Four-legged investigators sniff out spotted lanternfly eggs

The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the U.S. a decade ago, has steadily spread across the East Coast and into the Midwest with little getting in its way.

But now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow it’s advance — specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect’s eggs before they hatch.

Since late last year, four of the dogs have been scouring parks in the Cleveland area in search of egg masses hidden around trees, shrubs, park benches, landscape rocks and bridge pillars. Each egg mass can produce 30 to 50 spotted lanternflies.

So far, the dogs have uncovered more than 4,000 of the masses, meaning they’ve helped eradicate as many as 200,000 of the sap-sucking bugs that damage grapes, fruit trees, hops and hardwoods, said Connie Hausman, senior conservation science manager at Cleveland Metroparks.

In just a few hours in April, the dogs found about 1,100 egg masses at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Hausman said.

Not just any dog can go out searching, she said.

“They all have wonderful noses, but they’re not all eligible,” she said. “They had to pass tests to prove their service.”

The dogs were trained through a research project led by a group at Virginia Tech University, which is setting out to slow the spread of the insects that are native to eastern Asia and recognizable for their distinctive black spots and bright red wing markings.

The four working in Cleveland owned by local residents already had scent training before they worked with Virginia Tech to hone their noses to detect the spotted lanternflies.

Once they spot a new mass of eggs, the dogs get a treat from their handlers who scrape away the mud-like masses.