Chili on duty to find weevils.
Ontario's emerging $275 million pepper industry was underattack last season from the invasive pepper weevil. Enter, Chili, a scent detection canine, trained to locate the pest with her nose before facilities workers are able to visually detect the pest. Early detection of pests can save thousands of dollars, protect jobs, and assist emerging industries such as greenhouse pepper growers.
Chili hails from Mexico and and after five weeks of training with Sid Murrary he is now on guard for the devasting weevil at NatureFresh Farms - one of North America's largest greenhouse pepper growers.
Professional scent detection dogs can be trained to find anything with a scent, and various industries as well as the Health sector (cancer detecting dogs) are just beginning to recognize the value of a professional scent detection K9. For more details on how Chili was trained read CBC News: Sniffing out weevils
