HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Areas along the Hi-Line are reporting a large number of wheat stem sawflies this summer.
Hill County Ag Extension Agent Tom Allen says the wheat stem sawfly is harmless to people and animals, but is a serious problem for wheat producers.
“We’re always trying to come up with new ways to deal with them. It girdles the wheat plant and causes it to fall over where you can’t harvest it.”
Allen says there are several strategies to deal with these sawflies.
“Some go in early when they see the sawflies are flying early in June, they know they are going to be having a problem. They’ll go in and swath their crop and put it in windrows where they can pick it back up. There’s other people who mix a solid stem with a hollow stem wheat.”
Allen says MSU continues to work on the problem, which costs Montana producers millions of dollars each year.
