We often get asked about Japanese Knotweed. It is being promoted in various circles as being highly destructive and impossible to get rid of.
Our experience of the stuff is a little more encouraging - cut back to new growth, and sprayed with Roundup or Glyphosate, it dies back. You won't get it first time, but continued application to new shoots as they emerge will kill the stuff. It certainly doesn't need highly 'qualified' people costing an arm and a leg, to spray a bit of glyphosate weedkiller. We've recently seen a rather amusing promotion by the Property Care Association that they are 'training and qualifying' their damp members to eradicate Japanese Knotweed, in just the same way they promise to 'eradicate' woodworm or 'rising damp'.
I've put a couple of good independent links on the site for you to have a look through - one is the RICS guidance notes on the subject, which is quite good:
Japanese Knotweed - RICS notes
The other is from the Non-Native Species group:
Japanese Knotweed Identification
The photos below are taken in France, where Pete stays in the Alsace. The river running through the village of Ste Marie Aux Mines is choked with Japanese Knotweed - these photos show just how strongly it grows.
