Giant hogweed

[face cord]

Thought I had come across a massive one recently about 10ft tall in someones garden but according to wiki it can reach:

 

It typically grows to heights of 2–5 metres (6 ft 7 in–16 ft 5 in), sometimes reaching 7 metres (23 ft).

 

Heracleum mantegazzianum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

23ft!

 

Anyone seen one that huge?

 

Hate the stuff now after being got by its sap a few times while strimming

 

See it all over the place round here seems to be spreading fast? Had to tell some kids not to wack each other across the head with its stems

[HCR]

I've never measured one (I blister up nicely from native hogweed, so I have no desire to be zapped by its big ugly cousin) but I reckon about 12-15' is the biggest I've seen.

[tree monkey]

can you kill it?

[s.varty]

can you kill it?

 

Ive weed wiped it with neat roundup seemed to kill it but it may be like japanese knotweed and return the following year

[RobRainford]

It can be killed, but needs to bit hit very hard with a strong chemical. It's tough stuff and does come back quite readily. But don't touch it!

[sasha.p]

Is the hogweed the stuff if you touch it and go into the sunlight end up with severe burns?There is loads of it further up the river Usk from where I am all along the banks I went up on our boat a few years back whilst it was all up and in full bloom I was shocked by the sheer size of it sounds like nasty stuff

[penfold]

theres a chemical called broadshot (broadsword for the older members ) which is apparently good for killing off hogweed and knotweed.

[RobRainford]

It's giant alright. Where this patch is there is 3ha of the stuff all this tall. No way of dealing with it. Can't send a guy in. Can't flail it. Just have to spray what we can and control where possible. We are dealing with lots of this currently.

 

I got hit with standard hogweed back in may. I'm still scarred.

 

 

 

 

[arniecardigan]

Treated loads of it when I worked for the highways agency, had to get double suited and masked then cut and lead down by hand and stem injected with broadsword/broadshot, seemed to work well but was a bit of a ball ache!!

Saw some big patches of it by the canal in Stroud just prior to the works starting to reopen the canal from the severn to the thames, it appears that they didnt know what it was and just sent a bloke in with a brushcutter!!

[RobRainford]

Treated loads of it when I worked for the highways agency, had to get double suited and masked then cut and lead down by hand and stem injected with broadsword/broadshot, seemed to work well but was a bit of a ball ache!!

Saw some big patches of it by the canal in Stroud just prior to the works starting to reopen the canal from the severn to the thames, it appears that they didnt know what it was and just sent a bloke in with a brushcutter!!

 

There's a nice claim for him. Although I bet he's still there!