September is the busiest season for vineyards to harvest grapes, but invasive insects, called spotted lanternflies, continue to threaten Virginia’s wine industry. A new study looks at whether pet dogs could be successful at sniffing out lanternfly eggs as one way to combat the infestation.
Spotted lanternflies lay their brown egg masses in places that are very difficult for humans to spot, said Virginia Tech researcher Sally Dickinson.
“It kind of tucks them away,” Dickinson explained. “So it may be in between the cracks of a picnic table something like that, where we just aren’t able to visually find them. That’s why the dog’s nose is really really effective.”
Professional dogs are already being used across the country to detect lanternfly eggs, but there aren’t nearly enough of these trained canines to combat the infestation, said Dickinson. She and another researcher recruited over 180 dog and human teams.
They trained a few hours a week, and within 10 weeks most were able to accurately identify the smell of lanternfly eggs.
That could be helpful to slow the spread of these insects in Virginia, where these insects are now common throughout the Shenandoah and Roanoke Valleys, as well as central Virginia. They have also begun moving into the New River Valley, and the insect was recently identified in Blacksburg, said Doug Pfeiffer, a professor of entomology at Virginia Tech.
“This summer, we have found it in Blacksburg, both in town and on the Virginia Tech campus,” Pfeiffer said. “Once the spotted lanternfly reaches a new area, it takes about two years for it to reach really high numbers to become really explosive.”
Pfeiffer suggests one of the best ways to keep lanternflies from spreading is to find egg masses, and kill the invasive plant called tree of heaven, which is the preferred host plant for spotted lanternfly. The insects can do serious damage to vineyards, but they usually spread by feeding on tree of heaven.
Birds are not great at keeping the numbers of lanternflies low, though there are studies that show birds will eat some of the insects, said Pfeiffer. In studies, birds seem to prefer the insects that haven’t fed on tree of heaven.
Pfeiffer said researchers are exploring the effectiveness of a natural fungus which has been shown to kill tree of heaven. The United States Department of Agriculture is also considering approving the release of a parasitic wasp from China that eats young spotted lanternfly nymphs.
In the meantime, catching the insects in their early stages with the help of trained dogs is another tool that could help, said Erica Feuerbacher, associate professor in the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech and coauthor of the lanternfly dog study.
“So I think this does speak to the ability of average owners and average dogs to do this,” Feuerbacher said. She thinks this same training method might be used to teach dogs to detect other invasive insects, and offer dog owners opportunities to help solve environmental problems in their communities.
She added the training experience, which includes treats and toys, is enjoyable for dogs, and it often improves the relationship between owner and the dog.
Dickinson and Feuerbacher's study, titled “Evaluating the effectiveness of participatory science dog teams to detect devitalized Spotted Lanternfly egg masses” was published in “PeerJ Life & Environment.”
They plan to publish two more papers from their study, and if they find funding, they hope to be able to continue their research and do more trainings in the future.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
