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Impact Of Roadside Maintenance Practices On Larinus Minutus (Gyllenhal), A Biological Control Agent Of Spotted Knapweed, Mary Elizabeth Ferguson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spotted knapweed, Centaurea stoebe, is an invasive weed found throughout much of the United States. Spotted knapweed is a rangeland weed where it was originally introduced into western North America in the 1880s.Where spotted knapweed spread to the southeastern U.S., it is found mostly along roadsides. It has been the focus of a biological control program beginning in the 1960s, with 12 insects established, with the final introductions occurring in the 1990s. After the success observed in the western U.S. and Canada with one of these insects, Larinus minutus, this weevil was established in northwestern Arkansas. It is too early …