Japanese Knotweed versus Aphalara itadori

[RAINBOWRUSSELL]

This Jap problem will not be sorted by introducing bugs that are alien to our wildlife-it will obviously get a taste for other plants - or maybe its a koala like bug??If you get my drift?
Maybe it will get a taste for human flesh - as did the 'Blandford Fly' in the 80's!My mate nearly died when bitten on the throat & swelled up so quickly had to be rushed into hospital!There were rumours that that was introduced to eat something else - can't remember what !
And as for the Wild Boar (maybe wolves too?)- maybe they think that when too many are around it gives certain people an excuse to hunt or shoot them as they do in other countries!!!No doubt some people with holiday homes in the areas will complain when they start eating their roses- and as they seem to often be the ones with money....!

[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.

[Highland Damsel]

and we've been cutting it, mostly twice annually, for several years, and it will clearly take at least another five years....

I know a gardener that has Japanese knotweed in the lawn and it has been there for thirty five years being cut every two weeks. Cutting will reduce the plant by upto 98% but will not kill it completely. If cutting ever stops the plant will gradually regain strength and re grow. This is one of the things that make it so successful.

[Jim Ford]

All weeds I know of need light to photosynthesise. If you deprive them of light they weaken and die. Every time a weed so much as pokes its head above ground, cut it off. It is vigilence that is needed. Remember, as you're reading this the weeds are busy growing - they don't stop just because you've turned your back on them!

Jim