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Homeowner at wit's end trying to eradicate 'impossible' yard pest problem: 'There is no help'

"The ground is almost entirely comprised of thick vines."

"The ground is almost entirely comprised of thick vines."

Photo Credit: iStock

One homeowner sought advice from the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit on removing invasive kudzu — a climbing vine — from a sloped portion of their land without resorting to herbicides. 

The original poster, who is in Asheville, North Carolina, had tried cutting and ripping away as well as heavily seeding the ground cover, as they had done with other parts of their land. However, the persistently invasive kudzu grew back.

"The ground is almost entirely comprised of thick vines."
Photo Credit: Reddit
"The ground is almost entirely comprised of thick vines."
Photo Credit: Reddit

"The ground is almost entirely comprised of thick vines / runners from the bad plants," the OP said. They explained that "it would be impossible to dig them all out without an insane amount of soil disturbance," which would bring up the invasive seeds to overtake the ground again.

Invasive species are aggressive, non-native species that disrupt the balance of ecosystems and can be a headache for homeowners looking to remove them. As non-native species, invasive plants outcompete native plants for resources required for growth. This includes sunlight, water, and soil nutrients, which allow the invasive species to spread rapidly and displace native plants.

Pollinators are drawn to native plants for food and shelter; they contribute to the crop reproduction process, ultimately protecting the food supply of humans. Invasive species can disturb pollinator services and expose pollinators to diseases that can negatively impact their health and crop success.

Installing a native plant lawn, as the OP is doing, can create a healthy ecosystem for pollinators to thrive. Replacing your lawn with native plants or low- and slow-growing lawn options, such as buffalo grass or clover, also saves you time on lawn maintenance as well as water usage. These lawn replacement options and native plants require less water than invasive species to grow and maintain, resulting in cheaper water bills and less lawn maintenance time.

But what do you do if your land is already overrun with invasive species like the OP's?

"There is no help. There is only Zuul," one commenter joked, referencing the American classic film, "Ghostbusters," which featured an invasive species, Zuul.

Another user disagreed that the OP's land was beyond saving.

Should we be actively working to kill invasive species?

Absolutely 💯

It depends on the species 🤔

I don't know 🤷

No — leave nature alone 🙅

Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"If the space is too steep to remove by hand with basic hand tools like pruners and hand shears, imagine strapping a backpack sprayer full of 10-20lbs of toxic chemicals to your back and risking falling," they wrote. "You're gonna have to climb it one way or another. To me it's safer to go slow and use tools to prune and pull roots repetitively over the course of a full year."

"Contact your local dnr for ideas," one person wrote, referring to the Department of Natural Resources.

To avoid chemicals, another commenter provided a fun suggestion: "Goats. They'll eat everything constantly until it finally dies." They added: "It is the nuclear option but it's effective for large areas with something like kudzu that would need a lot of herbicide."

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