My brother is potentially acquiring a new property and is considering having some of the timber selectivly harvested from it. His concern is that if he makes openings in the canopy, it will then enourage the bush honeysuckle (or whatever term is used in your locale) to migrate from the woods edges to the woods interior as well. From your experience, is his fear a legitmate one?

In our area the bush honeysuckle is spreading like crazy. Nearly every "edge" is now inundated with it. We are currently taking steps to chemically control it on our existing property. We are not wanting to help propagate it by providing ample light.

best method for getting rid of it is to cut about 6 inches above the ground and place tordon RTU herbicide on the fresh cuts this kills the roots and next year you can go alog and kick them out if you like


we did a removal project a few years ago where they had us pull it and it does not get 100% of the roots and it disturbs the soil and makes a mess of it

even cutting and putting RTU herbicide on it you may need to come back and do some spraying with a round up for 2 more years for the little ones that will hide and pop up later.

my local farm store didn't have tordon brand I bought what they had it worked fin , it should be a gel or dish soap like constancy , just put that on the cut within 10 minutes

some people put some in a cup and use a paint brush to brush it on the cuts

My info says that the seed from the Bush Honeysuckle is viable in the soil for 10 yrs. It will grow just fine in deep woods, so if the seeds were there they would be plants by now. However, Bird Crap Bush will spread fast if given 1/2 a chance. I've cleared it up (small acreage) by cutting the plant off a couple of feet above ground and grubbing the roots out and using the stump as a handle to yank it out. Does very well in thin soil because roots grow like a hand print, rarely has a tap root, and does not come back. BUT, you have to keep pulling the new plants that sprout from seed for a few years.

Cutting them off short and dabbing the stump with 1/2-1/2 Round-Up, diesel fuel works great too.

With the volume of honeysuckle he/we are dealing with, manual control (cutting and/or pulling) is not an option. He is an agronomist by trade so he has a better than average grasp on how to handle the issue with chemical controls.

I have "painted" glyphosate many times to selectivly control various plants. Works very well on small projects.

Fighting the stuff here too. Another one of the DNRs bright ideas.

It is shallow rooted and easy to pull if not too old. I killed tons of it on my place with glyphosate mixed fairly strong. I sprayed just after it started to green up. Be sure to kill it before the berries come on.

It's a constant battle-especially when so much neighboring ground is covered with it. I pull and spray it every spring and summer. It hard for me to see one growing and not drop everything and go after it to pull it up.

Found one bush 3 years ago and thought I had something. Kind of a neat bush, different colored bark, unique branch growth. Last year I saw some berries on it and decided to look it up. Asian bush honeysuckle and INVASIVE! Crud. So I cut and Tordoned it. This winter I did TSI on the 40 acres of timber and found about 35 others spread all across it. So now I fight: locusts, bush honeysuckle, thistles, cedars, sericea lespedeza, & maple sprouts. Might just need a Bomber to fly over with Agent Orange and start over. Just once can we have an invasive species that is worth while?

If he’s up for it. Tell him to fence it in and buy some goats. Honeysuckle, multiora rose, kudzu. They’ll mow down all of it and get fat in the process.

Just count yourself blessed if you don't have oriental bittersweet to contend with, as that is far and away the worst...

I looked it up and can't say I have seen the Oriental bittersweet. But give it time. And how did I forget multifloral rose?

Do not use tordon in the woods it spreads to other trees

Are woods are 100% full of Japanese ( Bush) honeysuckle, I've fought it for 20 some yrs it has destroyed are timber! I was in on some cost share work were we cut and sprayed a 1000 acres it worked to an extent! It's loves lime stone LOVES and if you open the canopy it does give it a lot of help, north slopes take longer do to not a lot of sun but it finally comes there to, we cut, ground and pulled that thousand acres then sprayed, then prayed summer and fall topically with roundup crossbow and deisel! It killed it the are requirement to cost share was over we stopped but it did not, the 1000 acres we cut was timber and it will be back! When are country is logged it's a death sentance!
Colt