Dogs could help make better wine. From the Press Democrat (CA):
Joy, a bouncy golden retriever with a nose for bad bugs, may be the wine industry's newest weapon in the costly battle against a nasty vineyard pest.Joy and four littermates are being trained as "sniffer dogs" to search for vine mealybugs, the latest predator to invade Napa and Sonoma vineyards.
Press Democrat Photo
Vine mealybugs are cryptic critters barely visible to the human eye but they secrete a scent that Joy and her siblings have been trained to sniff out. Humans are unable to detect the scent of mealybugs."The idea is to use these dogs to find a vine mealybug infestation in its early stages so we can isolate and, hopefully, eradicate the insects before they spread to additional vineyards," said Katey Taylor, viticulturist at Domaine Chandon in the Napa Valley.
There's a lot at stake because the vine mealybug is a particularly insidious bug. It infests all parts of the vine, producing a sugary excretion known as honeydew that is an ideal environment for black, sooty mold and other diseases. When the honeydew and black mold ooze over ripened grapes, the fruit can't be used for wine.
"As a grower, you can't be asleep at the wheel with this pest. The bottom line is that an infestation leaves the fruit unmarketable," said Sonoma County viticulture adviser Rhonda Smith of the University of California Cooperative Extension.
Dogs, Taylor said, promise to be more efficient, cost effective and accurate than humans in canvasing the more than 100,000 acres of Napa and Sonoma vineyards that could be harboring the vine mealybug, originally from the Mediterranean regions of Europe and found in Africa and the Middle East.
