r/invasivespecies

The before pic is from last year, but they looked about the same before I cut them down.

Ever since learning about how bad they are I’ve wanted to remove mine but thought it would be a major pain to do so. Tried pruning them to a manageable size back in March, but they came back even stronger as they filled back in. Decided enough was enough and pruned them down to the ground today. It wasn’t even that hard to do! I sawed them as close to the ground as I could and then treated with glyphosate. (Don’t love using chemicals but decided it was easier than ripping up the roots)

Going to eventually replace these with some lovely native red twig dogwoods 😊

Hello! I'm fairly new home owner in Sweden and last summer I found two small-ish knotweed shoots in our garden, the smaller one (maybe 1.5ft) growing right under the fence between us and the neighbor and the larger one (2-3ft) about 3 ft from it on our side. This summer two shoots are sprouting from exactly same spots.

The neighbor said that they and/or the previous owner did something with the knotweeds some years ago and now they have reappeared. I don't think it was a large bush back then either but we can assume that the plant has been there for some years. Details are bit hazy and I can try to clarify them with the neighbor later.

These shoots are giving me the creeps. I'm afraid they will spread. We are doing some digging and building a patio quite close to the plants (3-6ft) and I'm wondering what to do.

I don't have an easy access to glyphosate, at best I can hire a specialist to dispense it in the autumn. No clue about the cost. Therefore I'm wondering whether I should leave the plants alone (and keep giving me anxiety) or try to dig them up. If the roots have spread widely there is a chance we hit them while working on the patio anyways. I have read that digging up the roots of small/young plants can work, but it's possible that these two aren't exactly "young".

Edit: there's a good routine in place for disposing the stalks and roots to public recycling station should anyone dig it out from their garden. So that's the part I'm least worried for.

Edit2: I have found a way to get my hands on glyphosate despite it being banned from private people in my country. Will treat those bastards in "the window"!

Any suggestions? Thanks for the advice in advance!

Please say it isn't JKW...

Found while flipping an overgrown flower bed for a customer. The head was expanding and contracting a lot into the classic hammerhead shape.

I didn’t know they were invasive! Or predatory. It makes sense where I found it as the bed was filled with earthworms in extremely healthy soil.

I know it’s invasive but I thought it was super cool 😎

Had this small guy pop up in my yard. Do not see anything else around it so not sure how it got there. Hoping it’s not the devil weed.

I recently found lemon ale all over my backyard. Never noticed them before.

How did it happen so quickly and so widespread? How did they get here? How do they spread?

Do I just dig it up?

Showed as a single stem up behind some Lilacs in our yard last summer, thought it was a random weed. Right beside one of the lilacs that is dying. Give it a yank and think nothing of it.

Came back this year about 6x the size and spread and an app said Japanese Knotweed.

No idea how it got here, but need to know how to kill it before it gets bigger and badder.

English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, porcelain berry, vinca, poison ivy (native, but undesirable)… pic 3 is a good example of what i was dealing with. almost totally gone. I can’t wait to replant.

edit: some chinese privet in the last photo, too. i took out a bunch of trees/shrubs that had clearly been cut down many times but never treated.

Inherited two giant patches of JKW. Last winter I cut the 8 ft tall canes and mowed over the spots several times. This is just 1.5 weeks of growth. I plan on cutting until late summer then flood the patches with glyphosate.

This is our first spring in our home. I went out for a weekly mow and noticed these saplings popping up… Tree of the Heaven? If so… 😭

I see about 10 or so of them in a couple of areas. Any recommendations to handle them?

I’m particularly concerned because they’re near our pool / pool deck. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

P.S. Long Island, NY

Is this knotweed? Leaves don’t appear to be smooth but it does have a wildy aggressive root system and sprouts starting to pop up all over. Much appreciated.

so this slope in my backyard USED to be a monarch butterfly habitat filled with milkweed. now its covered in goutweed.

ive been trying ways to tackle it for a couple years now but this is the summer that im attacking full force.

my current game plan is to 1) yank out everything aboveground over the entire slope, then 2) take a shovel and cut the dirt into sections as deep as i can go, then 3) go section by section with a hand rake and dig out as much of the roots + rhizomes as possible. 4) monitor and spot treat as needed

so far, ive taken 2 afternoons to get almost halfway through step 1. it just rained so thankfully a lot of the roots are coming up with the stems but theres still a lot i'll have to dig up. im trying to take advantage of the window where it's flowering but hasnt gone to seed yet since flowering takes up a lot of energy.

i'm also finding some interesting things buried under all the weeds... i found a bunch of rusty old rebar?? and some concrete blobs???

I think this may be a hybrid of American bittersweet and Oriental Bittersweet because following the USGS identifiers, it looks like it has characteristics of both plants. Are we supposed to get rid of the hybrids as well?