.  Years ago, there were estimates of as high as 11% of Afghanistan arable lands made unusable by the presence of mines.  It was a well-known tactic in Vietnam.




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