[tipiglen]

Just an observation: I read somewhere that it is eaten by cattle, and sometimes used as fodder. I have noted that it has not spread through a drystane dyke (drystone wall to English folk) into a field grazed by cattle (and sheep) The colony on the roadside is very well established and has been there more than thirty years. There is no sign of spread into the adjoining field, but I have seen occasional shoots. Presumably, they are eaten...It also seems reluctant to spread into established (shady) woodland, or under mature beech trees.

I have some success in controlling a (formerly) well established patch in my vegetable garden. At first I used SBK (agent orange), which made it go all twisty and die down, but only to surge back as straight as ever. I then dug out hundredweights of roots (and my rhubarb), burned the lot, but it kept coming back, sometimes from a meter down. Steady manual pulling over five years has it almost beaten, but eternal vigilance is needed.

At our community woodland, there is an old homesite with a large colony, and we've been cutting it, mostly twice annually, for several years, and it will clearly take at least another five years....

Good luck to the bug, saays I.