How to Control Invasive Plants on the Homestead
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Defend your farm against invasive species, and learn how to control invasive plants. Read how to stop invasive species and find ways to control invasive species.
by Bruce Ingram
Editor’s Note: The article Worst U.S. Invasive Species: Invasive Plants List, covered the worst invasive plants in America and how they negatively affect native flora and fauna. In this article, treatment options are explained.
Property owners, whether they work the proverbial back 40 or plant a garden in their suburban backyard, basically have four options on how to control or eliminate invasive plants. First, though, Cully McCurdy, a National Wild Turkey Federation district biologist, suggests that folks take the long-term approach to dealing with non-native flora.
How to Stop Invasive Species
“Sometimes, it may take years to eliminate a particular invasive plant species, especially ones like autumn olive and Russian olive,” he says. “Often, property owners will just have to be content with preventing a certain invasive from spreading across even more of their land. After all, birds will fly, and they will poop out seeds from various invasive plants. And there’s nothing we can do about that.
“I think people should also realize that they may have to remove invasive plants in stages. For example, they might get rid of plants along a fence row in sections. And after the non-natives have been removed, replace them with natives … then start working on the next section.”
Pull or Dig Them Up
McCurdy says some invasive plants are easily extracted.
“The Forest Service sometimes arranges pulling parties on public land where volunteers come in and pull up garlic mustard plants and place them in garbage bags,” he says. “Chinese privet and multiflora rose are other plants that sometimes lend themselves to being pulled or dug up.”
For example, in the spring, when garlic mustard and its kidney-shaped leaves (which smell like garlic when crushed) and the four-petal white flowers appear, I crisscross my land and easily tug up these plants, especially if rain has occurred recently. Chinese privet and multiflora rose are also fairly easy to extract, particularly if the plants are smaller and, again, if the ground is saturated. For larger, more established plants of these two species, I have successfully dug them up.
Cut and Spray
Unfortunately, most invasive plants don’t lend themselves to being easily pulled or dug up. McCurdy emphasizes that some invasive flora boast such considerable root systems that they simply can’t be easily extracted. Russian olive in the West and autumn olive in the East are examples of this. The biologist also notes that Ailanthus altissima, found throughout most of America, responds positively to being cut down. Amazingly, this species, also known as a “stink tree” or “paradise tree,” secretes chemicals through its toxic roots to nearby plants, including native beneficial ones and garden vegetables.
For example, several years ago, my wife Elaine and I discovered a paradise tree growing just five yards from our garden. I used a pair of loppers to cut down the tree, foolishly thinking that would be the end of the matter. I discovered about a half dozen young Ailanthus growing in our garden a month later. My leveling the tree had stimulated this fast-growing invasive to send forth more roots and produce more trees.
After reading more about the species and consulting a professional forester, I was told that I had two options: surrender my garden to the Ailanthus or use chemical control, such as a product with triclopyr, which is a compound known for its effectiveness against woody flora. (Glyphosate is another popular herbicide, but it’s designed for broadleaf plants and grasses.) I then returned to the stump, which also had sent out many shoots, and again cut it square with the ground. Elaine and I then sprayed the stump with a triclopyr-based product and the shoots within the garden. We then spread out across our land, targeted every ailanthus tree growing, and killed each one by the cut and spray technique. Every spring, we have a search and destroy outing for this invasive.
McCurdy encourages property owners to consider the chemical removal of invasive plants. ”The controls are so tight on how to use today’s chemical products that if landowners follow the product’s directions, they can slow or prevent the spread of invasive plants on their land,” he says. “By using chemicals, landowners also will spare themselves the expense of mechanical control or hiring laborers to remove a huge expanse of invasive plants.”
Prescribed Fire and Mechanical Removal
Dr. Stephanie Frischie, native plant materials specialist for The Xerces Society, says that fire can be effective against invasive plants.
”Prescribed fire works well in areas where fires have historically been part of the natural ecology,“ she says. ”Native plants are often adapted to fire, but some of the non-natives are vulnerable to it, especially at certain times of the year. For example, invasive plants often come out earlier in the spring than native ones. That would be a good time to use fire.”
Frischie and McCurdy say mechanical control can include hand tools, such as shovels, chainsaws, mowers, mulchers, chippers, and excavators, which are more expensive to own, rent, or pay people to use for a certain job. Indeed, prescribed fire can cost thousands of dollars to implement, as can a full-scale mechanical operation.
So, take the battle against invasive plants. Your local native wild flora and fauna will benefit.
Bruce Ingram is a freelance writer and photographer. He and wife Elaine are the co-authors of Living the Locavore Lifestyle, a book about living off the land. Get in touch with them at BruceIngramOutdoors@gmail.com.
Originally published in the May/June 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
