japaneese knot weed

[serenity]

not sure if this is the right place for this but this stuff is definately a pest. Our house backs on to what is considered woodland. It is also an area of historic value as there is the remains of roman roads there.

My problem is that there is an ever increasing area of japaneese knotweed growing which has started to sprout up into the hedges of my garden. The neighbour across the road contacted the council re this last year and they did abosolutely nothing about this. Today he has taken the matter into his own hands and set fire to it as it is supposed to grow to a depth of 3m am not sure this will have any effect but is definately keeping us indoors in what is a beautiful day. I think that the council should take action as potentially the roots could start growing through a historic site and ruin this for generations to come. Maybe this is what they want as then the ground would be open to developers and big bucks for the council.

Has anyone any experience of this weed or sugestions on what action I should take. Also if I do get the council to act (probably spray) will this mean that my crops, grown organically, will be killed or poisoned.

ANY suggestions welcome

[sanman]

From the research I have done, its either a matter of digging it out (but as you already know it grows to great depth and can regenerate from the smallest peice of root) or use something like glysophate (spelling?). With this you can either spray it on as you normally would or chop down the stems and inject with it. However I beelive it can take between 3 and 4 years diligent treatment before it goes.

I've actually got this infringing on my allotment so am going through this process now

[serenity]

sanman where is your allotment? we are in wincobank.

[pigletwillie]

Its really easy to get rid of Japanese knot weed. All it takes 1 day, a van and about £5k.

Its called moving house.

I dont mean to be flipant really, its one of those nasties that take a lot of time and effort to clear. Good luck but do call the environment agency as i am sure that it is a notifiable weed.

[sanman]

Hi Serenity, I'm at Rivelin.

[serenity]

Hi Serenity, I'm at Rivelin.

I was looking to get an allotment myself but the ones at high wincobank are just too overgrown, 5 ft brambles covering the whole plot. I just can't spare the time to take on that much

[bubblewrap]

Hello Sererinty There is quite a large amount of the weed on the canal bank(British waterways) & the disused railway line(Railtrack?)near to where I live. I informed our local council (Charnwood) but I was told as it was not on their land they could (would?) not do anything.
Anyway the site below may be of use.
http://www.cabi-bioscience.org/html/...d_alliance.htm

[serenity]

If I wasn't woried before then I definately am now

Bubblewrap, I have seen it growing allongside the canal too.

If I can't get the council to act am not sure it would be "legal" for me to start spraying myself

[bubblewrap]

If I wasn't woried before then I definately am now

Bubblewrap, I have seen it growing allongside the canal too.

If I can't get the council to act am not sure it would be "legal" for me to start spraying myself

The tow path is owned by British Waterways. Have you tried contacting them?
"The weed" could grow through the canal bed?

[vertangie]

I'll not go into the full details but I've just spent the day reading up on this because of some land I'm looking at and there's some good news coming.

Biological control could be as early as next year.

Here's the details:

https://www.cabi.org/datapage.asp?iDocID=719

I love these Cabi People. This might make a long term dream viable.

[Peter]

A word (or two) or caution.

Cane Toad.

Introduced to Oz to be a biological control on a sugar cane pest.
Now poisoning all native predators and eating anything it can get down.

[SimonCole]

People have talked about biological controls for years but I highly doubt that any will be introduced within the next 10 years. You also have to consider a range of environmental factors that may render any attempts ineffective. For example, is our climate too cold to sufficiently support the bugs? or do they have predators in the UK? You also have to consider that through evolution the bugs and plants have struck a balance, so I doubt any eradication will occur.

Bubblewrap, I have seen it growing allongside the canal too.

If I can't get the council to act am not sure it would be "legal" for me to start spraying myself

You simply can't do that because of the environmental damage (wild flowers etc.) and effect on the water balance. There are numerous protection laws about waterways and pollution legislation that could give you a criminal record. Report it by all means to the Env. Agency or campaign for greater action.

[cms]

More words of caution ...

Please don't just take this into your own hands to deal with - "it is an offence in the UK to cause this plant to grow in the wild under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and any waste material, such as that arising from cutting, mowing or excavation, should be disposed of according to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Duty of Care) Regulations".

Last year, as a volunteer group, we cleared an area alongside a footpath, with cooperation from the council (they provided a lockable bin for us to deposit the cut stems in and arranged removal and destruction of the cut material). If you can get some cooperation from the council like this actually cutting and clearing the stuff is not too onerous.

As an experiment we cut one stand which was a small isolated patch and made deep holes around the outside edges of the planting before pouring on/in a large quantity of salt. I have since moved but 5 months after the treatment that one area was showing no regrowth but the other sections did. (If I can get an update I'll post again.)

Traditionally the treatment includes repeated cutting and disposal combined with Glyphosate treatment.

Serenity - you should consider threatening the landowner with legal action to prevent the Knotweed spreading onto your land - I am sure they will suddenly see the light and opt to start treatment.

Please let us know how you get on Serenity and good luck

Cathy

[vertangie]

Have you all read the pdf that I posted the link to. It is really interesting the study that they've done. The bugs they're using probably won't eradicate the knotweed but will devastate it. They've tested it against a whole host of plants and concentrated on plant species that are in similar families to check that this is the bug to use, the trial started with many possibilites being studied and DEFRA were part funders an they will have the final say next year.

So it really is possible that this could happen in the next few years.

The land I was looking at also has lead and arsenic poisoning which would require 4000 tonnes of waste to be removed so I've ditched that idea but hell it was worth a days worth of dreaming, if you don't look you'll never find eh.

I too am nervous of releasing insects that aren't native to the country but we live in an environment where lots of non indigenous species are being released and it's interesting that many other countries are using biological control with a lot of success.

There was an instance in the US where they releases a biological control to deal with Thistles that were invading and destroying crop land, they knew that it would attack native species too but did it anyway, with the benefit of hindsight they wouldn't have done in but they were desperate. That's why this trial has been so thorough despite the fact that japanese knotweed has become one of this countries biggest threats to native species, in a test are they found that it took over more that 50% of the land that was exposed to it to the complete detriment of the other species in that area so if we leave it we could lose more land than is bearable.

It's not an offence to have it on your land but to allow cuttings/waste to get out is an offence to the point that vehicles collecting the waste have to be carefully checked before leaving the contaminated site.

I have visions of people in NBC suits ala ET with walkie talkies trapsing across the land with spray guns.

Seriously I dreampt it last night, Hoping it doesn't come to that

[SimonCole]

As an experiment we cut one stand which was a small isolated patch and made deep holes around the outside edges of the planting before pouring on/in a large quantity of salt. I have since moved but 5 months after the treatment that one area was showing no regrowth but the other sections did. (If I can get an update I'll post again.)

The problem with salt is that it kills most things.