Is this it? It grows everywhere. Likes to run across the ground in the woods and "saw" your ankles! It is growing up my trees down here in FL, although it is a different variety.

Here is a link that might be useful: saw briar

maybe smilax?

Here is a link that might be useful: smilax species

Definitely sounds like one of the smilax vines. They come in so many shapes and sizes - 3 that I have in my yard: thin vines with tiny but numerous thorns, medium vines with larger thorns and then a very thick vine with mottled coloring that has the worst thorns of all.

They grow from either a corm that is very deep in the ground or from a knotty root mass with a network of bamboo-like roots that stretch a long ways.

Alas, it is a native plant ... but not one that I welcome!

Smilax!!! I can't stand that stuff. Any hints on getting rid of it? I sprayed some with brush-b-gone 2-3 days ago and it is still green as ever.

ah, yes. It doesn't care about brush b-gone much. I've been cutting the stems and dipping them into it. What else can ya do?
Sometimes my neighbour sprays hers with bleach, then I go along and spray it with brush kill after. That helps some. I'm trying to make sure no more spreads into my yard. My neighbours aren't much help in this matter.

Thanks, it's a smilax of some kind.

GGG

The only way to kill it off that I have found is to dig up the tuber that it has underground.

One vine last year, 20 this year. Sorry to invade your territory, I was just checking out the Georgia forum for my BIL and saw this thread. He's in Atlanta and just got a new house with a lot more gardening room! But new baby on the way too so who knows if he'll have time. -Ais.

If you will go to a florist and purchase some of those tubes that they place individual stems in, fill the tubes with Roundup, put the caps back on, clip off the top leaves of the vine and insert the vine into the vial, the plant absorbs the Roundup and they die. That method seems to work on anything. I watch the groundspeople where I work use that method all the time. The beauty is that it only kills the targeted plant/vine, bush. Good Luck!

The roots are in segments. You can kill the vine coming from part of the root with REPEATED spraying or Roundup or Weed-B-Gon, but the other segments will send up sprouts until you kill them too. Part of my weekly routine is spraying new growth as I find it. Slowly but surely, I am winning the battle!!

I have that vine everywhere and despise it more than any other weed. I have not been able to kill it. Just set it back a little bit. I have read that the tubers can reach 100 pounds.

100lbs! How deep are they? I have small ones starting, I guess I better get digging but the Mamma is close to some trees in a bad spot to try to get very deep. Maybe I'll try the florist vials of Roundup.

Almost all of mine are by large trees as well. However, if you cut off the vine and dip (or like is mentioned above, soak) it works well. I do this with a lot of weedy plants so that I do not contaminate the trees I want. I also get rid of weed trees in a similar manner. I cut them down (the small ones, that is) then drill holes in the top and pour in brush kill.

GGG