A MAKE Magazine contributor Colin Berry did a radio piece last week about how a school in Santa Rosa, CA is training dogs to identify vineyard insect pests by scenting their sex pheremones.
A very different kind of environmental damage is found each year in California Wine Country. The damage doesn’t come from fire, but from bugs. From root lice to sharpshooters, California’s $45 billion wine industry has had its share of insect pests. Recently, the tiny vine mealy bug has taken hold, threatening up to 40,000 acres of grapes. Now researchers have found a new tool in the fight against the mealy bug: a friendly, four-legged ally with a keen sense of smell. The program reports from Sonoma County. (Photo by Dani Vernon)
[Link via BoingBoing]
I think its rare when I cover something actually related to the actual wine country, but here is one thing I thought interesting. The Vine Mealy bug is an on-going issue they have been looking for. Yet that pales in comparison with the amount of time and trouble they are putting into stopping the “Glassy Winged Sharpshooter.” They have a mascot to get the kids involved, handouts and magnets and such to remind people what they look like, seminars and lectures at random places to keep an eye out for them. All this for a bug the size of my thumbnail, that could supposedly destroy the whole valleys crops for years if they got hold.
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