Clearing vines out of lilacs can feel never ending, I have been battling vines on the yard for a few years, but slowly winning Good on you to help your neighbor out!
Gloves and long sleeves are your friends on a job like that. We have multiflora around here, but they haven't gotten near that big, maybe because they're understory plants. Cardinals like to nest in them. I have one spot where a wild blackberry plant grows, and I have to cut it back every year.
We used to have lots of kudzu growing down here, but the DOT and others have done a great job of clearing lots of areas... Around our yard, we battle wisteria and bamboo...
Only spray Ive seen work on bamboo is RM43. I hate the chinese porcelain berry vine too. I had that all over my last property.
Definitely, I have a pair of Caiman professional performance winter gloves. Best purchase I ever made. Nice and thick with palm protectors, keep the thorns from touching the skin, and pretty comfortable in winter (when I usually cut back the multiflora roses). If I'd known how good they were when I found them at the local Aubuchons (I think), I would have bought several pairs. Instead, I'm dreading the day they wear out since I can't find the exact same thing anymore. Doesn't help that I have small hands and most medium sized men's gloves are way too large for me - I ain't never seen a men's small glove. I haven't found an equal in women's gloves - because ya know, women are tougher than men and don't need that type of protection.
It took 2 applications to kill a small patch. They werent giant shoots but they were there for about 10-12 years.
I went out this morning to spray Pear, English Ivy, Wisteria, Poison Ivy, Honeysuckle, Knockout Rose, some weird chit ground cover bleeding over from neighbor, creeping euonymus, Virginia creeper, burning bush, liriope, Blackberry 8oz/gal Roundup pro maxx Japanese Stiltgrass is another forest invader, but it’s not up yet.
I really should invest in better gloves, I'm just used to buying cheap ones and wearing them out. Can't beat a good pair of gloves. I'm sure you must have searched the internet for those gloves, I know Amazon has a bunch. I have small hands also, and I don't like gloves that are too loose. Just for general all purpose gloves I like these from Sam's Club, they have small but I like the medium size, but they're a little on the lightweight side. https://www.samsclub.com/p/plainsma...c-IOEysydbNocGclYnycyjQQ&pubNAME=Connexity+US
With all the love that Black Locust get on the board here it's a no go in Ontario. http://www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Black_Locust_BMP.pdf
I had never noticed how many Bradford pears were growing along the highway, fence rows and creek banks till I read this thread. I’ve never cared for them but now I will eradicate when the opportunity comes.
This is the time of year that’s easiest to spot them. Full of flowers and they have that too perfect unnatural pyramid form. I see them all along the highway here.
Prime example of why NOT to plant Bradford pears/Cleveland select. 25 years ago this was an open field that I used to ride my dirt bike in. It’s quickly being taken over by a dense Asian pear forest (interspersed with autumn olive) Every single tree you see with white flowers is a Bradford. It all started from 2 trees a neighbor planted close by. If I was retired or had all the time in the world to fart around I’d volunteer to cut all these trees down, make a little firewood to give away, chip and bury the rest deep underground with a backhoe. The autumn olive too. Plant native trees in their place.
At least in my yard staghorn sumac is banned. Had a couple and they were suckering so bad that they were taking over. Eliminated them. Now in the last year people at work are planting tiger eye sumac for specimen trees and I wish them luck and say call me when you want to get rid of them.
Here's a quick guide of the usual suspects found in my area: https://www.plymouth.edu/mwm/wp-content/uploads/sites/170/2020/10/SLA-Invasive-Species-Guide.pdf
It's in effect now: Why the Bradford pear tree is now banned in Ohio The next step would be to eradicate them, most importantly, the ones that escaped cultivation and are taking over natural and disturbed areas.
Bradford pears weren't a problem as they were all clones, until someone decided to find a relative substitute for their tendency to self destruct at about 25 years. The Bradford pears now had mates. And their offspring started popping up <everywhere>. It didn't help that Bradfords were such a popular landscaping tree in suburbia. We have lots of norway maples in the environment here where they shouldn't be, but worse has been russian olive which has almost completely displaced pussy willows as a pioneer species and is one of the few things that can survive under a norway maple.
Looks like Connecticut is following suit with the callery (Bradford) pear tree classification. They added a few other species to the list that I'm familiar with. I've been battling mugwort at my house since I moved in, and over the last few years I've noticed an explosion of Japanese wisteria (right now it's very easy to spot an infestation with the bright purple blooms everywhere it has taken over) CT adds to invasive plants species list for first time in several years – NBC Connecticut Lately I've been waging war on wintercreeper at my house, which up until this spring was smothering huge swaths of the edges of my yard. That battle will continue for a few years I'm sure. I just got some concentrated triclopyr 4 in the mail this week, so I'll be utilizing that soon. I noticed on the other side of my yard a bunch of yellow flowers had taken over a huge area, which turned out to be greater celandine. That's a European invasive so that'll be the next eradication project back there.
