Dogs' Keen Sense of Smell Could Help Fight Invasive Pests

SUNDAY, July 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Everyday Fidos and their people could become a front-line defense against an invasive insect harming forests and farms across 18 U.S. states, researchers say.These volunteers were able to effectively detect invasive spotted lanternflies in a ground-breaking study led by Virginia Tech. "These teams demonstrated that citizen scientists and their dogs can play a meaningful role in protecting agriculture and the environment from invasive species," lead researcher Sally Dickinson said in a news release. "With proper training, dog owners can turn their pets into powerful partners for conservation."Dickinson, who recently received a doctorate degree from Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is a career search-and-rescue canine handler. Her objective: Giving dogs and their people a chance to make a difference."This research is about more than detection," she said. "It’s about empowering people to work alongside their dogs to protect the places and communities they care about."The new study — published this month in the journal Peer J — is believed to be the first to show that citizen dog-handler teams can achieve detection rates similar to professional conservation detection dogs.Spotted lanternflies are native to Asia. Since being spotted in Pennsylvania in 2014, they have spread across the eastern and central U.S., researchers said in background notes. They deposit their eggs on stone, trees, lumber and even motor vehicles, where they get a free ride to a distant destination.Finding the masses, however, is no simple job. "They often resemble mud smears or lichens and are tucked into bark crevices, cracks or hidden undersides," said study co-author Mizuho Nita, a plant pathologist at Virginia Tech’s Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center."Finding them is like searching for a needle in a haystack," he added.And that’s where a canine’s discerning nose comes in. Dogs can be trained to sniff out egg masses, and while professional detection dogs are very accurate, there aren’t nearly enough of them to deal with problem.So researchers turned to the thousands of owners and pups that do scent detection just for fun. This recreational scent work, as it is called, allows dogs to search for hidden scents in parks, homes and training classes.When the invitation to be part of the study went out, more than 1,000 dog owners expressed interest — more than 4 in 10 of whom had prior experience with scent detection. In all, 182 teams were deployed. They received non-hatching egg masses as training aids and worked under the supervision of a designated local trainer for several months.Then, they were put to the test both indoors and outdoors. Inside, they were challenged to identify which of several boxes containing various items and scents contained the spotted lanternfly egg mass. Those who were able to do it moved on to an outdoor test.In the controlled tests, dogs got it right 82% of the time, though their accuracy dropped to 61% in real-world field trials. Still, researchers said, that’s better than many human searches.And, of the dogs who aced both tests, more than 9 in 10 found the egg masses with only a little extra training.Katie Thomas and her pit bull mix, Finch, volunteered, putting their seven years of recreational scent training to use."Being able to do the same thing for the greater good — for citizen science — adds another layer we didn’t have before," she said.Study co-author Erica Feuerbacher, who was Dickinson’s graduate advisor, said the findings underscore the value of grassroots science."There are thousands of people out there doing scent work with their dogs just for fun," said Feuerbacher, an associate professor of animal sciences. "What Sally’s study shows is that this can be more than a hobby — these citizen-scientists and their dogs can be a valuable resource for fighting the spread of an invasive pest."A separate study found that trained pet dogs could also detect powdery mildew with 90% accuracy. It’s a major fungal disease of grapes and vineyards.More informationThe U.S. Forest Service Research and Development has more about invasive insects.SOURCE: Science Daily, news release, July 17, 2025 .What This Means For YouCitizen volunteers could play a growing role in safeguarding agriculture and the ecosystem..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Dogs' Keen Sense of Smell Could Help Fight Invasive Pests

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