Can't get a mortgage on a house with Jaapanese Knotweed

GDB2222

poppysarah wrote: »

Ah maybe there they just call it knotweed?



In Japanese, the name is "itadori", and is used in making itadori tea

it had a natural pest that attacks it there so keeping it from being such a major problem I think.
This bug is being tried in the UK to sap the plants' strength.

It always makes me think of the nursery rhyme "there was an old woman who swallowed a fly" though...

Yes, I can see us having to import Japanese birds to eat the pests that worry the knotweed that pushes up structures, wherever it finds them.

BornAtTheRightTime

poppysarah wrote: »

I think the problem is it can get there on it's own. It's seeds are propelled explosively!

Not true. Its seeds are not fertile in the UK and so isn't spread so easily by birds etc. However any tiny piece of the rhizome (underground bit) easily sprouts new canes and spreads quickly. Also digging it up, which disturns the rhizomes, causes new canes to grow wherever the rhizome is cut. It is primarily spread by people moving infected earth/on truck wheels from infected sites etc.

Make-it-3

GDB2222 wrote: »

Yes, I can see us having to import Japanese birds to eat the pests that worry the knotweed that pushes up structures, wherever it finds them.

and then we'll need Japanese cats to control the Japanese birds that eat the Japanese pests that worry the Japanese knotweed, that pushes up structures

katieMo_2

poppysarah wrote: »

This bug is being tried in the UK to sap the plants' strength.

Yep, saw a programme about this the other day!

I hope this works, although the insect will most probably cause another problem somewhere down the line!

katieMo_2

HBOS will lend - YAY! But only if it's 100m or more away from the house!!! - Booo.

Thanks for all your advice. Think I'll have to let this one go.

Bigmoney2

On TV now Ch4 'Help my house is falling down'.
House has Japanese Knot weed. Solution is to cut back, spray new growth £250 a go, will need doing a few times , burn all cuttings. But I've also seen another prog were they dug down a metre and put in a copper membrane.
So may be worth further investigation. Depends how much you like the house.
Programme in C4+1 at 9pm and I think repeated on a sunday but is a week behind. Prob on 4 OD as well.

poppysarah

5-6 times over 3-4 years or more if it doesn't work or the neighbours don't get rid of theirs.

Yorkie1

We had JK on our allotment site. A licensed professional injected strong strength (i.e. not amateur stuff) glyphosate into the stems, marking those he'd done with spray paint so as to ensure he got every stem.

There may have been a repeat treatment later in the year, perhaps, but it hasn't regrown some years on.

JingleJangle

Do surveyors routinely look out for this? I have never heard of this plant before reading this thread. I am pretty certain the surveys I have had over the years have made little reference to the plants in the garden beyond stating the obvious concerning laid to lawn and level of maturity.

neverdespairgirl

ruggedtoast wrote: »

What the hell? I've never in my life heard of Japanese knotweed, even when I lived in Japan. It sounds like some kind of alien triffid species or something.

It pretty much is (-: