I find bittersweet to be fairly easy to pull out roots and all, with no need for hazmat gear. Have you just trief that? Take it slow and keep at it.

petalique -- I have exactly the same problem with bittersweet here in Central MA. It is everywhere and absolutely out of control. Sneaky thug even has managed to climb mature oak trees and this year has happily invaded my blueberry bushes (among other things in the garden beds and even the lawn).

I am so nervous about using RoundUp, but figure that will have to be my resort. And soon, if the weather as you so rightly expressed would just give me a good time to do the job. A foam paint brush was what I decided to use as you mentioned, but I have been putting it off for a couple of years already, and regret that mightily, as the blasted thing has gleefully multiplied. It is a scourge. Baby ones CAN be pulled up with the root, but too many have become too big and it's impossible to "just" yank them out. And the roots travel everywhere, sending up long whips of fresh growth.

I do not plan to burn what I manage to get, but to place all bits into heavy trash bags and dispose of IN the trash that gets picked up. Somewhere this was suggested as a way to deal with the stuff.

Good luck! And please wish me the same, lol.

Thanks, kitasei and roxanna.

That’s good to know that the young ones can be yanked out and the root will come with it. Last year I did not get to do it and I would need help from DH or some thermonuclear device because it’s gotten really big some of them. It is all over the area and not just on my hill as Roxanna just said.

I was reading somewhere that putting noxious weeds into regular trash is not allowed in some places and that there are sort of noxious weed dump off places for trash pick up.

We have one of those huge metal fire pit like things, and I could probably toss it in there with a bunch of kindling, but there is a lot of it. Too bad we can’t place it on the lawns of some of the people who are either elected or appointed who are making our country suffer. I’m sure that would be frowned upon and it wouldn’t be in my nature so I’ll probably just yank it out and toss it into heavy duty, trash bags or toss it onto some fire pit and be sure it’s completely kaput.

I hate the thought of any round up or whatever that chemical is. The bittersweet has climbed up a trellis, it’s taken over part of a Hawthorn tree, and it is just all over blackberry raspberry patches, and I think I’m going to be spending the next eight years of my life, a eradicating the stuff. I’m not allowing any birds to fly within 10 miles of my property.

I once saw a monstrous patch of this bittersweet at a drive-in seafood restaurant in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. I think the name of the place was Conrads seafood and it was out behind the restaurant and growing up huge trees and girdling them. I have expected to see a couple of goats skeletons and locomotives being held fast to the tree. “Thug” is an apt descriptor.

I will be wishing you the best roxanna.

I also must tackle some poison ivy and some Japanese knotweed. Ugh.

Right now it is very hot and muggy with a thunderstorm threat.

We have lots of cottontails and I wish they would help themselves to the noxious weeds.

Add escaped Concord grape to the list.

There is state owned land behind my house and bittersweet has taken over. Many trees have been destroyed. I have it encroaching on my yard…and there is way too much to deal with.

That is awful.

It's rather like kudzu, isn't it? Creeps in unannounced at first but by the time you realize what is happening, it engulfs everything and is so difficult to eradicate! Pity there hasn't been any idea of using it for some beneficial purpose. At least wild grapes could make pretty vine wreaths!

I don't know which I hate more, the mugwort or the bittersweet. Been pulling both out of our meadow for a decade now, have achieved some kind of stalemate that is maintained only through eternal vigilence. Mostly I pull the vines out, trying to get as much root as possible. Spot application of Roundup or Triclopyr seems to be more effective, stump painting of small vines isn't great. Put some dye in the herbicide so you can easily see where it is going. With Roundup anyway application to leaves is much more likely to get good uptake and kill the roots. I've pulled up 10-15 ft lond bittersweet roots, it's really hard to get enough compound into the plant through a tiny stump end. You need to use very concentrated material. The oil formulated triclopyr is reported to work well for this, but you need to get the version that is much more concentrated than the consumer products (and carefully read and follow the safety precautions).

I don't think there is a great answer. The birds spead the seeds easily, so even a blanket kill of an area doesn't last long. Every time it rains enough to soften the soil I go out and pull 50 of them; that's enough to keep them from completely taking over.

Thanks, rwiegand. I have a huge raft of it that climbed up a trellis. I could spray the foliage, but it would likely drift onto the raspberries and perennials close by and beneath it. Maybe a large tarp would block wayward spray. But then what do I do to clean the tarp, I wonder? Maybe UV light, sunlight? Do you happen to know how long herbicides remain active before they break down? I would hate to throw away a large tarp.

UGH.

Glyphosate (Roundup active ingredient) mostly breaks down in a week or two in soil. Some residue can be detected months later depending on the soil type. On a tarp it might last a long time, as it's the microbes in the soil that eat it.

You can apply it to the leaves with a paintbrush if you are concerend about overspray. It's also much easier to control if you spray with a small but coarse stream rather than atomizing it. A little hand-pumped kitchen spray bottle set to "stream" is easier to control than a big sprayer. You don't need to cover the whole plant, painting a couple dozen leaves is probably enough. Remember it takes a week to 10 days to kill and a little compound goes a long way.

If it's just one or a couple big vines I'd physically pull them rather than mess with finding the sprayer, then herbicide if they come back as small plants.

I love my PullerBear for larger invasives: https://pullerbear.com/proxl321.html

Look up what your municipality does with trash. I know our town incinerates the trash, so we feel fine about throwing the evil weeds like bittersweet, running bamboo, etc. in it. I think most will say not to put yardwaste in the trash, same as they say not to put construction waste in the trash ... use your judgement on whether that applies to what you're doing.

The other thing you can do is leave the roots out on the driveway to bake before disposal.

As for removal, bittersweet usually gets dug and yanked out. (I'm small, so for me that means basically using my weight to pull the root up ... and then I go flying when the root breaks or pulls loose. Depending on how it breaks, I might resume yanking or just wait for it to try to put up a sprout again and yank then.)

The most nefarious weed in our garden is creeping bellflower ... that stuff is a pain.

Well, BlueberryBundtcake, i had no idea that creeping bellflower is invasive! I am pretty sure that I originally purchased mine! Will rip it up today!

I agree bellflower may be the hardest to get rid of, but at least it has its attractive moment.

Here are links to some resources:

https://massnrc.org/mipag/docs/GuidanceInvPlantMgmtMIPAG.pdf

https://cipwg.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/244/2016/12/Invasives_guide_2016_web.pdf

https://grownativemass.org/sites/default/files/documents/Polatin_Chris_ID_and_Control_Invasive_Plants.pdf

Well @party_music50 you have the patience of a saint!The idea of revisiting the hundred+ bittersweet vines that pop up each year on this property multiple times over the course of years would drive me even more insane! I'm happy to be reaching a point where I can find many of them each year as seedlings and rip them out relatively easily. I need all the time I can spare for the garlic mustard, burning bush, and GD mugwort. Thank heavens we're not quite wet enough for purple loosestrife.

Maybe AI a d robotic hybrid goats.

The hot weather collapses my motivation. That and back pain.

I also have Cypress Spurge! Maybe its time to either move or call a paving company.

Add to my list: cypress spurge, Self heal, and garlic mustard.