( ly from field to field throughout Monta...)Rearing an army to save wheat

A number of Montana counties now have established populations of these natural enemies in their wheat fields, thanks to pilot scale research co-sponsored by the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee; USDA, CSREES Special Research Grants; the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology; and the BNSF Railway Foundation. However, the process of locating parasitic wasp populations for redistribution is inefficient, and having the ability to reliably mass produce these organisms would be an asset.

Even a slight increase in efficiency could translate into the ability to produce thousands of additional parasitic wasps, which could then be distributed to wheat stem sawfly infested sites.

Pallipparambil-Robert has just begun work on a doctorate in entomology at the University of Arkansas. The late summer and autumn efforts are being completed by Frazier. It became her job to tend the cages of parasitic wasps every few days, after Palliparambil-Robert departed.

Weaver said more research is needed to determine precisely how many sawflies and parasitic wasps need to be added to each cage and to determine the best time to add the wasps. The current research shows that enough parasitoids can be produced to establish a founding population in an infested wheat field using the straw residue from a single mass-rearing cage.

Mass-rearing of the parasitic wasps is only one of three or four approaches for sawfly management that are being pursued at MSU. The drought conditions of recent years have made the work more pressing, since drought favors damage by wheat stem sawflies, which are now more widely distributed in Montana than years ago.

"There are larger areas of sawfly damage all along the Golden Triangle, the northern tier of Montana counties as well as the area aroun
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Source:Montana State University