# INVASIVE SPECIES REMOVAL: How best to eliminate HONEYSUCKLE



## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

I have a 170 acre bike and ski resort in Sturgeon Bay, WI, and have been invaded by honeysuckle. I mean, the pile of honeysuckle I have cut so far almost reaches the moon!! Ideas on how best to remove?? What herbicide works best?? What do you do with the plants you have cut??

I have been using a machete to cut to date and have some loppers ordered for a trail work day. I have not yet used herbicide, but realize I will have to use this to eliminate the plant. thanks, ...tom


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

Glyphosate 41%. Formerly always known as Monsanto RoundUp Super Concentrate during it's patent days. It's a systemic and when applied/dosed correctly, will kill pretty much any plant as long as it applied correctly to the plant's leaf surface. Sometimes adjuvants (spreader/sticker] are helpful additives but not always necessary. Takes a week or so to see results because it is a systemic and translocates to the root mass, killing it, and the remaining portion of the plant then dies.


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## aero901 (Apr 11, 2012)

We remove honeysuckle by digging it out by the roots using a sharp rouge hoe. Most of the plants have shallow root systems and are easy to remove in soft soils. If the density of honeysuckle is high, be careful with herbicides because they can concentrate in the soil and start to affect other plans.

One local crew cuts honeysuckle at the base and applies herbicide to the cut face of the remaining stumps. Doesn't seem as effective as removing the whole plant though.


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Thanks for the info OMS. Do you know anything about cut stump treatment, such as kill percent?? To me this seems better- you can apply with a sponge applied to a pole and use much less herbicide. I also have small pine and spruce trees in close proximity, so foliar treatment is not the best option.


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Thanks for the info aero. Have you tried an axe or any other tools or have you only removed HS with a Rogue hoe?? A rogue hoe does seem ideal. Just ordered one a few weeks ago. Looking forward to trying it out tomorrow. 

Also, do you know if you miss a bit of the root if it is likely to grow back?? thanks, tom


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## aero901 (Apr 11, 2012)

I've only used a rogue hoe. Sometimes a pruning saw to cut away branches for the larger plants to get access to the stem. The roots don't seem to grow back if a little bit is left behind but I don't know for sure. If they do, the small plants can usually be pulled by hand. Once you do the initial cull, there will inevitably be plants that sprout from seed or regrow so it may take a few years to get it under control. Good luck.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

snowkraft said:


> Thanks for the info OMS. Do you know anything about cut stump treatment, such as kill percent?? To me this seems better- you can apply with a sponge applied to a pole and use much less herbicide. I also have small pine and spruce trees in close proximity, so foliar treatment is not the best option.


If applied properly, Glyphosate will not translocate into the soil and effect non-target roots. As the treated roots die, I forget the specific interval, but glyphosate will go organic and becomes undetectable. It requires foliar application but some plant materials in different stages of life cycle may have photosynthetic stems and trunks that have not hardened off or have insufficient cork cambium production so glyphosate could possibly be uptaken by non-targeted juvenile woody plants and they would succumb to the effects.

In my experience as an Arborist for over 25 years, I have not seen any consistent success using glyphosate for cut stump treatment. Again, it requires foliar application for maximum uptake but I have had some success in some of our Eucalyptus species where immediatly upon cutting a trunk, carving a channel circumferentially in the active cambium layer giving the product a place to pool and absorb. Using this method, I've seen better efficacy of the Ortho Product "Weed B-Gon" / "Brush B-Gon" which utilizes 2,4-D. It's much less expensive than glyphosate as well but it requires a significant quantity of concentrated, unmixed product. IIRC, this also falls out of the guidelines for recommended application methods, too.


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## Trail Ninja (Sep 25, 2008)

Oh My Sack! said:


> ...I forget the specific interval, but glyphosate will go organic and becomes undetectable. ...


On average, 6 weeks. As little as 10 days, up to 3 months. I never had any luck treating cut plants. Only tried it on Scotch Broom and salal.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

snowkraft said:


> Also, do you know if you miss a bit of the root if it is likely to grow back?? thanks, tom


I'm in CA. We have Tecomaria capensis: Cape Honeysuckle. It's uber invasive once it gets going. Is this the same plant you're speaking of? If so, it doesn't take much root mass left behind to get a foothold and start again. One of the benefits of glyphosate. Roots die first, then the rest of the plant.

Cape Honeysuckle


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

Trail Ninja said:


> On average, 6 weeks. As little as 10 days, up to 3 months.


Sounds right. That was always an issue when I was doing forensic reports for dying and dead specimens trees that have been sabotaged by pi$$ed off neighbors. We have to catch it quick in soil testing, otherwise it's undetectable.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

Trail Ninja said:


> Only tried it on Scotch Broom and salal.


Oh Dear GOD! Genista. A scourge on the wilderness. :lol:


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## Trail Ninja (Sep 25, 2008)

Oh My Sack! said:


> Oh Dear GOD! Genista. A scourge on the wilderness. :lol:


Vancouver Island. We used to have trees.


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## bamwa (Mar 15, 2010)

oh my sack! said:


> if applied properly, glyphosate will not translocate into the soil and effect non-target roots. As the treated roots die, i forget the specific interval, but glyphosate will go organic and becomes undetectable. It requires foliar application but some plant materials in different stages of life cycle may have photosynthetic stems and trunks that have not hardened off or have insufficient cork cambium production so glyphosate could possibly be uptaken by non-targeted juvenile woody plants and they would succumb to the effects.
> 
> In my experience as an arborist for over 25 years, i have not seen any consistent success using glyphosate for cut stump treatment. Again, it requires foliar application for maximum uptake but i have had some success in some of our eucalyptus species where immediatly upon cutting a trunk, carving a channel circumferentially in the active cambium layer giving the product a place to pool and absorb. Using this method, i've seen better efficacy of the ortho product "weed b-gon" / "brush b-gon" which utilizes 2,4-d. It's much less expensive than glyphosate as well but it requires a significant quantity of concentrated, unmixed product. Iirc, this also falls out of the guidelines for recommended application methods, too.


post of the year if not decade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

It is not Cape Honeysuckle. I do not know the name, as there are a few that are similar. It is one of the plants talked about in this HS removal strategy write-up:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/for-fact/pdf/0068.pdf



Oh My Sack! said:


> I'm in CA. We have Tecomaria capensis: Cape Honeysuckle. It's uber invasive once it gets going. Is this the same plant you're speaking of? If so, it doesn't take much root mass left behind to get a foothold and start again. One of the benefits of glyphosate. Roots die first, then the rest of the plant.
> 
> Cape Honeysuckle


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Thanks in part to Aero we settled on removing the entire plant. We used rogue hoes, which worked well due to the leverage they have to pry out the root mass. Many of the HS were bigger and needed to be cut first. I would like to have a handle custom made for the hoe, as I am BIG and strong and had to be careful with how much pressure I exerted. I also used a small axe and Condor Viking machete:

Amazon.com : Condor Tool and Knife 20-Inch UltraBlaC2 Viking Machete, Walnut Handle, Leather Sheath : Golok Machete : Sports & Outdoors

This is not a typical flimsy machete- it is quite heavy and I did not have to cut plants first. I struck near the base and usually after a few impacts the HS could be removed easily. A machete is not the best tool when working in groups however, as, among other things, it can fly out of your hand and go airborne. (I was careful and there was no loss of blood by anyone.) I ordered a heavier axe to try. Like a machete, there is less need to cut the HS first.

The HS we were working with was 2 inch diameter or smaller. I do have HS that is 3 and even 4 inch diameter. I will try a winch mounted on my UTV and see how that works for the bigger plants. If that does not work, then will probably use a foliar approach if the HS is not near other desirable trees or plants. If it is, I'll use cut stump treatment, with detailed instructions here: http://ohioline.osu.edu/for-fact/pdf/0068.pdf

Thanks again for the recommendations. ...tom


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

Just did a quick browse of that publication. Though they are different genus/species, their habits are nearly identical so I think you'll realize similar results to what I see out here.


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## UncleTrail (Sep 29, 2007)

You do not want to spray the foliage and risk drift onto other trees. Cut them down and IMMEDIATELY spray/paint the stumps with:

Tordon 2,4-D, Picloram
or 
Trimec 2,4-D, mecoprop, dicamba

or,
Strip the bark, paint it on the cambium. I've been doing this with nuisance ash trees and have had good success (using Trimec). Might not be quick enough for trail building though....

The important thing is to get the chemical onto the cambium layer while it is still fresh so it translocates the herbicide to the roots.


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## Bluegrassbiker (May 4, 2013)

70% of the trails we build professionally are through honeysuckle. If the land manger allows, we put the honey bushes we remove into the borrow pits we dig for trail construction. This is the quickest and least expensive removal method. If the land manager will not allow borrow pits, we will rip the bushes out with the excavators and have a crew slicing and dicing and spreading about so the piles disappear. We have removed miles and miles of it by hand also. We work with professional arborists on proper removal methods for the area we are working in as well as honey management plans. Sometimes they spray the corridor the year prior to our arrival. Then we remove with excavators. Only ripping out the bushes and not spraying or cut and paint to kill first will leave roots behind and those roots will reveg very quickly. Therefore, you must remove every single inch of every root of every single bush which is almost impossible even with excavators. We recommend clearing the honey a minimum of 10' either side of trail center line. I have witnessed honey branches sprout new leaves after they were cut from their mother ships six months prior. Four of the six months housed a brutal winter. The branches were from bushes that we sliced and diced and spread about. The stuff is hardy. We suggest spraying the honey in the trail corridor every four years. Usually the LM's adopt a rotating spray plan. A couple miles a year, coming back to the same mile every four years. Spraying vs cut and paint is usually the most economical method. Some LM's do pay extra for cut and paint. Unless they eradicate the entire property it will grow back into the trail corridor no matter what removal method you choose. It starts to re-veg in the corridor after year one. By year four it is affecting the trail experience negatively. We work mostly with mature bushes with trunks up to 18" in diameter. We believe we will never beat the honey suckle, we can only manage it. The below picture shows one of our trails with honey removed 20' either side o trail center line. *Edit* Honey is the first to sprout leaves and the last to loose them in the fall. Most LM's spray in the fall when they are the last green leaves in the forest. Kill rate and percent concentration of herbicide needed is best when spraying in the fall. Spring flowers etc will grow the following spring after a fall spray.


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Thanks BG. That is a great account of how PTB deal with HS. HS sounds like more of a problem than I ever could have imagined. We are clearing the trail corridor and cutting a few other bigger HS with plans to come back when there is more time and paint them. I have plans to clear the entire property.


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## Bluegrassbiker (May 4, 2013)

You have to paint immediately due to capillary action.


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## Dave_schuldt (May 10, 2004)

GOATS, ALL NATURAL ALL THE TIME. Just put a fence around anything you want to keep and the will take care of the rest. They are great compost factories. Check it there's a place that rents them like this one we have in Seattle. Rent-A-Ruminant LLC - Home
I've also heard that sheep will work in some cases.


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Plus, I could then make goat cheese. So much cheaper than from Whole Foods. I like animals, maybe someday will get a goat or 2, but chickens first. 

I found that goats do like HS, but probably will not eat the larger bushes. Really is an option for me at some point, but must be careful where you place them so that they do not eat your whole woods, I suppose.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Definitely dig it up.

the asian bush honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii, is what I have to deal with most often. Typically I just dig it up. If I'm cutting trail, I usually invert the plant after I dig it up, to make sure the roots are exposed to the air consistently, and they do die pretty consistently that way. At home, I'd rather burn them after cutting.

I moved into a rental house that has had a major brush problem along the fencerows. Along with escaped garden plants. Terrible mess. The huge honeysuckles, I did the cut and paint method with glyphosate. Effectiveness has been pretty good, and reduced my use of the herbicide. The other brush has been more of a problem. triclopyr has been more effective than glyphosate by far. But it's still not 100%. I've found the higher effectiveness spraying new leaves, and the best spraying plants that have been cut up to allow the herbicide to be pulled into the torn leaves. But even still, the plants resprout the next year. This is my 3rd year working on some of them (the ones grown up into the fence are the biggest PITA because I can't just dig them up).

Not sure what the problem stuff at my house is, to be honest.


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## snowkraft (Apr 12, 2015)

Honeysuckle is a NIGHTMARE on my property!!! Harold, if you read this fact sheet: http://ohioline.osu.edu/for-fact/pdf/0068.pdf

....it appears that triclopyr or triclopyr mixed with 2,4-D works best for cut stump, but then you have to mess with diesel fuel or equivalent. I have also read that it is best to apply the treatment in the fall.

I am digging up many of the HS like you are, then will be vigilant with new growth from roots left.

Another option that may provide some volunteers is to contact groups that eradicate invasive species in your area. My mom has worked with the Nature Conservancy and a homeowners group here in Wisconsin, and I think it is likely that they would come out to my property with their members and help me. They even will pay up to $500 for a professional to come in and work with the HS.


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