Pests that kill bramble

carlowplayer

Live next door to a woodland covered in bramble.Can keep the bramble nearest to my garden under control with round up however that probably wont do much of a dent as it will just be taken over by the farther plant.I can possibly kill them off with the round up and then use hyrotol to keep the soil nearest to the garden plant/bramble free but im wondering is there any biological controls ie pests/moulds/diseases exclusive to bramble that i can introduce that will kill or damage the roots thus removing the threat completly without introducing artificial chemicals into the environment .

magicbastarder

i'd be very wary about doing something which could alter the balance of the woodland; if there are natural, native pests, you will probably find they are already present; and nothing is 100% effective, as if it was, it would be so everywhere.

carlowplayer

whats the worst that could happen? there could be more birds that feed on them.Im just curious of investigating any options is there in terms f biological control in terms of insects ,moulds,viruses that affect only bramble and kill the roots.there are no bramble farms in the county and so they really have become a pest in the area

redser7

Nature knows best is one arguement. I haven't heard of anything biological that could wipe of out a specific plant like that. brambles are so persistant that it would heave to be some pretty bloody aggressive pest. Doubt it would be a good idea to unleash something like that intentionally. The only organic way I can think of is a brushcutter and fork and then mulch.

catastrophy

To put it in context for you op, I believe that in the uk they have spent several years researching a natural pest for Japanese knotweed and are still a few years off releasing it. What you may deem as insignificant might have a far reaching effect.

kylith

May I ask why you want to kill these brambles if they're not encroaching on your land?

looksee

carlowplayer wrote: »

whats the worst that could happen? there could be more birds that feed on them.Im just curious of investigating any options is there in terms f biological control in terms of insects ,moulds,viruses that affect only bramble and kill the roots.there are no bramble farms in the county and so they really have become a pest in the area

Pretty certain you are not going to find a bramble specific treatment, certainly not one available to the public! What do you mean by the bolded bit in your quote?

carlowplayer

they have started to encroach into my garden.A good portion of the back garden is overrun.Its just that the garden and woodland separated by a large green fence which some rooting has crept under so i cant exactly use any mechanical method to deal with the majority of the bramble.i was just looking for alternatives to spraying with roundup.Is there any domesticated animal ie goat etc that i can hire that are able to eat bramble without any problems and at least weaken the plants?

carlowplayer

Pretty certain you are not going to find a bramble specific treatment, certainly not one available to the public! What do you mean by the bolded bit in your quote?

i meant if i did get a control released it wouldnt effect any nearby farmers crop yields so that wasnt a problem with eliminating the plants

kylith

carlowplayer wrote: »

they have started to encroach into my garden.A good portion of the back garden is overrun.Its just that the garden and woodland separated by a large green fence which some rooting has crept under so i cant exactly use any mechanical method to deal with the majority of the bramble.i was just looking for alternatives to spraying with roundup.Is there any domesticated animal ie goat etc that i can hire that are able to eat bramble without any problems and at least weaken the plants?

If it's coming up because of roots coming under the fence could you dig a trench along the fence and put down some sort of barrier, something like lawn edging or paving slabs on their sides, then you could control the ones already in your garden with weedkiller? Of course, it'd depend on how deep the roots go.

monkeynuz

No, no, no and no.

No animal to eat it (well not enough to be any use)

No biological method.

And just no.....

Put in a bit of hard graft every now and then or just spray with sbk, sbk is much more effective than roundup, roundup will only ill the leaves of bramble.

And I have just realised that you have been asking this question for a while and we keep advising you and you keep coming back with repeat threads just worded differently.

For the final time....and with an old saying "do it right, do it once"

Don't keep fannying around with half baked ideas and methods, use the right tool for the job.

I will not be saying anymore on this matter, getting boring now.

carlowplayer

sorry i was just wanting to check all possible means of clearing it avoiding any chemical method so i guess sbk should be the only option

magicbastarder

catastrophy wrote: »

To put it in context for you op, I believe that in the uk they have spent several years researching a natural pest for Japanese knotweed and are still a few years off releasing it. What you may deem as insignificant might have a far reaching effect.

this is not expected to eliminate JK. it's hoping to put a check on its march, and the reason its march has been so relentless is that it's an alien invader, which brambles are not.

no-one sane is going to try to introduce an alien invader which could threaten brambles.

catastrophy

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is not expected to eliminate JK. it's hoping to put a check on its march, and the reason its march has been so relentless is that it's an alien invader, which brambles are not.

no-one sane is going to try to introduce an alien invader which could threaten brambles.

No, but the op wasn't considering the further consequences of introducing a control which is not currently there.

You haven't really been clear with your last sentence... are you implying that the op is insane?

ODriscoll

If you can borrow or want to buy a donkey, they will strip bramble back and most else growing from a stone wall or hedge.
So you would need to buy or borrow mobile electric fencing.

They will have almost any hedge row back to the just the trees and clean walls in no time.