Honeysuckle Removal

Honeysuckle is an invasive species in the state of Iowa. Removing all honeysuckles in a forest is simply not feasible. Instead, my goal has always been to remove them far enough from the trail that they will not become a problem soon. Honeysuckle has proven to be very difficult to remove, as simply cutting it down results in more sprouts coming back. Instead, it must be removed from the roots or have herbicide applied to kill the plant.

One of the major considerations that I had not thought of going into this is that the tools must be portable enough to go deep into the forest. For example, a forestry mower would take out honeysuckle very quickly, but it would not be feasible to get into the woods with a mountain bike.

My first attempt at removing honeysuckle en masse required a group of four people and a wheeled wagon to pull all of the things that we were testing. This has evolved to be only a backpack’s worth of items that can easily be carried into the trail on a bike.

Method 1: Chainsaw

The chainsaw method works pretty well; however, it is not quite portable enough to be done frequently. On smaller bushes, it is far too large, and on the large ones where it excels, you must apply herbicide to ensure that the brush does not come back. I have an electric chainsaw, so that makes this much easier as I can put the chainsaw with a guard in my backpack. However, it is still quite heavy.

Method 2: Honeysuckle Popper

The honeysuckle popper is an interesting tool. It is essentially a 6 ft tall pry bar that you put under the root ball to pull the entire bush out of the ground. As you can imagine, a 6 ft tall pry bar is not the easiest thing to bring into the woods. It works well for medium-sized bushes but is too much for very small plants and not enough for very large ones. The small ones can usually be pulled out by hand, and the very large ones can be managed by popping the individual roots instead of removing the root ball in one piece.

Method 3: Pickaxe

The pickaxe is essentially a very small honeysuckle popper tool. It is good for small to medium-small bushes and can be used for larger ones, but like the honeysuckle popper, it has to take out the individual roots instead of pulling the root ball up in one piece. Another downside of this tool is that the handle is made of wood and has started to crack a little bit from the extensive prying of roots.

Method 4: Sawzall and Grub Tool

The sawzall and grub tool combination is easily the best method I have found for removing many honeysuckles in a very portable way. The grub tool is basically a gardening tiny pickaxe, about a foot and a half long, which makes it very easy to pack into a bag. The sawzall I have is a rigid subcompact brushless tool with a pruning blade with carbide teeth.

Steps

1. Find a honeysuckle bush and chop out the top parts, leaving about a 2 to 3 ft trunk sticking up.
2. Dig around the root ball to expose the roots a little better and clear out any rocks with the grub tool.
3. Use the sawzall to cut the roots out of the ground by doing a circular cut around the root ball.
4. Use the trunk sticking up as a pry bar to pull the entire bush out of the ground.

This method works phenomenally well. The only major downside is that it is not suitable for very large honeysuckle bushes. However, it is portable enough that adding an herbicide bottle to take care of the large stumps, instead of pulling them out, is completely feasible. Another minor downside is that digging into dirt with a sawzall blade is not the best for the blade. However, with a carbide blade, it can take out a few dozen bushes before needing to change the blade. At $3 per blade, this seems reasonable enough.