Researchers launch all-out assault on sawflies damaging wheat crops

Colorado wheat—the foundation for flour used in bread, noodles and pastries—has been besieged by the wheat stem sawfly, a native insect that recently developed a preference for wheat over native grasses. This destructive agricultural pest has spread across the state's Eastern Plains, devastating fields where it takes hold and causing $70 million in direct and indirect losses a year to one of Colorado's top agricultural commodities.