When You Have an Outbreak

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Taking out Honeysuckle before its berries grow will keep it from springing up elsewhere.

Credit: Flickr photo by Rjones0856

Bush honeysuckles can be controlled with a good quantity of elbow grease, and maybe some chemical assistance.

Attack the bush honeysuckle in spring or early summer before the berries appear, to make sure they don't just reseed themselves. Here are options for getting rid of bush honeysuckle in your woods.

• Pull out. If you don't have a lot of bush honeysuckle, it may be possible to just pull the plants out. Be sure to get the whole root. Tamp down the disturbed soil and replace the leaf cover so you don't create a foothold for new exotics.
• Cut down. In shady places, bush honeysuckle doesn't tend to do that well, so just clipping it to the ground may be enough to control it. This will need to be repeated every year, since the plant will grow back denser.
• Herbicides. For seedlings, just spraying them with a systemic herbicide like glyphosate may be enough. Be careful not to spray it on plants that you want to keep.
• Cut and herbicides. For well-established stands of bush honeysuckle, you can cut them to the ground first, then apply herbicide to the stumps.
• Replant. When the bush honeysuckle is gone, consider replanting with native groundcovers and shrubs.

A local extension agent or forester can help you work out how to control bush honeysuckle on your land--and what native plants you might want to plant instead.

The best way to deal with bush honeysuckle may be to keep it from getting established in the first place.