Bush honeysuckle, autumn olive, stilt grass

Mattyq2402

5 year old buck +
This is my first post on invasive plants species. Had a good visit with a habitat specialist yesterday who walked my southeast ohio property, he was pretty sharp. Rather than clear ground for plots, make bedding areas, tsi, plan t fruit, etc. I was told these invasive need tackled first. He listed a few others I wasn't familiar with. My woods had been forever wide open but clear cuts on both sides introduced some of the less desirable plants. What do you guys do to manage these? I like the cover that's been created but fully understand things are going to get choked out. I definitely have observed major issues with stilt grass taking over!

He also recommended pheasants forever pollinators blend for ohio specific plants, anyone ever run this?

He also did prescribe some edge feathering and tsi locations once the invasive get squared away. Would you guys follow that advice or jump in?
 
Removing invasives is not much fun nor exciting as other projects projects we have. Skipping invasive control altogether or putting it off does not work out too well though. If doing things over I would attack those invasives with a fury. Start with the invasives that are are around any fruit and nut trees. And for that purpose grape vines can be added to the list of plants possibly needing some control as well. And of course watch for and remove all buckthorn and Multi-flora rose if you have those also.

Of the three you mentioned we have only Bush Honeysuckle. It has shallow roots and is pushed over and out with the tractor bucket easily. If ant shoots restart we just spray the new leaves with Roundup. Right now is a great time of year to remove bush honeysuckle.
 
I started my stiltgrass battle last year. First notice after property was logged. Not sure if it was there before and I didn't know what it was or if the logger brought it with him. It's mostly been confined to the driveway but its starting to make it's way into the woods. I sprayed the entire driveway last year with gly. Was told that there can be around 5 years worth seed in the seed bank so I'm planning to be spraying it for years to come. I'd like to plant something on the driveway to drown it out but I'm not sure what I can get to grow on it.
 
On one of our places I hack and squirt any honeysuckle I see.
On the other I don't do anything with it, woods was full of it before we bought it. I've thought about trying to do something but woods is small and deer browse it, birds eat berries in winter and mushrooms grow under them like crazy...the rest of the woods is full of all kinds of thorny needley brush and shrubs anyway. For whatever reason it is an awesome deer woods and bunny woods...I think because it is so thick?
One that I consider invasive is honey locust...I cut and spray that whenever I see it in pasture or orchard.

Edge feathering creates great habitat for bunnies and birds...I've put in some big pollinator strips too.
 
We have Honeysuckle but is it slow to spread. I am not as worried about it as I have been on some fantastic hunting properties that had lots of it as understory and was a good cover shrub. Was the 1st to green up and last to die, and the deer browsed the leaves when everything else went brown.

Autumn Olive appeared on our property out of nowhere 3-4 years ago and is an aggressive spreader. I hit everyone I find with Garlo4/diesel mix.
 
I am in southeast ohio as well (Gallia county). Out of the things you mentioned i have the biggest problem with Autumn Olive. They are very invasive and will take over pretty quick. There are a few different ways to deal with it and depends on what kind of infestation you have and how much work and money your willing to spend. But you have two choices, you deal with it now or you will deal with it later but it gets worse the longer you wait. Its also not a one time deal, some you thought you got will produce some more sprouts and then you will have some come from the neighbors, etc. But, if you get aggressive It gets easier and easier to control. It is easier to manage a sprout than thicket full of 20 x 20 plants....

With that said, I have a couple thickets that will not be eliminated without some bigger equipment brought in. That is not a priority right now so i manage them by simply not letting them expand anymore.

For smaller autumn olive i simply use a cut stump treatment. Cut them and spray stump with Triclopyr 4 mixed with diesel fuel at a rate of 20% herbicide. I like this mix because this mix also works for basal bark treatment of Ailanthus (tree of heaven, more like hell really).

For medium to large size plants and a good bit of them I prefer to use a mini excavator with a thumb and just pull them out. Autumn Olive has a small root structure and i have even used a tractor with a choke chain to pull them. The mini excavator is better because you dont have to keep getting out. Keep in mind you may break a root and some new sprouts might come up later so keep an eye out and nail them when they do. But again, a sprout is easier to deal with then full out thickets. Pulling method works better when ground is a little wet.

They do produce good berries and fix nitrogen but their highly invasive nature does NOT make them worth having around. There are simply other plants (native) that are better to have in its place.
 
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If my goal was to kill mature bucks I would prefer a property that was thick with invasives over a park like mature woods with native trees. A neighbor spent a lot of time removing invasive shrubs only to discover that those "improvements" hurt his hunting.

Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of buckthorn and bush honeysuckle so I try to remove them where reasonable. I start by cutting and spraying them in areas that have good native shrubs growing nearby that will fill in the gaps created when the junk shrubs are killed. When you kill a tree or shrub something else will move in to grab the sunlight and nutrients, so ideally it will be a plant that will be beneficial for wildlife. This plan has worked fairly well for me recently, but it is definitely a multi-year effort since there will be lots of junk shrub seeds in the soil bank just waiting to pop.
 
I feel that most of us have some sort of invasive to fight/manage....it's just the way it is. It's a matter of how badly you want to go after it. You will also tend to find that as you get one under control another seems to surface... I told my jap bush-honeysuckle under control, but my neighbors place is covered in it so as soon as I quit fighting it...it will expand again. I also fight johnson grass and now stilt grass as well. I battle these in areas where it floods, so again I get a yearly deposit of seed and the like that I can't control.

The trick if you are going to fight these things is to break up your project areas into manageable portions. Also take the time to actually kill it! I know lots of people that think that mowing or cutting these things off will kill it....it typically will not. It typically just makes you feel better and the plant will re-sprout.

For JBH - I now use a clearing saw and a bottle of tordon. I hunt JBH in early spring (it greens up real early vs native plants), I hunt it when it flowers (the white and yellow flowers are easy to see), I hunt it in the fall (when the red berries become visible) and late fall (as it tends to hold its leaves the longer than natives as well). I cut them off and give the stumps a shot of tordon which has a dye in it so you can see which ones you have treated. I have NOT had much success treating it with a foliar a spray of gly on mature plants.... The deer may browse on it some and they may use it for cover, but the bare dirt under these plants is NOT good for the habitat.
 
If my goal was to kill mature bucks I would prefer a property that was thick with invasives over a park like mature woods with native trees. A neighbor spent a lot of time removing invasive shrubs only to discover that those "improvements" hurt his hunting.

Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of buckthorn and bush honeysuckle so I try to remove them where reasonable. I start by cutting and spraying them in areas that have good native shrubs growing nearby that will fill in the gaps created when the junk shrubs are killed. When you kill a tree or shrub something else will move in to grab the sunlight and nutrients, so ideally it will be a plant that will be beneficial for wildlife. This plan has worked fairly well for me recently, but it is definitely a multi-year effort since there will be lots of junk shrub seeds in the soil bank just waiting to pop.

^^^^^^^^^^^ This.

And get some beneficial shrubs started so they will start making seed to replace the invasives you kill. When I started I had zero Arrowwood Viburnums. I planted 4 of them and now I have 4 thousand. Every one of them that I've found have been browsed. At the places I kill sweet gums, I find these, elderberry and ROD popping up. Thank you birds.

PS - you don't have to wait to do plots, etc just because you are killing invasives. It's called multitasking......... Good luck.
 
Appreciate the insight. My father seems very motivated to go after the invasive. My woods are pretty wide open so I of course want cover but see the stilt grass is taking over and know it needs dealt with. Ill likely start with edge feathering my kill plots and try and do a habitat opening or 2 over the next couple years.

What are yall thoughts on hinging a tree during early summer? Do you only cut in winter and early spring?
 
SE Ohio guy here as well. Autumn Olive is starting to creep into my 50 acres, but it is a full on mess on neighboring properties and along our road. I am doing my best to uproot what I can and spray the rest.

I have never heard of stilt grass, but will keep an eye out for it from now on.

It amazes me how difficult it can be to get what you want to grow and what you don't want to grow does so quickly and with a fury.

VV
 
I'd be really careful using Tordon. I went to town with it the first year I owned one property, particularly on vines and wrist thick poison ivy. Unfortunately, I lost a couple mature stems before I switched to concentrated GlyPhos. I'm not sure if that's because it's soil active or whether there was some unintentional exposure, even while using a glue stick to apply the Tordon, but I've heard that it can move between intertwined root systems. Just my 2 cents.
 
Appreciate the insight. My father seems very motivated to go after the invasive. My woods are pretty wide open so I of course want cover but see the stilt grass is taking over and know it needs dealt with. Ill likely start with edge feathering my kill plots and try and do a habitat opening or 2 over the next couple years.

What are yall thoughts on hinging a tree during early summer? Do you only cut in winter and early spring?
Your father is spot on to be hot on killing invasives. The temptation to rationalize that the invasives do provide cover is normal as they do but take it from one who went that route, it doesn't end well. Like Native stated, plant some good stuff, cage it and keep killing invasives and adding more food plants; you may win in the end. I hinge poplar in the winter figuring I get "paid" twice for the job- once the tops feed the deer that winter and next the amount of ground shoots that come up is reported to be twice what would come up in a summer cut poplar. Doing jobs that we get paid twice for is a good feeling.
 
I'm surprised that privet hasn't been mentioned in this thread. That stuff is evil too. It does have shallow roots and young plants are easily pulled by hand.
And I have most of the other crap, too. BHS, AO, and Mile-a-Minute are everywhere around here. But I think the most serious threat is the stiltgrass. It's so widespread around here. I dont know where to even begin with that sh*+. I can't fathom that we can control it with herbicide, mowing, or tillage. Its gonna need some sort of disease or targeted pest to kill it off. Luckily, thats what seems to be happening with the mile a minute. The weevils seem to be putting a hurting on it.
 
SE Ohio guy here as well. Autumn Olive is starting to creep into my 50 acres, but it is a full on mess on neighboring properties and along our road. I am doing my best to uproot what I can and spray the rest.

I have never heard of stilt grass, but will keep an eye out for it from now on.

It amazes me how difficult it can be to get what you want to grow and what you don't want to grow does so quickly and with a fury.

VV
Finally remembered to take a picture of the leftover stilt grass for those that wanted to see what it looked like. This is after I sprayed it last year but it also naturally dies yearly and forms a thick thatch that blocks everything but itself from sprouting. As seen to it covers every log and stick that's on the ground and makes it all a nightmare to try to walk through because you can't seen any of it. Unfortunately I already see some growth coming up through it. I've read that there can be 5 years of seeds in the seed bank so I'll be spraying it for a while.
dead stilt grass.jpg
 
My autumn olive issue is intense. I cannot put a dent in it I feel. I have some massive ao trees as well. I foliar sprayed about a hundred last summer. Some with just gly and some with gly and triclopyr. I was so depressed when it looks like they rebounded this spring.
How does something that looked like this in august come back strong as ever in may. Only explanation is it’s what the devil used to protect the gates of hell A73F44C3-B9EF-4174-B277-A2F4212188F3.jpeg
 
I assume the human risk of hack and squirt is much lower than spraying a fine mist? I am just curious if some of you guys just have an old soap bottle of gly or tordon in your UTV and when you see a weed you stop and spray or if you gear up and go all out a couple weekends a year. Autumn olive and multiflora rose are just going bonkers on me this year.....
 
Spraying leaves has knocked the plants back so that it wont fruit that year and spread, but cut and spray in late winter has been the way to kill it. But if I want to make sure it’s dead and gone in an area, I’ll have to do a pass the next year too. It can outcompete native plants in one season.


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Finally remembered to take a picture of the leftover stilt grass for those that wanted to see what it looked like. This is after I sprayed it last year but it also naturally dies yearly and forms a thick thatch that blocks everything but itself from sprouting. As seen to it covers every log and stick that's on the ground and makes it all a nightmare to try to walk through because you can't seen any of it. Unfortunately I already see some growth coming up through it. I've read that there can be 5 years of seeds in the seed bank so I'll be spraying it for a while.
View attachment 34790
This a a post and photo that I could have written. It's exactly the same way here. I really am skeptical that we can ever eradicate that crap because it's so widespread. It's gonna take some sort of natural pest or disease to keep it in check. And the emerald ash borer has only made the stilt grass worse because of the increased sun penetrating to the ground. Walking thru a massive tangle of dead ash logs that are covered by stilt grass is hazardous to say the least.
I feel your pain Pat.
 
This a a post and photo that I could have written. It's exactly the same way here. I really am skeptical that we can ever eradicate that crap because it's so widespread. It's gonna take some sort of natural pest or disease to keep it in check. And the emerald ash borer has only made the stilt grass worse because of the increased sun penetrating to the ground. Walking thru a massive tangle of dead ash logs that are covered by stilt grass is hazardous to say the least.
I feel your pain Pat.
Yes so far I'm fairly lucky. It's just starting to creep off the roadway and into the woods. The woods is fairly thick with briars and black birch so I'm hoping that stunts it. I might try to throw down some rye grass on the road to drown it out. I used almost a full 5 gal jug of gly on it last year to try and knock it back. I guess I'll keep trying to spray it yearly until it goes away or I figure something else out.
 
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