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Scouting for pests with paws: Ontario farm uses dog to prevent pest outbreak

Oct 24, 2017

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This unconventional IPM team member has four legs and a tail

By Kaitlynn Anderson

Staff Reporter

Farms.com

For NatureFresh Farms, pepper weevils are one of the most threatening pests.

Humans have difficulties spotting pepper weevils and the insects cannot be controlled with a traditional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system. As a result, the pest can cause a large amount of damage, according to the company website.

So, when an outbreak of pepper weevil threatened the bell pepper crop in Leamington last year, NatureFresh Farms came up with a unique pest management solution.

The company adopted Chili, a 15-month-old female Belgian shepherd.

Source: NatureFresh Farms

“We knew we needed to try something different,” Kara Badder, marketing project manager at NatureFresh, said in an interview with Farms.com.

“We (had a trainer) find a dog who would be perfect for this type work and thus Chili was brought to us.”

Chili is now part of the company’s IPM team.

“Chili has … helped us take preventative measures and mitigate risks when it comes to pepper weevil,” said Badder.

As the dog is able to locate the pest, NatureFresh can now reduce its chance of experiencing a widespread issue, she explained.

To learn more about Chili and her work, watch the video below.

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