Welcome to the Vine Mealybug Sniffer Dog Project. Faced with the use of hard core pesticides* to get rid of this nasty new pest, the Vine Mealybug Workgroup started looking into other options, as you can read here. The idea is quicker detection, quicker eradication and less use of chemicals. I love being on the cutting edge.

*Pesticides such as organophosphates and carbamates — such icky stuff, most growers don’t use it anymore. They are both cholinesterase inhibitors. If you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that it’s bad. Unless you have Alzheimer’s apparently.