We have that problem too. Very annoying - plus they aren't even nice maples they are Manitoba maples!

Try having about 13 silver maples in your yard. Not only are the helicopters, as I call them, are a mess, but the flowers and limbs that fall are a mess as well. Leaves I can handle in the fall, good for mulch. But those dang helicopters. Then there's the neighbor's maples.

Karen

Same problem here. The sugar maples in the front yard are pretty but they litter all over the porch. Then they pile up in between the slats and GROW!

I have three 60' Douglas firs on my property line (but belonging to neighbor) they drop needles, cones, catkins and branches. Plus they suck every drop of moisture out of the soil and shade the entire house.

tepelus,

I can't image 13, you have it far worse than me.

do i need to offer my thoughts on maple.. lol

ken

We have many beech trees and all except one are out in the woods far from the house. But that one, is near the house and patio and I hate it so much. Eventually dh will take it down, he has at least limbed it up but he doesn't comprehend the vileness of a wrongly situated plant so isn't in a hurry.

This years leaves are over with so I have a year to get it out which I may do myself. I've taken out smallish ones already.
My little red saw is slow but sharp.

Oh the dream I've had of evil thing befalling those 3 maple trees. If I could figure out a way to kill them, I would.

Another thing-never ever plant an oak tree next to your main entry way. Starting in August, the acorns start dropping all over til you can't walk on the steps or the lawn without spending days trying to get them out of the grass, etc. A giant mistake that happened 50 years ago for me. Too late to cut it down now because of the shade.

A chainsaw works good on mine, and they make good fire wood. I do resent the cost of renting a chipper to dispose of all the slag. Al

We have Red Maples in our front yard and so far they have not been creating any volunteers except for three or four that have come up in my container plants. This year they're dropping more seeds than they ever have before though so I start finding more.
The seeds from Red Maple are much smaller than the ones our Silver Maple dropped. Those were much worse to volunteer also and we had it cut down after it was damaged in an ice storm a few years ago. I was glad to have an excuse to get rid of it. What convinced me that the problem would only get worse ... I saw a house in town one day that had a huge Silver Maple in their yard and so many seeds had gone down into their gutters that they had clogged it and a foot tall row of green encircled the top of their house. It looked like a Chia Pet.

Trust me if the trees were on my property they would have been gone. However, they on the neighbors who are on either side of me.

I had to deal with some trees from Hell too. But they weren't maples. Ironically, they are, or were, named Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima. I bought a house that had five of these invasive trees in the back yard. Every year sprouts would pop up everywhere. I finally got tired of them and did something about them. I drilled holes around the base of the trunks and filled them with stump killer. Once the trees were dead I had them cut down and then treated the trunks with more stump killer. I haven't had a single Tree of Heaven sprout for over a year now.

You haven't met the Tree from Hell until you've seen this one. I'll take a picture when I can. It has small heartshape leaves (somewhat like a ginkho) and now, clusters of white flowers --- and it is quite beautiful. BUT, it produces suckers that are virtually indestructible over the entire area of its coverage. These mini-trees grow up and through all the shrubs that surround the base, out into the lawn, even in the darkest corners of the foundation. And there are thousands of them growing at about 1/2" per day! I dare not spray them since they are connected to the mother tree, and pulling them out is difficult. For everyone I pull, 2-3 sprout up. I just weed whack those I can, and prune to the ground those in the bushes.

Did I click on Perennials and somehow magically get transported to the Tree forum?? LOL!!

Onthebrink, sounds like some sort of Poplar? They sucker extensively from the root system to form colonies.

Tepelus, 13 Silver maples! Ackkk! I thought that 3 was bad - although one is 20 feet off the SW corner of my house, and every year requires an extra gutter cleaning for those dang maple samaras.

And then there's the GINORMOUS Pin Oak right over my deck and skylights, which could be the tallest tree in the entire neighborhood. It is constantly dropping something, mostly sticks sticks and more sticks on my deck and roof.

I LOVE MY TREES.

TREES ARE MESSY.

The trees in my yard when I moved in are the pin oak which I like to refer to as my tree of life. Only produces seeds every two to three years but your right, it likes to drop sticks. The next is the sweet gum which I love in the fall but not so much when I fill, Two and half yard bags with its seeds every year but so much easier to deal with then those STUPID MAPLES.

I of course put in the Japanese ivory silk, spring snow crabapple( no fruit so no seeds) and white crape myrtle tree.

Yes the maple seedlings are a pain but what I really, really, really hate are the buckthorn seedlings the birds plant. They dine on them at my neighbors and then do the fly and drop leaving me with a gazillion of the #### things and they grow in dense shade too. Should I tell you now how I really feel?

The happiest day of my life was the day the City chopped down the nearly century old American Elm on the Blvd next to my house. I hated that tree! When the seeds fell, they fell like snow - covering every square inch of my yard and garden with tissue thin round seeds to a depth of almost an inch. They stuck to your shoes, they blew into the house every time you opened the door and every single one of them sprouted in the garden. Each year I could count on pulling thousands of Elm seedlings until the snow once again returned. They sprouted in the middle of perennial clumps. They sprouted in every crevice between bricks and stones. They covered the surface of the pond. And they fell for weeks.

The Dutch Elm beetle is my hero.

Kevin

Some of the seed pods do take hold depending on where they land. If not discovered soon enough, they will grow quite fast and thick, looking like a young maple tree. I've pulled quite a few. My neighbor's tree drops a ton of seeds that land all over our property. He has a bush full of weeds next to our driveway and I noticed a maple tree growing out of it. That tree is a pain but my neighbor is a nuisance too since he doesn't bother to do anything about it. Doesn't bother to trim the tree back or weed his yard and flower beds. A few other neighbors have complained but to no avail. He simply doesn't care and likes it messy.

The last few years, my town has been invaded by bloody ailanthus...gods how I loathe these trees.

I have Silver Maple, Eastern Redbud, Green Ash, and Hackberry trees near my house.  The Hackberry is the worst, but they all drop copious amounts of seeds, which sprout in my flower beds.  But it's all good.  I like trees and would rather deal with tree sprouts than not have any trees at all.

I like most trees, but not a tree that drops so many seed pods twice a year. That wouldn't be bad if this was on an acre or two of land and houses are spaced far apart. The problem is that our houses are very close to one another. In that case, the tree becomes a burden and even a danger because occasionally, a large branch or two will break off and fall to the ground. The branches are growing over the street and almost hanging into the neighbor's yard across the street. Trees can kill when heavy branches fall. The responsible and considerate thing to do would be to trim that tree back. It would make the situation a lot better, but unfortunately, he does absolutely nothing to resolve the issue.

In a situation where a neighbor hasn't done anything and the tree is an actual danger and nuisance, try offering money to your neighbor. Tell the neighbor you will happily pay for the removal of the tree and also pay for planting of a substitute tree that you both can agree on.

See if that works.

Mrs. S. I and another neighbor on the other side of him have offered to pay at least half the cost of taking the tree down but he ignores us. He could have had the tree removed for only $350 a few years ago, but, since then, the tree has grown very large and prices have escalated. Even if the tree would be taken down, he wouldn't bother to grow another. He never planted the tree that is a problem. It was there when he moved in. There are only 2 options which I have no control over - he moves or by some chance of luck, a bolt of lightning hits it. The more probable scenario is that tree will likely be around long after I'm gone. So, until then, I'll be cleaning up after it until I can't anymore. I hope my neighbor some day realizes that the roots of that tree may cause damage as they grow close and under the foundation of his house. But, that's on him.

Well, I would pay for the whole cost of the tree removal, if I were you.

In the meantime, you can hire an arborist (a qualified arborist) to write a report for you about the damages the tree is causing, has caused, and will potentially cause for you (roots, debris, falling branches, health of tree, eventual height and width of tree, etc). Also, the arborist can recommend a pruning schedule. You should start a timesheet of your work and expenses cleaning up the tree. You can present your paperwork documentation to the neighbor, along with your offer for how much you would agree to contribute to get rid of the tree. Send the documents return receipt requested so you can later prove in court that the neighbor had actual notice of the potential damages. It might help.

You can also consult with an attorney and the city to see if there are any ordinances or requirements you can specify.

Thank you. Unfortunately, he's not interested. I don't know what's up with this guy. He seems incredibly stubborn and just doesn't care. I saw his girlfriend one day when she was visiting. I got around to mentioning the tree and she immediately became defensive. She said - "I love that tree and it's there to stay." She's rarely ever at his place so I can't understand why she would care one way or other. I think she said it just to annoy me, which it did, lol. Anyway, you make some good points. I should have kept a journal of all the times I had to clean up after that tree and pull saplings and also the trees that were beginning to take hold - so much so that I no longer could pull them from the ground. I had to saw them off and spray the tops with a tar residue. I can't imagine what is growing around and in his property. I pray there isn't another Maple tree growing. The properties on our street are not large, so another tree with seed pods would be a nightmare. To take that tree down now would likely cost a thousand or more. I don't know for certain though but it would be expensive because the tree has grown very big. I couldn't afford to pay for it either. Last year, I raked up at least 8 or more large trash bins of leaves and pods. This coming Fall will be that much worse. It is what it is and I have to just deal with it as best I can.