MONDAY, Jan. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The spotted lanternfly is an invasive pest that can ruin grape, apple and hop crops and do terrible damage to maple and walnut trees.
Luckily, man’s best friend is on hand to help fight this insect foe, a new study published in the journal Ecosphere says.
Farmers and conservationists have trained dogs to sniff out lanternfly egg masses in vineyards and forests during the winter, before the pests can begin their springtime blight.
A Labrador retriever and a Belgian Malinois were more than three times better than humans at detecting egg masses in forested areas near vineyards, researchers found.
“A spotted lanternfly infestation in a vineyard can cause 80% to 100% mortality of the vines in one growing season,” lead researcher Angela Fuller, a professor of natural resources and the environment at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, said in a news release from the college.
Spotted lanternflies are native to Asia, and likely arrived in the U.S. on goods shipped from overseas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
They were first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014, and have since spread to 18 other states, researchers said in background notes.
When the insect feeds, it creates a sticky, sugary fluid that causes sooty mold, the USDA says.
Lanternflies lay their eggs on any hard surface, including grills, vehicles, trailers, firewood, outdoor furniture, bikes and toys, the USDA says.
For the study, researchers sicced the trained dogs on 20 vineyards in Pennsylvania and New Jersey known to have lanternfly infestations, alongside a host of human searchers.
Humans surveyed for egg masses one day and the leashed dogs on another day, so that human scents didn’t interfere with the hounds’ performance.
Dogs had 3.4 times more egg mass detections in forests near vineyards, researchers found.
“The dogs find egg masses by smell,” Fuller said. “So, in a very complex environment, it’s easier for a dog to smell something than it is for a human to see something that is small and cryptic.”
However, humans were better at finding egg masses in the vineyards themselves, discovering 1.8 times more egg masses than their canine companions, results show.
“It was pretty easy for humans to see them, because they can do a systematic search, up and down a vine or pole,” Fuller said.
Overall, the study shows that humans working hand-in-paw with canines can more successfully detect and eradicate lanternfly egg masses than humans searching alone, researchers concluded.
“Ultimately, while dogs present an upfront cost in training and deployment, their superior detection capabilities in the forest and versatility—such as being trained for multiple target species—make them a valuable asset in early detection and management strategies,” researchers concluded.
More information
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has more on the spotted lanternfly.
SOURCE: Cornell University, news release, Jan. 2, 2024
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