Weevil helping white top problem
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Editor,
I read with interest the article on white top by Vince Devlin in the Missoulian. My deceased rancher friend, Walt Mangels, advised me many years ago to be on the look out for white top on my land not to buy any hay from the Bitterroot or the Ronan-St. Ignatius areas.
Twenty-some years ago, I discovered what looked like three small patches of white top in one of my pastures on the top of Polson Hill. I took a sample to our weed board and yes, it was white top. I asked them what would kill it. They said to try a heavy dose of Tordon. The first year it killed most of it. The next spring I applied it again and that killed the remainder.
I assumed birds, hunters or motorbikes had brought the seeds there
I also witnessed knapweed being brought up here from those same areas. I have fought it for over 35 years by pulling and spot spraying from horseback. Now we have an introduced Eurasian root weevil that is really helping.
John Oberlitner
Polson
