Could dogs be the future of Japanese knotweed detection?

The RFA who specialises in security, explosive detection and search dog training has successfully trained two dogs that can detect Japanese knotweed.

These dogs have been provided to a UK company that specialises in the detection of Japanese knotweed and removal.  The dogs are capable of detecting the knotweed under the ground when the plant is dormant during the winter.

Japanese Knotweed is top of the Environment Agency’s list of the UK’s most invasive plant species. The knotweed is described as “indisputably the UK’s most aggressive, destructive and invasive plant”.

With some areas of the country at very high risk of the spread of Japanese knotweed, could this be the key to future control of the weed?

Photo credit Environet UK.