Yes, the dreaded green monster that is eating the southland!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kudzu

Yeah but, the flower sure do smell nice when it's in bloom! You may also thank Kudzu for the dread Japanese bettle which was brought over here to eradicate the Kudzu infestation.

No! Not the dreaded Japanese beetles too?

Now I'm double boiling mad.

Rose

Hmmm...I didn't know that. So why are they eating my Cherry Trees? There is tons of kudzu right down the street from me. JB will always be a sore spot to me!

Thanks rhizo for that website! It was really funny.

vroomp, I don't believe that that is correct about those pesky beetles! It is my understanding that they were introduced absolutely by accident in a shipment of nursery plants from Japan. They aren't particularly interested in kudzu, in their native Japan OR over here, darn it all.

The last I heard about any hope of a biological control method for kudzu, it was a fungus which knocked out all of this terrible plant under field studies. Now, THAT's something that they had better be careful of before setting it loose on the world! Scary, huh? I believe that a patent has been applied for, so keep your eyes out for this in the future.

I've read several articles that talked about how some people were "renting" out their goats to people that wanted to get a handle on the kudzu.

I know that Kudzu can kill trees and it takes over things really fast, but personally I'd rather look at Kudzu when I drive down the road than look at all the new developments that are popping up everywhere. It seems like every time I drive down highway 9, a new 200-plus-home development magically appears where a farm was the week before.

Here's a cool photo collection about some goat control! Yes, goats have been used with great success in some areas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Student goats

That's even funnier!!

If FOX ever hears about this, watch out: "Attack of the Kudzu Killers" next, on FOX. Now if y'all could get those goats to climb trees and eat the kudzu up in the canopy, problem solved!

Do you think those kids are getting graded on this? "Goat herding 101.........B-"

I stand corrected on the Jap Beetle( I researched it further) although, I think it was one of those guys on TV that said it first.

Does kudzu lose it leaves in North Georgia? It doesn't in south GA and it didn't when I went to Auburn (100 miles or so below Birmingham). Just curious.

Belle,
You probably just forgot about it losing its leaves. I grew up at Auburn (WAR EAGLE!!), and can attest that it drops its leaves and goes dormant in the winter there.
About every 2-3 years, I'd have to clear it off the fenceline on the road frontage on North College St.- our farm was right across the road from the Fisheries research unit - and re-stretch the barbed wire. After about 3 years, it would have the top strand of the 5-wire fence pulled back down to knee height, and I've have to do it all over again.
But the cows sure loved it when we'd turn 'em into the 'kudzu field'.

It also lost all leaves where I lived in coastal SC (near Savannah), zone 8b.

We don't have much kudzu up here in the frigid northland(KY) - but there is one small patch here in town that I could access in less than 5 minutes if I wanted to, and a couple others, over in Land Between the Lakes, about 30 miles away.
When my kids were smaller, when we'd go home to Auburn, one of the first things they'd do when we got settled in at grandmama's house would be to run out to the garden fence and pick an armload of kudzu leaves for me to fry up for them.
Dipped in buttermilk and dredged through some cornmeal with a bit of Cajun seasoning and black pepper mixed in, they fry up pretty tasty! Of course, everything tastes good fried!