[shygirl]

this is quite interesting - iv never seen any though.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/plant-could-cost-home-101756824.html

[doganjo]

It's horrid stuff.  Needs removing with special weedkiller and by specialists.  I saw a Homes under the Hammer programme once where the woman had bought a plot not realizing what it was.  It cost her £12000 to remove it and put in tanking before she could build her house.

[Lesley Silvester]

I knew it was nasty bt this is quite scary. I will be checking my weeds very carefully.

[CameronS]

if i'm not mistaken it's illegal not to ttempt to remove it from your ground

[mab]

I don't think it's actually illegal to not remove it (though it is illegal to move it off a contaminated site unless it's going to a suitable disposal site in suitable containers).
[/size]
[/size]I actually suspect a lot of this is scaremongering by companies that charge (a lot) for removing the stuff.
[/size]
[/size]It can be killed with Glyphosate, and whilst it is difficult to kill off instantly, you can get rid of it by applying the weedkiller at the right time (late summer, when it flowers) so it gets drawn down into the roots. Earlier in the year you can mow it/ graze it/ pull it up which forces it to expend its stored energy to, weaken it and reduce it's height so you aren't spraying weedkiller over head height when the time comes.
[/size]
[/size]I had about 1/5 acre completely covered with the stuff in my garden when I moved here last year  (some of which was established for years, with inch thick stems), and despite struggling to find 24 rain-free hrs together last summer to apply the weedkiller, I only have a handful of weedy stems this year. I'll do them again this summer and I'll be surprised if it comes back next year.

[HelenVF]

There is a lot of it around here but the estate do a very good job of eradicating it.

Helen

[Fanackapan]

Very invasive, it grows along one of the walkways I regularly use with the dogs. I know of someone too, who had a property sale ended at the last minute because of sign of it in her garden. However , I didn't know it actually grew through walls and did that much damage !

[doganjo]

Is this the stuff that causes blisters if you handle it or is that Giant Hogweed? 

[happygolucky]

That's Hog weed Anne, loads of that along the forth up to stirling and it looks very impressive in a strange way, although I am sure I saw knotweed growing in some land next to Linn mill, just over the bridge near Forest Mill although I was going to pick some of the big cream flowers I didn't (thankfuly) and I am sure its gone now..I may have a google to check?

[Laurieston]

We have this too.  The previous owner saw it somewhere, thought it looked pretty and so dug some up to replant in her garden - big mistake!!!

I spray it at least once a year and it really does do a good job.  Digging up is okay I suppose, but only really doable (sp?) if you only have a little.  When I do dig some up I carefully place the roots out to be burned or killed by the frost.    Even removing them to the fireplace is dangerous, as if even a little avoids being burnt, of falls off the wheelbarrow, you'll have a new outbreak in a new place.

Our sheep eat it, as do our rabbits, and I keep thinking I'll try it too.  However, I prefer to let it grow so that I have more leaf available to let the poison get down to the roots.  I reckon that in one area about 95% was killed in one spraying.  The rest WILL regrow and replace, so do not stop.

The frost kills it too.  The first year here I wondered if a kindly neighbour (or embarrassed previous owner, had crept into the garden in the night and sprayed it).

Since experiencing it myself I have become hyper-aware of it (obsessive maybe?)  and see it more and more on motorways or small bits of waste land. 

Beware.

[Calvadnack]

It's all over the south west, the council do a lot of areas, but on private land it's your own responsibility.  We've used Glyphos in the spring when it's well grown, followed by another dose in the Autumn just before it dies down.  The following year there will still be stragglers and the odd bit that didn't get enough of a dose.  After that the odd bit may pop up but a quick spray and it's gone.


Don't use domestic Round Up, it needs to be Glyphos and we had to give our farm store our CPH and have taken advice from an agri-chemical supplier before we could get a can.