This document discusses the invasive privet plant and methods for controlling its spread. It describes the life cycle and growth habits of privet. Various control methods are presented, including prescribed burning, cutting, and herbicides applied by different means. Prescribed burning and cutting can weaken privet but not kill it. Individual foliar herbicide treatment applied carefully is the most effective at killing privet plants. Goats may also help control privet growth.

1. Border Privet- Ligustrum obtusifolium
Forest invader!

2. Privet may persist, long-term, in fields where
it grew under trees that have been removed.

4. Privet: How it starts.
Above: First year
Right: Second year
(Flowering occurs third year or later.)

5. Adolescent privet, eager to flower!

6. Privet in flower – The fragrance
delights some, distresses others.
Thanks, Google images!

7. Privet has opposite leaves and opposite
branching (and may be evolving thorns).
Herbicided young privet Dormant mature privet

8. A variety of pollinators love privet!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bienenwabe/4352223984/
http://asuburbanwilderness.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

9. Birds very effectively disperse privet seeds.
An American robin repeatedly flies up to
Border privet berries in early December, grab mouthfuls of Japanese privet berries,
Shaw Nature Reserve. Fruiting twiglets as in this picture from North Carolina
later fall to leave thorn-like growths.
http://charlestonscphotoblog.com/

10. So, how do we kill privet?
• Prescribed burning (+ or -)
• Cut stump and basal
treatments (mostly -)
• Aerial spraying (+ or -)
• Individual foliar treatment
(mostly +)

11. Prescribed burning
Pro:
-- Fire top-kills privet,
weakening it, and preventing
flowering/fruiting for 2-4 years.
-- Fire may stimulate next
season’s growth and
reproduction of natives.
Con:
-- Fire does not kill privet.
-- Fire creates bare ground on
which newly dispersed privet
seeds may germinate.
Note: Mowing/brush-hogging
effects roughly comparable in
efficacy.

12. Cut stump and basal treatments
Pro:
-- Cutting mature plants near
the base top-kills privet,
weakening it, and preventing
flowering/fruiting for 2-4 years.
-- This can favor next season’s
growth and reproduction of
natives.
Con:
-- Dormant season cut-stump
herbiciding does not kill privet,
even with picloram-2,4,D!!!
-- It may work during growing
season (not tried), but this can
harm other growing plants.

13. Aerial spraying
Pro:
-- Can treat a large, heavily-
infested area efficiently.
-- Depending on timing, possibly
selective for killing younger plants,
which retain foliage longer.
Con:
-- Weather, season restrictions.
-- Depending on timing, possibly
selective for killing younger plants,
which retain foliage longer.
-- If co-ocurring with Amur
honeysuckle, timing is tricky,
because they retain foliage longer.
-- Kills other plants green at the Sprayed 15 Nov. 2011
same time, e.g. sedges, phlox.
Photo: 18 Apr. 2012
(Died soon after.)

14. Individual foliar treatment
Pro:
-- With care, can be targeted specifically,
good for spotty or sparse infestations.
-- Kills any-age privet plant that is
properly treated.
-- Can be opportunistically directed at
other invasive plants that co-occur.
-- Good job for dependable,
knowledgeable volunteers.
-- Results visible in a few days.
-- Some formulations highly effective!
Con:
-- Weather restrictions (rain, too cold, too
hot).
-- Labor-intensive and uncomfortable.
-- Kills other green plants that receive
spray drift.
Google images “backpack sprayer”

15. Save the world: Trim your hedges
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2011/1
2/save-world-trim-your-hedges.html
But the privet can get the better of you,
so maybe better simply not to plant it.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7726376_privet-hedge-
reproduce.html

16. Seriously, though . . .
• Hand pulling or using a brush-wrench are effective
but labor-intensive, and hard on the back.
• Prescribed fire or brush-hogging on a 2-3 year
interval will control flowering/fruiting. Hot fire may
kill seedlings and very small saplings outright.
• The only thing that seems effectively to kill privet is
growing-season foliar herbicide treatments.
– Backpack spraying, 4-5% glyphosate
– Backpack spraying, 2% glyphosate + 0.5% triclopyr
– Aerial spraying, large droplets, 12% glyphosate +
appropriate surfactant (about 0.75 gallons of
concentrate/acre)

17. Goats, anyone?
http://www.cmkikogoats.com/Brush_Busters.html