Battle Royale

I spend roughly 25-50% of my job dealing with invasive insects and/or diseases in one way or another and Jessie spends 100% of her job dealing with the same. But only just recently have I had to start learning my invasive plants. No sooner did I start learning to ID some of the biggest threats then I figured out that we have a woods full of invasive plants.

The biggest problem, I thought, was the Japanese honeysuckle. The honeysuckle was everywhere along the edges of the woods and scattered throughout the interior, with vines up to about 2 inches diameter. The last two winters, Jessie and I have been tearing down and pulling up honeysuckle vines with authority. We're nowhere near nixing it, but we're making progress.

Well, this weekend, the battle against the invasive plants in Moan Woods turned a new leaf (pun intended!). I had noticed a while back that we had a small area of Japanese stiltgrass near where the dog pens (of the former owners) used to be. I have been systematically mowing this area down and pulling up the stiltgrass on the periphery of the lawn tractor's range. Here's the current scene at the old dog pen site. It's looking pretty clean.


Last weekend though, I discovered a stiltgrass patch that had been allowed to grow to its heart's content. The bulk of the patch is along about a 100 foot section of the upper creek bed, but there is scattered stiltgrass all the way down the creek bed to the back property line. I decided that this stiltgrass had displaced our native vegetation long enough!

At first, I tried just pulling it by hand. This is effective, but very time consuming. Here's what I cleared off a section of ground about 6 feet by 6 feet.


Enter weapon of choice:


I loaded up the trimmer, some gloves, and my safety equipment and headed to the woods. Here's the scene before my attack.



I should note that this stuff can effectively be killed with Roundup, however it is growing in amongst other plants that I don't want to Roundup. That said, my options become mowing/trimming or hand-pulling.

By the time I had finished trimming the area, the sunlight angle had changed and so I apologize for the after picture. I assure you it looks real good.


I followed the creek bed down to the back property line and pulled/trimmed every bit of stiltgrass I could find. In the process, I also pulled up at least 6 privet bushes. Japanese or Chinese privet, I don't know, but both are serious pest plants in this part of the world.

All of these plants, the honeysuckle, the stiltgrass, the privet, take time to beat. Stay tuned for updates from the front lines.