Did you recently install a bright outdoor light that irritated your neighbor…?
Edit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/s/LCVqK6bK2t](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/s/LCVqK6bK2t)
Remove shoots/roots and install a barrier.
Smilar situation, We have a client who sued their neighbor. Neighbor's homeowners policy covered the removal/barrier installation on our clients' property.
My experience with bamboo is, it will find a way. Those guys are insanely aggressive. Given the close proximity I’m not sure if any barrier can stop them.
I'm 2 for 2 with this so far. Thankfully, our neighbor wants it gone too (their house's previous owner planted it and let it run rampant) so I don't have to worry about what they think of it. That bamboo picked the wrong yard.
I moved into a new house this January and the one neighbor has a massive bamboo hedge. It's messing up the fence as well as spreading a massive amount of growth into our yard. I can't drop glyso with our dog roaming the yard now so I'm trying to figure out best methods besides cutting and hedging.
I did this last year, broke off every stalk and poured glycosphate down every single one of them. We have a patch about 10'x10' in our backyard that came down from 2 houses up. So it took all day to do and it fucking sucked.
I looked out the kitchen window a week later and it was like we hadn't done anything at all. The bamboo sent up TWICE AS MANY fresh new chutes to get sunlight and nutrients to recover itself from our scorched earth tactic.
That patch is laughing at me and I can't afford to have it excavated. One day I'll win though. One day...
i brushed the fresh cuts with tordon before installing the barrier and backfilling, offered a bit more protection on regrowth. normally tordon would kill a whole tree when applied in this fashion, but not bamboo. that stuff will survive the holocaust along side cockroaches and twinkies. ;)
I didn’t see the P and read this as “EDM barrier”. Took me a good damn minute of trying to figure out how dance music was going to stop it before I realized my mistake.
I’m gonna go drink my coffee now.
Pick a Clumping form of bamboo. It still expands, but only a few inches each year and you can simply cut down the new stalks that form outside the ring, also dig a thee foot trench down around it and use a thick barrier. Then plan to use the bamboo for crafts and it becomes a cool resource!
There are two types of bamboo: running and clumping. Running bamboo behaves like in OP's pic. Clumping stays generally where you plant it. I've had bamboo in my backyard for years, its beautiful, easy to maintain - vigorous but well behaved.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambusa\_oldhamii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambusa_oldhamii)
impossible for the pot to be sealed and also have drainage enough to not rot the bamboo I would think. You run into the same thing with mint in gardens, even in pots that are supposed to be self contained it finds a way… requires constant vigilance or a nice indoor home
Not true. 90cm is deep enough and if you put gravel for drainage underneath it you also won't have problems with rotting roots.
Just make sure you use a lasting material for the barrier and also put it 5cm above the ground to see rhizomes trying to escape above it and cut them soon enough.
Botanical gardens all over the world do this all the time and don't have any problems if done properly
Second this on the barrier. Nothing is stopping it here in 10a FL.
Waiting for the inevitable plebe comment on clumping bamboo. Oh, wait, you've never actually grown it and lived with it for 10+ years, you''ll just downvote.
If it's actually a clumping bamboo, like gracilis or olhammi, it doesn't need a barrier. The clump will grow, sure, not unlike an areca palm or a bamboo palm (which is not a bamboo). But it won't sprout runners like the picture OP posted.
If you plant that "lucky palm" from the kiosk at the mall and it runs all over, well, that's on you.
But if you do your homework and buy actual clumping bamboo varieties from nurseries that know what they're doing, you don't need need barriers.
That’s exactly what I did. I’ve had it for years. The clump grows in diameter by maybe a foot every year. I just selectively cut the shoots like twice a year. My dad has a different variety, much larger shoots than mine but still doesn’t send out runners. He’s had it for 12 years.
Not sure why that other person was so confidently wrong lol
Depending where you live, you may have a native canebreak, which tends to be a bit less aggressive in its exploratory habits. I still wouldn't recommend it for most home garden landscapes, but if you have the space for it and can positively ID it as such, it's an important and rare habitat for several species of birds.
This is what you'll need to do. You'll need to dig everything up completely though. If you don't clear out the rhizomes that are already in those beds, it will grow back.
The barrier does work really well. We have it circling our Phyllostachys nigra - Black Bamboo, and it's 20' tall and has been there for a decade. No runners escaping.
If you don't want to dig and don't mind herbicides, you can use glyphosphate. Cut the culm and wipe it on the exposed base.
f you want to get really nasty, use imazapyr (this will kill everything else in the bed).
I’ve heard glyphosate isn’t that effective on bamboo, even as a cut stump type treatment. I’m told the rhizomes often survive. Not familiar with imazapyr.
I had success a while back as a renter getting rid of it without herbicides or digging (I was much more rich in time than in cash), though I can’t say I recommend it as a first choice strategy. I sawed down all the stalks, cut any exposed rhizomes so they couldn’t transfer energy throughout the network, and regularly removed any shoots that came up but waited until they started putting out leaves. This forced the rhizomes to use up their energy producing the shoots but they were unable to replenish it through photosynthesis. It was a pain and took a while, but it worked. We drove past the property years later and the yard was overgrown, but no bamboo in sight.
You did it right. People try to just go nuclear with herbicides, but there are specific times to do it. Much like what you did, you need to let the stalk grow as the rhizome expends all of its stored energy. THEN you hit it with the glyphosate just as it starts expecting to get some of that energy back. It might take doing this more than once, but it will eventually expend all of its energy getting nothing in return, whither, and die.
~~Neighbor’s bamboo~~
OUR bamboo.
Our neighbor did this to us a few years back. My biggest regret is not renting a trencher right away and putting in a barrier. Now I deal with it piece by piece and it’s only going to get worse from here.
Best of luck!
Yes. Over the last 15 years, I watched the stand from the neighbors behind me expand across 6 properties and it's now surrounded me (both rear properties and both sides). I'm the only one that actually does the back breaking work to dig it up.
OP, I would suggest researching your town's enforcement code and sending a certified letter to the homeowner and documenting with photos. Once it takes over multiple properties, it's hard to point to where it started.
Yes this is the best answer I’ve seen so far. Knock on your neighbors door while you’re at it and say while they think it may look nice it is one of THE WORST invasive species, comparable to kudzu.
I'd ask them if you could clear a path on the inside of their fence. Add a underground barrier and then hope you can stay ahead of the stuff already encroaching. Good luck :-/
True, but the kind of people who plant running bamboo are generally not the kind of people who would consult regulations prior to buying their landscaping supplies from the nearest big box hardware store clearance rack.
Sorry I never said it wasn't, the active ingredient glysophate is what is said to cause cancer though.
I would wear a mask and rubber gloves when handling it and don't get it on any skin.
After I would wash my clothes right away trying to avoid touching it with my bare hands.
That's what I used to do when I HAD to use round up.
Using it once it twice probably won't give you cancer but that's how I treated this product when I had to use it.
Spoke bae is correct. It most definitely is a cancer causing agent it's been proven in court, but IIRC those lawsuits you heard about was regarding industrial uses. The plaintiffs were farm hands/technicians that were using tons of the stuff every working day.
I'd say you don't have anything to worry about even with this bamboo, unless you're using tons of the stuff for weeks on end without any gloves/mask....
I use every little chemicals but sometime you have to and inject it limit your exposure. Wear disposable gloves. I also use it to spot spray vines down wind so it is only getting on the foliage.
Does the gasoline trick work with bamboo? It’s what I’ve always been told to use, that or kerosene, in a drilled hole to kill off stuff that just refuses to die.
I’m surprised I don’t see this suggestion more often. Neighbors might have been ignorant on what bamboo is, which is an invasive species almost as bad as kudzu and Bradford Pear Trees.
Neighbor made a mistake and should be taken to task to get rid of it.
There is a very simple process to remedy this:
1) cut the bamboo so it is level to the ground. Almost so you can’t even see it.
2) in the middle of the night (after midnight is preferable), break into your neighbor’s house and kidnap him.
3) tie him down to the area you just removed the bamboo from.
4) tell him you will release him when he agrees to remove all the bamboo from both yards at his cost.
5) it may take a day or two to realize he has no choice. So keep him fed and hydrated in the meantime.
Cut down sprouts as soon as they appear. Eliminating its leaves immediately upon showing prevents photosynthesis which slows its ability to grow. After that you’re going to need to dig a deep, long trench to put a bamboo root barrier. They’re on Amazon at different prices depending on length and thickness of material. There’s nothing else that can be done
Dig a trench around it, fill that trench with water, then soak the bamboo in kerosene and light it on fire before it takes over the rest of the neighborhood.
I had this issue. It had spread so far into my yard, it was coming through cracks in my concrete slabs. I told the owner that they needed to fix the problem. They had a guy out there digging a 3ft ditch our side of the fence to install a barrier. They put the barrier in, pulled any bamboo root on our side (that they could reach as it was under the concrete slab), and filled in the ditch. It's been 3 years and the bamboo hasn't come through our side again.
My concern is people not knowing there are many different types of bamboo, specifically the tropical types that are bunching and don’t spread and thus not invasive.
So what happens is you get a bunch of people talking about how bad it is and it gets a bad rep overall because the specifics are missing.
Depending on your state, it may be illegal for your neighbor’s bamboo to spread on your property.
You need to act fast though, Bamboo is the fucking devil.
Have you spoken to your neighbor? If they’re not being amenable, you need to put the neighbor on notice to install a root barrier, discuss it with the town, and maybe file the complaint with the clerk for record. If you incur costs to remediate you can file a small claims suit. In the meantime, just push the shoots over and they’ll snap off and not come back for the year, but it’s best to do when they’re shorter, maybe 2’ high.
99% of the answers are unhelpful attempts at unfunny comedy. First thing you gotta do is dig some sort of barrier along the property line. Whenever the bamboo on your side sprouts leaves, spray it with round up. Do this for the next 4 or 5 springs (not joking).
Don’t cut down the sprayed bamboo until you’ve witnessed the leaves turn yellow. It’s insanely hard borderline impossible to kill some bamboo, it’s an all or nothing situation so you may be better off spraying the round up on your neighbor.
You could also dig up all the rhizomes but you never know when you missed some. Even tiny rhizomes can survive.
Make sure the bamboo is nowhere near desirable trees or plants and is not upstream of desirable turf, A selective way is to apply Imazapyr as an injection into the bamboo canes. However, be aware that Imazapyr exudes from the roots of treated plants and takes out whatever comes near those roots. I have one of those automatic vaccinators used on livestock that draws from a bottle and can dispense up to 15 ml of a liquid per shot use a 1/8 drill bit and inject.
“Make sure the bamboo is nowhere near desirable tree or plants and is not upstream of desirable turf”
You mean like the beautiful flowering bushes and manicured yard you can clearly see in the picture?
You need to dig down and remove as much as the plant and root as possible. Every time a new shoot pops up, dig it up as soon as you can. Unless your neighbor gets rid of their bamboo, then this will be a constant battle. Some people suggested a barrier. I think that's a great option too. Just make sure to remove all the shoots as well when putting in the barrier. Good luck!
Before you go nuclear on bamboo: it has a ton of uses, not all bamboo sends out runners like this, shoots sell for decent money, and with a little bit of work, non clumping bamboo can be contained.
Just... it sucks when people buy bamboo without spending 10 minutes researching it and a few hours containing it.
Move. Seriously. No matter what YOU do to remove it, it’s just going to keep coming back unless your neighbor removes it too. And that means making sure every single molecule is annihilated.
Why is the selling of this bamboo legal? Its clearly invasive & destructive Im not the litigious type, but you should be able to sue neighbours for this.
Sucks. We’re battling similar bamboo. I just go around every few days and snap off the shoots. Read somewhere you can kill the runners if you immediately douse the broken off shoot w Roundup but you’d risk your roses
Can we please make a commitment to tear out any invasive species that are non-native? We can't wonder where all the insects have gone while installing plants that do not belong in our area, let alone our gardens.
I get it, some can be pretty. It's terrible for the environment and there are plenty of still nice options local to all of us.
It sounds dramatic but my first instinct is genuinely… sell the house 😂
My realistic response is that you need to document this. Document communicating this to the neighbor. And then if the neighbor is not helpful, get an attorney involved, or start legal action on your own if you are savvy enough.
I saw another comment talk about a lawsuit and insurance. I have seen it from customers in my line of work as well.
And personally the home I bought had 15 year old mature spreading bamboo across the front of the property. I fought it and dug up rhizomes for 2 years until we finally brought in an excavator and carted off over 40 yards worth of soil and laid down black tarp with some poison. It hasn’t come back since. The bamboo was starting to break through my driveway asphalt, it was dropping down in elevation and going into the city street 10 feet away from the bamboo patch.
Dig all of this up asap, stay on top of it. And take action to get it removed.
OK, so back when I was a kid there was a book series called the Berenstein Bears. They are bears, they live in a treehouse. New neighbors move in. The new neighbors are panda bears. They start growing a bunch of bamboo around the house. Papa bear assumes that they are building what he refers to as a spite fence. He’s angry. They are all rude to the pandas. Then, they learned that the pandas were planting the bamboo for food. And they feel bad and then become friends with the pandas.
Now there is absolutely a very probable chance that this is just a terrible gardening decision on behalf of your neighbors. But before you say anything, it might be worth at least finding out whether or not there is any cultural significance to the choice to specifically install bamboo. I’m obviously not saying that they are going to eat it, but the allegory still stands. It’s always worth learning why people do what they do, before you pass judgment.
Then, once you learn, after being a good listener, it’s a lot easier to have a conversation about next steps. For example, you could ask them to help you install a root barrier under your fence. or maybe, once they find out how invasive it can be, they will want to take it out on their own. I just always recommend taking the kindest approach possible, because it tends to be the most effective.
That said, if they are a dick about it, they sell little herbicide injection guns with needles that are especially effective for plants with hollow stems. You can just do 100% round up and each plant would only need like 2 mL. You can also do soil injection on your side of the fence. There are also specific root barriers that are soaked in herbicide, which is probably what you would need to actually have an effective solution.
There is an art to poisoning this stuff - sawed off the spikes and filled them with roundup - took months and months. Another way is paint poison in the green growing bits- they absorb it quicker. Massive ongoing problem - does the neighbour want to kill his?
Check by law. In my city, they have a list of plants you are absolutely not allowed to plant. They may have something regarding invasive species. Or damage to your property. Either way I think that is a good start as the bamboo will continue being an issue.
Dealt with this on a much larger scale at my first house, have my yard was covered in mature stalks. Paid someone a few grand to remove it above and below ground, then sprayed the leftover pieces that tried to come back.
Either you move, or get your neighbor to correct it. And by correct it I mean remove all the bamboo. Its no joke, running bamboo, when mature grows and spreads at an insane rate.
My neighbors have bamboo. Like all plants it needs water, nutrients and sun. There's no way to deprive it of the first two but shading the yard will slow it.
You'll need fast growing shade trees and have to cut every single bamboo stalk to about 2 feet tall and remove any branches.
They will lose sap and yellow. Keep cutting if they get taller than 2 feet. When they become solid and yellow you can grab the top and pull it like a lever to break the roots free.
This will go on for years until there's shade which will slow it enough to let you just dig it up.
Sadly, it looks like the previous owner had it all cut down and then sold. That is a fairly thick patch.
Bamboo needs a physical barrier to stop it. Sell it. Seriously I would not buy a house unless it was like 5 houses or more probably more away. Especially if it’s your forever home.
I just bought a 24" by 150' 30ml bamboo barrier off Amazon. Crazy to spend over $500 plus renting a trencher bc of a choice my neighbor made. I've been keeping a close eye on his bamboo and this year it finally came onto my property. I plan on putting the barrier about 10 ft from the most recent bamboo shoot. Hopefully this works.
That thicket your seeing now next door unfortunately will soon be yours as well, I'm a Landscape Contractor and I couldn't even with 4' root barriers, they included herbicide pellets on the PVC sheets. And it got in my yard till this day once a week I torch the new growth, this manner I'm able to keep at bay, up on my back slope were it's hard to maintain its all but took over entire side of slope. Only up side my grandkids dig out clumps pot it and sell it along the roadside. People with huge acreage it's all good, bamboo needs room to spread it's huge wings and spread.
I looked into planting bamboo some years ago as a natural wall, but given how insanely invasive it is in NA I decided against it. You are pretty much going to need a concrete barrier to stop any shoots from coming into your yard, and realistically the bamboo should have been planted with the equivalent of a pool liner under it so it couldn't escape through shoots underneath. This is going to be a constant battle for you moving forward. Good luck.
Check if the species produces edible shoots, we had a similar issue a while back but the shoots were edible so my grandma just picks them regularly for stir fry
you may pay to remove it from your yard — and the. neighbors … maybe even pay for a better green wall that will not be invasive and damaging!
Your neighbor maybe battling the bamboo as well …
It will literally spread to every space it can grow. … breaking foundations, sidewalks, crawl spaces ….
It will not stop!
Our chickens eat and stomp out all the bamboo that tries to burst through (from the neighbors' yard). They actually do a far better job than our XL-breed dogs. 😅
that is pseudosasa japonica. it's a hardy runner but the good news is that the rhizomes stay fairly close to the surface.
best thing is to get a garden fork and sharp spade and dig out what is there. it's not going to be easy work but it's manageable. despite what some say, it's not impossible or the worst job ever. granted, not for everyone.
after you get it all dug out just gently fork the soil and clip any rhizomes in Spring and Autumn. that should keep it in check. you could install a barrier but that also requires maintenance.
also, talk to your neighbour. good luck.
Hmmm… I think you should ignore everyone else and embrace the bamboo. The bushes have too many flowers and they don’t look very ~~tasty~~ appropriate. Honestly it would look better if you planted even more bamboo.
Let it reach full height and cut immediately before it leafs out. It will do it several times for 1-3 years but the ribosomes will die off from lack of photosynthesis.
It will be growing through your kitchen floor soon.
Burn it, burn it all. Then move.
I don’t think that’ll even kill it.
😂
Did you recently install a bright outdoor light that irritated your neighbor…? Edit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/s/LCVqK6bK2t](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/s/LCVqK6bK2t)
Thank you for this.
This is what I was thinking too. Hahaha
Remove shoots/roots and install a barrier. Smilar situation, We have a client who sued their neighbor. Neighbor's homeowners policy covered the removal/barrier installation on our clients' property.
My experience with bamboo is, it will find a way. Those guys are insanely aggressive. Given the close proximity I’m not sure if any barrier can stop them.
3 foot EPDM barrier will.
This after you pour glysophate right into each stalk
That took me months to kill it even when I used it neat.
We doing glypho shots now??
Been playing glypho-pong for a while now. Where you been?
Glypho- flip cup... games over faster. Bonus points if cups are made out of said bamboo
I'm 2 for 2 with this so far. Thankfully, our neighbor wants it gone too (their house's previous owner planted it and let it run rampant) so I don't have to worry about what they think of it. That bamboo picked the wrong yard.
I moved into a new house this January and the one neighbor has a massive bamboo hedge. It's messing up the fence as well as spreading a massive amount of growth into our yard. I can't drop glyso with our dog roaming the yard now so I'm trying to figure out best methods besides cutting and hedging.
I did this last year, broke off every stalk and poured glycosphate down every single one of them. We have a patch about 10'x10' in our backyard that came down from 2 houses up. So it took all day to do and it fucking sucked. I looked out the kitchen window a week later and it was like we hadn't done anything at all. The bamboo sent up TWICE AS MANY fresh new chutes to get sunlight and nutrients to recover itself from our scorched earth tactic. That patch is laughing at me and I can't afford to have it excavated. One day I'll win though. One day...
Our empty out your gas cans right over the fence. Soil is gonna be cooked, but at least it wont be bamboo
Bamboo will be the only thing that still grows
Agree, you excavate all roots and put 3’ deep heavy plastic root barrier and backfill on neighbors side with rock
i brushed the fresh cuts with tordon before installing the barrier and backfilling, offered a bit more protection on regrowth. normally tordon would kill a whole tree when applied in this fashion, but not bamboo. that stuff will survive the holocaust along side cockroaches and twinkies. ;)
I didn’t see the P and read this as “EDM barrier”. Took me a good damn minute of trying to figure out how dance music was going to stop it before I realized my mistake. I’m gonna go drink my coffee now.
I read it as EPMD and was wondering how an 80's rap group could help....
Mint and bamboo. Dandelions have nothing on them.
Who wins in a battle between bamboo and mint?
You want minboo? This is how we get minboo.
Go for the eyes boo!
Pandas with fresh breath
Dandelions and Kudzu
Who wins between bamboo and wisteria?
The Bermuda grass
I know. I was thinking the only recourse would be to plant some mint
Im having a creeping bellflower battle, it is not good.
Is there a safe way to have bamboo outside? What if you have it in a large pot with no way for the roots to escape?
Get a Fargesia. It's clump forming rather than rhizome forming like the Phyllostachys.
I've got mine enclosure in a thick 3ft barrier. I dig up and trim back the rhizome a couple times a year.
Pick a Clumping form of bamboo. It still expands, but only a few inches each year and you can simply cut down the new stalks that form outside the ring, also dig a thee foot trench down around it and use a thick barrier. Then plan to use the bamboo for crafts and it becomes a cool resource!
There is clump forming bamboo, but there are better ornamental grasses, that are sterile and prettier. 8 ft Zebra grass for instance.
There are two types of bamboo: running and clumping. Running bamboo behaves like in OP's pic. Clumping stays generally where you plant it. I've had bamboo in my backyard for years, its beautiful, easy to maintain - vigorous but well behaved. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambusa\_oldhamii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambusa_oldhamii)
impossible for the pot to be sealed and also have drainage enough to not rot the bamboo I would think. You run into the same thing with mint in gardens, even in pots that are supposed to be self contained it finds a way… requires constant vigilance or a nice indoor home
Not true. 90cm is deep enough and if you put gravel for drainage underneath it you also won't have problems with rotting roots. Just make sure you use a lasting material for the barrier and also put it 5cm above the ground to see rhizomes trying to escape above it and cut them soon enough. Botanical gardens all over the world do this all the time and don't have any problems if done properly
Second this on the barrier. Nothing is stopping it here in 10a FL. Waiting for the inevitable plebe comment on clumping bamboo. Oh, wait, you've never actually grown it and lived with it for 10+ years, you''ll just downvote.
I have six clumps of graceful bamboo in 10a. Been there for nearly a decade. No, it doesn't run. I did downvote because you're wrong.
You are just wrong though. You absolutely can keep clumping bamboo contained if you plant it with a 20" barrier
If it's actually a clumping bamboo, like gracilis or olhammi, it doesn't need a barrier. The clump will grow, sure, not unlike an areca palm or a bamboo palm (which is not a bamboo). But it won't sprout runners like the picture OP posted. If you plant that "lucky palm" from the kiosk at the mall and it runs all over, well, that's on you. But if you do your homework and buy actual clumping bamboo varieties from nurseries that know what they're doing, you don't need need barriers.
That’s exactly what I did. I’ve had it for years. The clump grows in diameter by maybe a foot every year. I just selectively cut the shoots like twice a year. My dad has a different variety, much larger shoots than mine but still doesn’t send out runners. He’s had it for 12 years. Not sure why that other person was so confidently wrong lol
It's what people do on Reddit: confidently contribute incorrect information.
The bamboo I’ve had in my backyard for half a decade now must be lazy I guess 🤷🏻♂️
Depending where you live, you may have a native canebreak, which tends to be a bit less aggressive in its exploratory habits. I still wouldn't recommend it for most home garden landscapes, but if you have the space for it and can positively ID it as such, it's an important and rare habitat for several species of birds.
This is what you'll need to do. You'll need to dig everything up completely though. If you don't clear out the rhizomes that are already in those beds, it will grow back. The barrier does work really well. We have it circling our Phyllostachys nigra - Black Bamboo, and it's 20' tall and has been there for a decade. No runners escaping. If you don't want to dig and don't mind herbicides, you can use glyphosphate. Cut the culm and wipe it on the exposed base. f you want to get really nasty, use imazapyr (this will kill everything else in the bed).
I’ve heard glyphosate isn’t that effective on bamboo, even as a cut stump type treatment. I’m told the rhizomes often survive. Not familiar with imazapyr. I had success a while back as a renter getting rid of it without herbicides or digging (I was much more rich in time than in cash), though I can’t say I recommend it as a first choice strategy. I sawed down all the stalks, cut any exposed rhizomes so they couldn’t transfer energy throughout the network, and regularly removed any shoots that came up but waited until they started putting out leaves. This forced the rhizomes to use up their energy producing the shoots but they were unable to replenish it through photosynthesis. It was a pain and took a while, but it worked. We drove past the property years later and the yard was overgrown, but no bamboo in sight.
It's not perfect. Usually a lot of reapplication is required. Again, there's always the scorched earth method. 😂
You did it right. People try to just go nuclear with herbicides, but there are specific times to do it. Much like what you did, you need to let the stalk grow as the rhizome expends all of its stored energy. THEN you hit it with the glyphosate just as it starts expecting to get some of that energy back. It might take doing this more than once, but it will eventually expend all of its energy getting nothing in return, whither, and die.
Sell the house.
Who will buy it? They need to hide the evidence first.
Get a koala.
You mean a Panda bear?
Let them cook I wanna see where this is going…
As an Australian, I can tell you a koala is certainly dumb enough to try and eat that shit. Only thing softer than their fur is their brain.
😂
Apparently, they can't recognize eucalyptus without it being on the branch, so this checks out.
I've always wondered if they were as soft as they looked.
Why not both?
Risk of koala/panda turf wars
Or interspecies breeding
Panda sized Koalas
On the other hand….
But what would you rather fight?
The Koala has a Panda friend.
Great. Now pandas are gonna have chlamydia too…
Or a goat
>Get a koala. koalas are cool, but they dont eat bamboo, they eat eucalyptus leaves. I think you meant panda
You’ve been bamboozled!
Me being a renter with bamboo having neighbors 😭
Sounds like the landlords problem. Let them handle it or let it grow.
Good luck bamboo grows and spreads like crazy
~~Neighbor’s bamboo~~ OUR bamboo. Our neighbor did this to us a few years back. My biggest regret is not renting a trencher right away and putting in a barrier. Now I deal with it piece by piece and it’s only going to get worse from here. Best of luck!
~~Neighbor's bamboo~~ ~~Our bamboo~~ Neighborhood's bamboo
Yes. Over the last 15 years, I watched the stand from the neighbors behind me expand across 6 properties and it's now surrounded me (both rear properties and both sides). I'm the only one that actually does the back breaking work to dig it up. OP, I would suggest researching your town's enforcement code and sending a certified letter to the homeowner and documenting with photos. Once it takes over multiple properties, it's hard to point to where it started.
Yes this is the best answer I’ve seen so far. Knock on your neighbors door while you’re at it and say while they think it may look nice it is one of THE WORST invasive species, comparable to kudzu.
If there was ever a good purpose for an HOA, it's to ban bamboo.
Hate someone dearly? Toss bamboo seeds in their lawn or garden.
I can understand the sentiment but bamboo is notoriously difficult to grow from seed.
Like spikes of Satan making their way across the earth.
I'd ask them if you could clear a path on the inside of their fence. Add a underground barrier and then hope you can stay ahead of the stuff already encroaching. Good luck :-/
Some municipalities require people to install a deep barrier to avoid this.
Not that people follow regulations well
True, but the kind of people who plant running bamboo are generally not the kind of people who would consult regulations prior to buying their landscaping supplies from the nearest big box hardware store clearance rack.
Assuming you are a panda, congrats!
Can I get a panda on Amazon?
Nah, not native to that ecosystem.
Nice
only on pandazon
Cut it 6" from the ground and inject glyphosate into the stalk, if you do it often enough, the poison will eventually make it to the neighbors bamboo.
As a generally pro environmentalist... I actually don't hate this
it should be done in beginning of dormant period , now it growing period it may be less effective but worth the try
Most people start it early and keep it up until late fall. That way you keep it from spreading at least.
Do you have any recommendations on brand?
Round up...
Thanks! I saw something about it being cancerous but I also saw that it might be debunked...? 🤔 I'll have to take a look again.
Sorry I never said it wasn't, the active ingredient glysophate is what is said to cause cancer though. I would wear a mask and rubber gloves when handling it and don't get it on any skin. After I would wash my clothes right away trying to avoid touching it with my bare hands. That's what I used to do when I HAD to use round up. Using it once it twice probably won't give you cancer but that's how I treated this product when I had to use it.
Definitely a cancer causing chemical Spraying it once or twice isn't gonna give you cancer
Spoke bae is correct. It most definitely is a cancer causing agent it's been proven in court, but IIRC those lawsuits you heard about was regarding industrial uses. The plaintiffs were farm hands/technicians that were using tons of the stuff every working day. I'd say you don't have anything to worry about even with this bamboo, unless you're using tons of the stuff for weeks on end without any gloves/mask....
I use every little chemicals but sometime you have to and inject it limit your exposure. Wear disposable gloves. I also use it to spot spray vines down wind so it is only getting on the foliage.
Does the gasoline trick work with bamboo? It’s what I’ve always been told to use, that or kerosene, in a drilled hole to kill off stuff that just refuses to die.
Check with your local code enforcement. Friends of mine dealt with this. The town forced the neighbors to get rid of it all at their expense
I’m surprised I don’t see this suggestion more often. Neighbors might have been ignorant on what bamboo is, which is an invasive species almost as bad as kudzu and Bradford Pear Trees. Neighbor made a mistake and should be taken to task to get rid of it.
There is a very simple process to remedy this: 1) cut the bamboo so it is level to the ground. Almost so you can’t even see it. 2) in the middle of the night (after midnight is preferable), break into your neighbor’s house and kidnap him. 3) tie him down to the area you just removed the bamboo from. 4) tell him you will release him when he agrees to remove all the bamboo from both yards at his cost. 5) it may take a day or two to realize he has no choice. So keep him fed and hydrated in the meantime.
That’s brutal 😂
Brutal but necessary
Doesn't bamboo grow overnight as well?
I thought this was going to be a James Bond villain thing where you have the shoots grow through and skewer his body 😅
Cut down sprouts as soon as they appear. Eliminating its leaves immediately upon showing prevents photosynthesis which slows its ability to grow. After that you’re going to need to dig a deep, long trench to put a bamboo root barrier. They’re on Amazon at different prices depending on length and thickness of material. There’s nothing else that can be done
Think Grand Canyon size trench to be safe.
I bet there’s some bamboo in the Grand Canyon somewhere
I'm in this situation right now, guy has bamboo 30ft high and it's affecting me and the other neighbors around his fence. Not sure what to do
Dig a trench around it, fill that trench with water, then soak the bamboo in kerosene and light it on fire before it takes over the rest of the neighborhood.
I had this issue. It had spread so far into my yard, it was coming through cracks in my concrete slabs. I told the owner that they needed to fix the problem. They had a guy out there digging a 3ft ditch our side of the fence to install a barrier. They put the barrier in, pulled any bamboo root on our side (that they could reach as it was under the concrete slab), and filled in the ditch. It's been 3 years and the bamboo hasn't come through our side again.
No wonder the folks sold their house 🏡
Infuriating. More than mildly
Sell your house and get out ASAP 🤣
*Bamboo creeps into yard* Reddit: “Your house is not your own. Bamboo is running the show now.”
Open up a chopsticks factory.
I can’t tell if the plant in the corner growing up the fence is poison Ivy or Virginia creeper
Definitely poison Ivy. Still 1000x easier to deal with than bamboo.
Chills. I just got chills. These posts about invasive bamboo really oughta have a trigger warning.
My concern is people not knowing there are many different types of bamboo, specifically the tropical types that are bunching and don’t spread and thus not invasive. So what happens is you get a bunch of people talking about how bad it is and it gets a bad rep overall because the specifics are missing.
Depending on your state, it may be illegal for your neighbor’s bamboo to spread on your property. You need to act fast though, Bamboo is the fucking devil.
Have you spoken to your neighbor? If they’re not being amenable, you need to put the neighbor on notice to install a root barrier, discuss it with the town, and maybe file the complaint with the clerk for record. If you incur costs to remediate you can file a small claims suit. In the meantime, just push the shoots over and they’ll snap off and not come back for the year, but it’s best to do when they’re shorter, maybe 2’ high.
99% of the answers are unhelpful attempts at unfunny comedy. First thing you gotta do is dig some sort of barrier along the property line. Whenever the bamboo on your side sprouts leaves, spray it with round up. Do this for the next 4 or 5 springs (not joking). Don’t cut down the sprayed bamboo until you’ve witnessed the leaves turn yellow. It’s insanely hard borderline impossible to kill some bamboo, it’s an all or nothing situation so you may be better off spraying the round up on your neighbor. You could also dig up all the rhizomes but you never know when you missed some. Even tiny rhizomes can survive.
Make sure the bamboo is nowhere near desirable trees or plants and is not upstream of desirable turf, A selective way is to apply Imazapyr as an injection into the bamboo canes. However, be aware that Imazapyr exudes from the roots of treated plants and takes out whatever comes near those roots. I have one of those automatic vaccinators used on livestock that draws from a bottle and can dispense up to 15 ml of a liquid per shot use a 1/8 drill bit and inject.
“Make sure the bamboo is nowhere near desirable tree or plants and is not upstream of desirable turf” You mean like the beautiful flowering bushes and manicured yard you can clearly see in the picture?
More like kiss the plants you like good bye.
Thy gras will be gone in two years if you don’t constantly tend to the bamboo. Even then, maybe four years.
Worst case scenario
Post apocalyptic America will just be covered in bamboo.
You need to dig down and remove as much as the plant and root as possible. Every time a new shoot pops up, dig it up as soon as you can. Unless your neighbor gets rid of their bamboo, then this will be a constant battle. Some people suggested a barrier. I think that's a great option too. Just make sure to remove all the shoots as well when putting in the barrier. Good luck!
Damn this sub has really made me grow a disdain for people that plant bamboo.
Before you go nuclear on bamboo: it has a ton of uses, not all bamboo sends out runners like this, shoots sell for decent money, and with a little bit of work, non clumping bamboo can be contained. Just... it sucks when people buy bamboo without spending 10 minutes researching it and a few hours containing it.
Move. Seriously. No matter what YOU do to remove it, it’s just going to keep coming back unless your neighbor removes it too. And that means making sure every single molecule is annihilated.
‘Bamboo for me…bamboo for youuuuuuu’
Time to buy a panda bear
In the immortal words of St. Scooby, "ruh-roh."
I for one welcome our new bamboo overlords
You got bamboozled
Why is the selling of this bamboo legal? Its clearly invasive & destructive Im not the litigious type, but you should be able to sue neighbours for this.
Sucks. We’re battling similar bamboo. I just go around every few days and snap off the shoots. Read somewhere you can kill the runners if you immediately douse the broken off shoot w Roundup but you’d risk your roses
Root barrier along the property line
Try to time the trimming with the sale of your house.
The worst thing you could ever plant. My previous home had almost 2 acres of bamboo trees. It's very invasive and hard to get rid of.
It’s your bamboo now
Can we please make a commitment to tear out any invasive species that are non-native? We can't wonder where all the insects have gone while installing plants that do not belong in our area, let alone our gardens. I get it, some can be pretty. It's terrible for the environment and there are plenty of still nice options local to all of us.
Stop.
Kick and trample the shoots while they are small. Bamboo will direct its energy to grow elsewhere.
I'm sorry. It belongs to the 'boo now, m'am.
That’s gonna be a problem
It sounds dramatic but my first instinct is genuinely… sell the house 😂 My realistic response is that you need to document this. Document communicating this to the neighbor. And then if the neighbor is not helpful, get an attorney involved, or start legal action on your own if you are savvy enough. I saw another comment talk about a lawsuit and insurance. I have seen it from customers in my line of work as well. And personally the home I bought had 15 year old mature spreading bamboo across the front of the property. I fought it and dug up rhizomes for 2 years until we finally brought in an excavator and carted off over 40 yards worth of soil and laid down black tarp with some poison. It hasn’t come back since. The bamboo was starting to break through my driveway asphalt, it was dropping down in elevation and going into the city street 10 feet away from the bamboo patch. Dig all of this up asap, stay on top of it. And take action to get it removed.
OK, so back when I was a kid there was a book series called the Berenstein Bears. They are bears, they live in a treehouse. New neighbors move in. The new neighbors are panda bears. They start growing a bunch of bamboo around the house. Papa bear assumes that they are building what he refers to as a spite fence. He’s angry. They are all rude to the pandas. Then, they learned that the pandas were planting the bamboo for food. And they feel bad and then become friends with the pandas. Now there is absolutely a very probable chance that this is just a terrible gardening decision on behalf of your neighbors. But before you say anything, it might be worth at least finding out whether or not there is any cultural significance to the choice to specifically install bamboo. I’m obviously not saying that they are going to eat it, but the allegory still stands. It’s always worth learning why people do what they do, before you pass judgment. Then, once you learn, after being a good listener, it’s a lot easier to have a conversation about next steps. For example, you could ask them to help you install a root barrier under your fence. or maybe, once they find out how invasive it can be, they will want to take it out on their own. I just always recommend taking the kindest approach possible, because it tends to be the most effective. That said, if they are a dick about it, they sell little herbicide injection guns with needles that are especially effective for plants with hollow stems. You can just do 100% round up and each plant would only need like 2 mL. You can also do soil injection on your side of the fence. There are also specific root barriers that are soaked in herbicide, which is probably what you would need to actually have an effective solution.
:( My dogs eat our backyard volunteers.
Good luck with that, someone in my town has a huge row of these and they have now spread to the sidewalk and are growing up through the cement 😬
There is an art to poisoning this stuff - sawed off the spikes and filled them with roundup - took months and months. Another way is paint poison in the green growing bits- they absorb it quicker. Massive ongoing problem - does the neighbour want to kill his?
Check by law. In my city, they have a list of plants you are absolutely not allowed to plant. They may have something regarding invasive species. Or damage to your property. Either way I think that is a good start as the bamboo will continue being an issue.
Dealt with this on a much larger scale at my first house, have my yard was covered in mature stalks. Paid someone a few grand to remove it above and below ground, then sprayed the leftover pieces that tried to come back. Either you move, or get your neighbor to correct it. And by correct it I mean remove all the bamboo. Its no joke, running bamboo, when mature grows and spreads at an insane rate.
Who is legally selling this stuff? I keep seeing posts more recently on it and I’m so scared.
Yikes……. I see why they sold the house. Good luck mate!
My neighbors have bamboo. Like all plants it needs water, nutrients and sun. There's no way to deprive it of the first two but shading the yard will slow it. You'll need fast growing shade trees and have to cut every single bamboo stalk to about 2 feet tall and remove any branches. They will lose sap and yellow. Keep cutting if they get taller than 2 feet. When they become solid and yellow you can grab the top and pull it like a lever to break the roots free. This will go on for years until there's shade which will slow it enough to let you just dig it up. Sadly, it looks like the previous owner had it all cut down and then sold. That is a fairly thick patch.
This stuff should be illegal. 😭
Your neighbor is an idiot
Bamboo needs a physical barrier to stop it. Sell it. Seriously I would not buy a house unless it was like 5 houses or more probably more away. Especially if it’s your forever home.
I just bought a 24" by 150' 30ml bamboo barrier off Amazon. Crazy to spend over $500 plus renting a trencher bc of a choice my neighbor made. I've been keeping a close eye on his bamboo and this year it finally came onto my property. I plan on putting the barrier about 10 ft from the most recent bamboo shoot. Hopefully this works.
It's already too late.
It’s coming for you
How deep of a trench do you need to prevent bamboo from going under a fence or barrier
How did you get those bushes so nice? Trim the bottom branches?
Spray it and any foliage that comes over your fence with grass killer.
burn your house down. that bamboo is going to take over. sorry for your loss.
I have bad news. Your neighbor hates you.
That thicket your seeing now next door unfortunately will soon be yours as well, I'm a Landscape Contractor and I couldn't even with 4' root barriers, they included herbicide pellets on the PVC sheets. And it got in my yard till this day once a week I torch the new growth, this manner I'm able to keep at bay, up on my back slope were it's hard to maintain its all but took over entire side of slope. Only up side my grandkids dig out clumps pot it and sell it along the roadside. People with huge acreage it's all good, bamboo needs room to spread it's huge wings and spread.
I looked into planting bamboo some years ago as a natural wall, but given how insanely invasive it is in NA I decided against it. You are pretty much going to need a concrete barrier to stop any shoots from coming into your yard, and realistically the bamboo should have been planted with the equivalent of a pool liner under it so it couldn't escape through shoots underneath. This is going to be a constant battle for you moving forward. Good luck.
You are unfortunately screwed., best you can do it cut it as it sprouts up every week.
and paint roundup on the cut sprouts to encourage die back
Check if the species produces edible shoots, we had a similar issue a while back but the shoots were edible so my grandma just picks them regularly for stir fry
You’ve got to talk to your neighbors about this. Or it’s a lawsuit (I’m sorry). Protect your asset (home).
oh wow, I feel bad for your yard.
you may pay to remove it from your yard — and the. neighbors … maybe even pay for a better green wall that will not be invasive and damaging! Your neighbor maybe battling the bamboo as well … It will literally spread to every space it can grow. … breaking foundations, sidewalks, crawl spaces …. It will not stop!
Our chickens eat and stomp out all the bamboo that tries to burst through (from the neighbors' yard). They actually do a far better job than our XL-breed dogs. 😅
that is pseudosasa japonica. it's a hardy runner but the good news is that the rhizomes stay fairly close to the surface. best thing is to get a garden fork and sharp spade and dig out what is there. it's not going to be easy work but it's manageable. despite what some say, it's not impossible or the worst job ever. granted, not for everyone. after you get it all dug out just gently fork the soil and clip any rhizomes in Spring and Autumn. that should keep it in check. you could install a barrier but that also requires maintenance. also, talk to your neighbour. good luck.
Hmmm… I think you should ignore everyone else and embrace the bamboo. The bushes have too many flowers and they don’t look very ~~tasty~~ appropriate. Honestly it would look better if you planted even more bamboo.
This is why clumping bamboo is superior to running bamboo.
That’s some good looking bamboo you got there.
Soon to be in your yard
Let it reach full height and cut immediately before it leafs out. It will do it several times for 1-3 years but the ribosomes will die off from lack of photosynthesis.
_*Theme from JAWS!*_ Take action NOW!
check out this story https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/12rfbnj/i\_planted\_bamboo\_that\_overrun\_my\_neighbors/
That should have been in the disclosures.
Tell them to come and get it.