# Efforts to control star thistle worry beekeepers in MICHIGAN



## copperkid3 (Mar 18, 2005)

Star thistle or spotted knapweed is the primary source of honey production for most of Michigan's beekeepers. 
There is a very serious problem with the complete accuracy of the article. The MAIN thesis is gooberment 
control and what happens behind the scenes; they are going ahead anyway with the project regardless of opposition.....
It doesn't matter what is said in any public hearing; with or without input from the public or the beekeepers 
involved, it's a done deal. The USDA has already nearly wiped out another invasive plant species that was 
equally important to beekeepers; purple loosestrife which provided a large surplus of needed honey in late summer. 
There has been nothing suggested, nor done by officials to replace it's loss and the economic impact 
of that loss is apparently only felt by those beekeepers who depended on it.
Of course the effect is that those beekeepers have either gone elsewhere and taken their bees with them,
or they've watched their bees starve to death or have CCD do it's thing and suffered the same results.....no bees. 

*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_food_and_farm_bees_weed*

_*Two knapweed-eating flies were released in Michigan in the 1990s, but those don't appear to have curbed 
its spread, Rauscher said. So in August, researchers released two types of weevils on state land in five counties. 
Scientists in other states have found success in killing off knapweed with a combination of flies and weevils.

Michigan officials don't expect to wipe out knapweed; the hope is to pare it back. Doug Landis, a Michigan 
State University professor who specializes in biological control, is working with the state on the project. 
He said replacing knapweed with other flowers is a must because of the way Michigan beekeepers use the plant.*_


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