Knotweed

[PeteXXX]

First time I've seen one of these signs!

High Wycombe, on a recently demolished factory site, about to be redeveloped (or (k)not....

 

[andytheflyer]

The very last thing you want it to take some home on your boots and spread it around your garden! Can cost a fortune to get rid of as is an invasive species and its eradication and disposal is highly regulated.

Very responsible outfit Buckingham. Built a couple of landfill sites with them some years ago. And took son (about 15 at the time) and me to a corporate day at the British GP. Said son said that his orange juice at brunch tasted funny (it was Bucks Fizz...)

 

[biggs682]

We spotted this one at the top of a steep street in Llandudno

 

[Dave 123]

In my teens I worked for a landscape company who had done a garden for someone, and as part of the job they had to remove the knotweed, this was before I was employed by them.

They never quite got it all and we were dispatched several times to go and sort it. I'll bet it's still there 25 years later.

*just recalculated....30 years later

 

[Hitchington]

Some knotweed yesterday

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Thankfully I've never come across the stuff and I hope I never will.

 

[ufkacbln]

The very last thing you want it to take some home on your boots and spread it around your garden! Can cost a fortune to get rid of as is an invasive species and its eradication and disposal is highly regulated.

Very responsible outfit Buckingham. Built a couple of landfill sites with them some years ago. And took son (about 15 at the time) and me to a corporate day at the British GP. Said son said that his orange juice at brunch tasted funny (it was Bucks Fizz...)

OT

Friend of mine (recently divorced) went on a single parents event at a local pub

His 9 year old was drinking J2O

When he went back to the bar the barman said they had run out and recommended. "Reef" instead with a similar flavour

Accepting the advice he handed over the bottle to son

Within a few minutes several people had come across asking why his son was drinking alcopops ..... He really did not know

When he explained to one mum, they went back to the bar where she was given the same advice

Quick word with manager sorted the education of the staff

One way to break the ice though

 

[ColinJ]

I didn't know what the fuss about Knotweed was until I saw some time-lapse videos like this one ...

Yikes!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

The very last thing you want it to take some home on your boots and spread it around your garden!

Couple of years ago my garden started sprouting Himalayan Balsam.
I wondered where the pretty flowers came from, till I looked it up on the net: must have brought it from cycling along the canal.

 

[subaqua]

Network Rail spend a fortune each year trying to control it.

it is good in that it stabilises embankments and cutting slopes , but sadly the negatives of it outweigh the positives.

Olympic park was full of it . the soil hospital was as much about sifting and eradicating this as it was about "decontaminating" the soil of oil etc.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I was out for a walk the other day and my dad spotted some Japanese knotweed growing out from a hedge into the road. i reported it, and have just had this response:

"It's down to landowners to control any Japanese knotweed on their land, but they do not have to remove it as the natural growth and spread is not illegal. However, allowing the Japanese knotweed to spread onto land outside of the ownership or control of the landowner can be seen as an offence.
However, offences are not reportable to the Environment Agency. Such offences should be reported to the wildlife liaison officer within your local police force.
There is further information on Japanese Knotweed online."

I would have thought they could just pass on the specific location (which I gave them) to the council or something, at the very least. But no, not our job, it's not an offense, mind your own business and let a passing lorry or wide load transport it around the country. Sterling work chaps.

 

[PeteXXX]

I was out for a walk the other day and my dad spotted some Japanese knotweed growing out from a hedge into the road. i reported it, and have just had this response:

"It's down to landowners to control any Japanese knotweed on their land, but they do not have to remove it as the natural growth and spread is not illegal. However, allowing the Japanese knotweed to spread onto land outside of the ownership or control of the landowner can be seen as an offence.
However, offences are not reportable to the Environment Agency. Such offences should be reported to the wildlife liaison officer within your local police force.
There is further information on Japanese Knotweed online."

I would have thought they could just pass on the specific location (which I gave them) to the council or something, at the very least. But no, not our job, it's not an offense, mind your own business and let a passing lorry or wide load transport it around the country. Sterling work chaps.

As you say, surely they could report it to the relevant people. It'd save you the time and effort of being fobbed off again!

 

[Drago]

A mate of mine works for Network Rail and got me some stuff they use on the railways that's like Agent Orange, but stronger. That was 6 or 7 years ago and we've not seen it since.

 

[Ian H]

The Victorians brought all kinds of exotic plants into the country. I have read that Japanese knotweed had both a practical use for stabilising embankments (see Drago's post) and was an ornamental plant.
It's widespread in S Wales; I know of one house in Morriston which was demolished after knotweed sprouted through the floor.

 

[Paulus]

Japanese knotweed is so tough that it can grow through roads and concrete.
Terrible stuff to get rid of.