A new study from Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences pitted ordinary pets, trained by their owners, against experienced human searchers in a hunt for spotted lanternfly egg masses. It was the first test of community dog-handler teams in real-world conditions, where egg masses occur naturally, scents compete, and target locations are unknown. The dogs outperformed the people by more than 2 to 1 in densely vegetated areas.

Dogs Could Be Humanity’s Best Friend in the Fight Against This Invasive Species: A new trick for Fido—finding spotted lanternfly eggs

A new study from Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences pitted ordinary pets, trained by their owners, against experienced human searchers in a hunt for spotted…