A hardware system for recording honey bee acoustics coupled with software for filtering, summarizing and analyzing acoustic data detects and identifies airborne toxics. Summary data is analyzed using routine statistical procedures to associate sound spectra with acoustic variations produced by specific airborne compounds. Honey bees produce unique acoustics upon exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of various airborne toxicants, as well as to other stressors such as predatory mites. The system profiles acoustic signatures of free-flying honey bee colonies, analyzes the resulting sounds, and identifies compounds based on specific properties of the acoustic recording, providing a solution to the problem of wide-area, atmospheric monitoring.