How to kill invasive vines without killing the trees?
Invasive vines wrap tightly around trunks, smothering trees and spreading everywhere while intertwining with valued plants. This prevents using broad sprays or simply tracing roots to pull them out, leaving property owners unable to clear the infestation without risking their surrounding landscaping.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Cutting the vines near the bottom of the tree and letting them dry up before pulling them down
- 2Pulling up the bright orange roots by hand
- 3Applying glyphosate with a brush or buckthorn blaster to fresh cut stumps
- 4Revisiting the area once or twice a year to pull up or clip new growth
- 5Doing major general clean up
- 6Using mulch
- 7Considering removing plants, overhauling everything, spraying for weeds, and replanting
- 8Extending the garden beds and planting flowers in front of the shrubs instead of removing them
- 9Trimming and shaping the overgrown shrubs to fit better below window sills
- 10Relocating the mature shrubs to another spot on the property
- 11Giving the mature shrubs away for free on local social media pages
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We have mature boxwoods around the front of our house. My wife is fixated on removing, at least, the ones in front of the middle section of the house and putting in flower beds.”source ↗
“What are these and what would be the best way to get rid of them.”source ↗
“there’s a vine that’s wreaking havoc on my friends landscaping.”source ↗
“can’t just spray the rest because the vines are also all over the regular landscaping they want to keep.”source ↗
“You can’t simply find a root for it and It’s EVERYWHERE.”source ↗
“Thank you. That's the plan. Looks like I have my work cut out for me.”source ↗
“They are at least 6ft thick and the previous owner definitely didnt do much maintenance”source ↗
“If you remove them, you’re gonna have to cut them close to the ground and dig behind them and cut the roots manually. If you just rip them out, there’s a good chance you’re going to take some chunks of house with them.”source ↗
Where this came up
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