r/invasivespecies

Brown-headed nuthatch, black capped chickadee, and eastern bluebird all are either hatched or well into incubation.

The sparrows were extremely aggressive this year, tearing apart several nearly complete nests in a matter of hours before I spotted them and could get the trap door in place. Shoutout to Van Ert for making a very high quality trap door that doesn't raise the suspicion of the sparrows, it was usually only a matter of minutes before I heard the snap and went clear out the captured invasive.

This is how large parts of the garden looked in August before removal. It was months of hard graft to remove the root “carpet” and rhizome clumps. As you can see in image 3, new clumps are still appearing- these can be lifted with a garden fork. Small pieces of rhizome (image 2) will regrow shoots - even young looking shoots may spring from a large rhizome cluster.

Although the flowers are impressive and loved by bees, the reason it is so dangerous is how easily it can outcompete native species and completely colonise areas. The beds that contained goldenrod were almost 100% only golderod roots and runners. Uncovered beds are now regrowing dormant ornamental perennials which were completely smothered.

However, for the most part complete removal of the roots and the chunky rhizome with forks, spades and mattocks/pick axes seems to control

it well enough. It is however back breaking and time consuming work. Regular checks for new shoots to identify missing pieces of rhizome are needed.

Hopefully within a year or two we will have it under control.

Our neighbour at the back came over tonight saying they think they have found Japanese knotweed and wanting to look in our garden. We have a large honeysuckle growing across the fence (the other side of what you can see in this photo), and no sign of any shoots or anything or our side. We have lived here 8 years and never seen anything.

Am I overly optimistic that this is a misidentification? It seems odd that it would suddenly appear out of nowhere. The neighbour to the right in this photo has entirely paved garden so no evidence of it either.

Very much appreciate any expertise! We are hoping to sell in the next few years so the timing is terrible.

I have a good amount of Japanese knotweed growing in my garden and it is slowly creeping into the lawn towards my foundation. There is already a couple shoots against my foundation.

I know the general advice is to wait until after flowering and before the first frost to inject/spray herbicide. Does this advice change when there is some growing directly against your house?

How likely is this small amount against my house to cause damage before fall?

Hi all - trying to manage several acres of stiltgrass in a forest. Too large an area to hand pull, too risky to do flame weeding, too many native plants to dare use any chemicals…what’s a girl to do? Found this “steam weeder” online and wondering if anyone has experience with it: https://www.weedtechnics.com/

Was recommended by Cornell extension, fwiw (I’m in upstate NY)

I’ve tried multiple different ways to identify and cannot come to a solid conclusion. Any ideas?

23 days ago I posted (https://www.reddit.com/r/invasivespecies/s/olDOpmCKDj) about discovering a Japanese knotweed patch in our new garden, when the first shoots started poking through. Since then, I’ve read up, bought my glysophate and prepared myself for the “*window*” during which time we will go to war.

But in 23 days, this stuff has grown enormous. It’s now well over 3m tall and shows no signs of slowing up. I’m now worried that we won’t be able to get high enough to cover all the foliage.

1. At what fucking stage does this stuff stop growing upwards?
2. Is there anything that can be done in the meantime to stunt the growth.

Many thanks.

I have a 4 acre property that was farmland 200 years ago. It’s in a rural area, near a 3k acre park that’s also full of invasives due to a huge abundance of wildlife. The deer in my yard are out of control. I have so many invasives that need to get pulled but the ticks are SO bad (thanks, deer & mice) that I can pick them up just walking out onto one of my patios. I dread going out into the woods and ripping stuff out because I’ll inevitably get covered in ticks.

A sampling of the invasives on my property:

Norway maple

TOH

Autumn olive

oriental bittersweet

japanese barberry

MFR

privet

dames rocket

swallowart

garlic mustard

motherwort

jumping worms

Anyway, I have a torn labrum which requires surgery and after having two foot surgeries and a torn bicep the last three years, I know that I can’t put this off any longer because some injury will always be holding me back and I certainly can’t try to tackle this after serious hip surgery. I know it’s a long battle but I’m hoping for some words of encouragement for fighting both of these monsters (ticks & invasives)!

Hello all. I’m 25 and I have just bought a house on my own. I had a gardener pass by and take a look at my garden briefly this afternoon and he has pointed out that I have got Japanese knotweed in my garden. I have done a bit of research on this and it’s safe to say I am shitting myself a bit with how this is going to be managed and the money implications it is going to have on me.

The reason why I have come to this subreddit is because the previous owners of this house did not make me aware of this when going through the process of the house, nor did the survey. When I viewed the house months ago, I the brambles were very high and I’m not sure the knotweed would’ve been visible. However, the previous owners had a gardener in to cut the brambles and they have clearly cut back the knotweed. Is it worth me doing anything legally to make the previous owners liable for this? What should I do?!

Sprayed last fall during the “window”. New shoots coming up around area I couldn’t access, but will be tackling those soon!

Got some rain the last few weeks and saw this shoot up in my front yard in a few spots?

Rewilding my yard the last two years so have been putting in considerable work to reduce invasives; this summer my plan of attack is to start cooking with them more as I find them and confirm species and also utilizing herbal uses to deplete energy for them as digging them up creates bigger problems for a lot

Chaos gardened and planted a few native plants and shrubs the last two yrs so this year I expect to more creeping and leaping to fill things in more/look way prettier

My war with Oriental Bittersweet has been going on for 2 years now. Last winter I did a lot of cuttings at the base of the vines. This year I started pulling the roots out of the ground & tore down a lot of new growth. This seems like a forever project but I feel I reclaimed some of our woods this season. There’s a tree graveyard in the thick of it & too much of it to use Glyphosate. Anyone else waging battles against this & have you completely eradicated it? Thanks.