In my experience, the only way to kill bermuda is with Round-up or a similar weed killer. Roots go on to China, weed-eating makes it stronger.

It must be sprayed in the spring when the grass first begins to sprout, and then you water until it sprouts again, then spray, as many times as necessary.

It will grow best where there is water. Competition from other plants will not phase it. It grows through concrete.

I usually dig everything out of a bed that has been infested with the evil weed, but if you want to try to tackle it leaving the plants in situ, I recommend making a paper cone out of a few sheets of newspaper with a little hole at the bottom. You wrap your cone around the piece of grass and carefullY spray or brush on Roundup. My stepdad uses empty toilet paper rolls and leaves them over the weed after he sprays until the Roundup dries.

My heart breaks for you. Good luck.
Renee

I have eradicated Bermuda grass by removing the grass part, and then smother-mulching it. (I don't use herbicides, as I don't want to poison my pets) This works best with a base layer of overlapping cardboard and then covering it with thick mulch. Grass clippings over cardboard also work if you are going on-the-cheap. Or SMUD offers free wood chips if you have a trailer and want to drive to Sacramento. If you have a small yard, smothering should be perfectly do-able, and then you just have to keep vigilant for sprouts in the future.

And to answer your question, yes, Bermuda goes dormant in the winter. And it probably is worse because in spreading the soil for drainage, you were spreading seed/pieces.

Carla in Sac

1. Grows anywhere, prefers water and sun, more dense and hardy there. But will grow in shade, just more lanky.
2. Probably because you aren't spraying roundup.
3. Goes dormant in the winter.
4. NO, absolutely will not get rid of Bermuda. The only way to get rid of it in my experience is to completely dig it out. There are a ton of roots to the stuff. You can't spray enough roundup on it to kill it long term. The foliage will die for awhile, but there isn't enough foliage to absorb enough roundup to kill all the roots, in my opinion and experience. If you plant other plants before eradicating, the bermuda will find a home in your new plants root system and then you'll never be able to get rid of it fully.
6. The best option is to dig out. I've spent hours/weeks getting it out. It is hard work. Amazing how many roots it has. If you leave any, it grows back from the parts of roots you left. I would start with that and then spray any stragglers. But, its not a one time thing, its a process of following up with the stuff you missed.

If you need another (of the same) opinion, I agree with the last posters.

I was able to keep it mostly under control in a 100% shade area under a large tree, after I dug up 6-12 inches to destroy the roots.

My neighbor and I eventually gave up and went for the bermuda grass look in our yards.

It's amazing how a huge stubborn clump will grow from the smallest tad of dirt in the concrete or asphalt.

If it's really a new threat, you may not be in the worst possible situation. Dig out a section as deep as possible to see how far down the roots actually are.

I have had pretty fair results with using RoundUp as a spray as long as the weather is warm and the stuff is actively growing. Then use your mulches/barriers as you like. Follow up any new growth with about a 1 to four ratio (way stronger than recommended) of roundup and water applied with a small brush to the bermuda only. As long as you are diligent to get the new growth as it appears it will only pop up a few times before giving up the ghost. You must remain vigilant since it can blow in as seeds from the neighbors. It is a never-ending problem.

When we plant "meadow/prairie" areas with Bermuda grass, we make sure to complete at least 2 grow kill cycles to prepare the soil. That involves making sure that everything is actively growing and spraying Roundup and spreading a pre-emergent. Bermuda grass produces an enormous amount of seeds if allowed to set. We let all that die and let a new round of weeds come up followed by another round of Roundup and pre-emergent. That is about all most people are willing to endure, although if I had my way I would complete another round. Each round takes about 3 weeks. Then we go in with native grass plugs leaving the ground untilled. If you till the area you will just expose more weed seeds. After about 6 months, the grass will be filling in nicely and you can heavily sow the wildflower seeds. There may be some bermuda grass that survives, but it is controllable by either roundup or digging it out. Just be careful with the spray. With these types of gardens, site preparation is incredibly important if you want to increase your chance of success.