Richmond Dog Trainer Leads Invasive Insect Study

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
October 15th 2023

LINCOLN – The Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive insect pest native to China, was first detected in Rhode Island in 2021 and has since been found in several northern Rhode Island communities. No lanternflies have been detected in Richmond – yet.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management is encouraging residents to watch for lanternflies, kill or “squash” the ones they find and report them to DEM.

Lanternflies are leaf hoppers and don’t fly great distances on their own, so their principal means of spreading is through the transportation of their egg masses. With their striking red coloring, adult lanternflies and nymphs are almost impossible to miss, but the egg masses are much more difficult to detect.

Looking like bits of gray lichen or smears of mud, the egg masses can be found on vehicles and outdoor furniture as well as wooden pallets, buildings and fences.

That’s where the dogs come in. The Canine Citizen Science Study, which began two years ago at Texas Tech, expanded East this year, partnering with Virginia Tech to recruit owners of scent work-trained dogs. The project is funded by a $475,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture and coordinated by Sally Dickinson of Virginia Tech.

In a press release describing the program, Dickinson said the goal of the project is to mobilize groups of handlers whose dogs can sniff out not only lanternfly eggs but other invasive species.

“At the completion of the study, we hope to have a strong network of handlers able to locate spotted lanternfly egg masses as a proof-of-concept program, with the intent to create an enduring citizen-based detection program for this and other invasive species,” she said. “Put your training skills to work and help protect our vineyards, fruit orchards and flower gardens.”

Richmond resident Jennifer Anderson leads the team, the only one in New England, and works with her Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Bellamy. The other team members are Ann Rapoza with Kin, an Australian Shepherd, Phyllis Zusman and Xena, a Portugese Water Dog, Vicki McKinney and English Shepherd, Gryphon, and Shady Stanley, (who was not able to attend this session) and her Border Collie, Huck.

Training

Anderson, a scent work competition judge and certified canine search specialist with the Rhode Island Canine Search and Rescue team, was asked to recruit dogs and handlers for the Rhode Island component of the study.

“I put a ‘call to arms’ basically, out, to folks that I knew that were very involved in olfaction work with their dogs,” she said. “A lot of these dogs are scent work dogs, whether through the AKC [American Kennel Club] or other groups that do scent work as a sport, so we know they have the acumen and we know the handlers know how to recognize when their dogs are in a target odor.”

The group of five handlers and their dogs began training together in March.

“The proposition was, can dogs with high olfaction sense and knowledgeable trained handlers, can they be used as an intersection point to recognize the presence of the spotted lanternfly in areas before they become highly infested,” Anderson said.

The Tests

In order to participate in the study, the dogs must pass two tests: odor recognition, which takes place indoors, and a field test, where they are asked to find egg masses outdoors.

Each egg mass contains between 25 and 50 eggs. In the test protocol, which was developed by the USDA to avoid having to transport live egg masses, the eggs used for the study have been inoculated, or killed, so they cannot hatch.

For the odor recognition test, six perforated white boxes were placed on the floor of a barn. One of the boxes contained spotted lanternfly eggs. The others were either empty or they contained other things, such as a dead cricket, or grass, that can distract the dogs.

Anderson wanted to determine whether dogs could distinguish the odor of lanternfly egg masses from other scents.

“That’s another facet of olfaction detection for dogs,” she said. “Can they take something that – it’s not the human scent, we have cadaver dogs…can you take this and say ‘this is another thing for you to seek that’s different and separate from these things?’ …When I say the command ‘find bugs,’ it’s totally different than finding a person.”

When dogs locate the scent or object that they have been asked to find, they give their handler a special signal, known as an alert.

Anderson’s dog, Bellamy, barks. Other dogs stand or sit still with their noses close to the source of the scent. One does a play bow.

“Her alert is this very active, animated bark,” Anderson said, referring to Bellamy. “She really likes this. It’s a very different odor than the other odors she works.”

All the members of the Rhode Island group passed the odor recognition test, which took place in July at Delmyra Kennels in Exeter. Dickinson, of Virginia Tech, traveled to Exeter to administer the test.

The Dogs

Phyllis Zusman’s dog, Xena, is four, and has really taken to egg mass searching.

“She does a lot of other sports, she was nuts about nose work,” Zusman said. “I’d stand here and she’d see the cones and she’s be screaming ‘we gotta go! We gotta go!’ This is absolutely her thing, and in competitive stuff, she’s doing phenomenally.”

Vicki McKinney’s dog, Gryphon, who at 17 months is still considered a puppy, also loved the work from the beginning.

“I think he’s the only dog in the study who had never ever had any experience with nose work, so he’s starting from scratch,” she said. “He’s brand new at it and he’s an environmentally sensitive puppy, being a herding breed…This kind of thing, it helps a lot for a dog. It gives them confidence, it helps them use their brain and their body at the same time.”

Ann Rapoza has been doing nose work with her three-year old Australian Shepherd, Kin, since he was just six months old, and they have been competing in scent work ever since.

“When I first did it, we looked for food in boxes, and I think he right away really got into the hunt part of it,” she said.

The Field Test

The group moved outside to practice for the field test. Egg masses had been hidden inside and near an open barn and on the outer wall of a nearby shed.

It was early evening, and a breeze was moving the scent around. As each dog attempted to find the eggs, you could see them following the scent as it swirled in and around the outside of the building. This test is similar to how the dogs would be searching in the real world, in a winery or an orchard.

The first team, Zusman and Xena, started at a rock wall and searched the length of the barn.

Zusman gave the command, “search,” and Xena was off.

“She’ll stand and then look back at me,” she said, describing Xena’s alert signal.

As Anderson watched Xena working, she explained that the field test has many challenges and distractions, which is, of course, the point.

“It’s a very different scenario when you get outside with air movement and distractions,” she said.

As Xena continued to work, Anderson called to Zusman,

“She’s close. Continue working that wall. That would be enough.”

Then Xena pinpointed the source of the scent, between rocks in the wall.

“That’s it!” Anderson said. “That would have been more than enough at a vineyard.”

All the dogs overcame the distractions and located the egg masses, but the practice sessions will continue until the test, the date if which is still to be determined.

Cindy Kwolek, Survey Coordinator for DEM’s, Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey, or CAPS, said the dogs could be  valuable assets in controlling invasive pests. And, detecting the egg masses before they become lanternflies is more environmentally-friendly than spraying.

“The dogs are amazing,” she said. “I think incorporating their sense of smell into so many different applications is just a cool thing in general – aside from spotted lanternfly.”