Can you knock it down and keep mowing? Ive won against some pesky stuff by just keeping it mowed so it cant recover.
if you can keep disturbing the soil with a grader or tiller, it should keep things from growing
also ive heard of putting concentrated glyphosate on a fresh cut vine or stump to kill it where just foliar spraying didnt work.
TIfinallyL that the invasive crap from our neighbor is stiltweed. Eff that stuff. I mow down a burn line along the property line, and that has helped. Roots are still spreading 
In reply to ralleah :
It has a five year seed bank, loves disturbed soil, and will choke out other ground covers. Nothing eats it and it is incredibly prone to wildfires. The Forest Service told me burning is the best control, but you need at least a 10ft firebreak. I didn't have that. Don't try to dig it up, because it is like Hydra.
Lots to think about here.
Fire is NOT an option here in the city limits.
I dont mind monthly reapplication if needed. My idea for a year was to make sure all this E36 M3 is actually dead before i plant a lot of pine or other full foliage evergreen trees. I want the barrier to my neighbors without the invasiveness. Of bamboo and other crap. I had to cutthe miata out one day last year from bamboo growing through the suspension.
Roundup (glyphosate) will get most everything. I mix roundup and 2,4-D and go to town on anything I want really really dead.
For any saplings, cut them and then paint the stumps with Tordon when they are fresh cut. That will take care of any woody vegitation. Otherwise you just knock the leaves off and they come back.
Thermite......thermite solves this issue
In reply to Apis Mellifera :
Thanks for the info. We're in a city neighborhood , so fire is definitely a no-go. It's pretty much the only ground cover now on their property. Sounds like we're screwed
I dont like strong, toxic chemicals unless there are no other options. Its too easy for the dog or kids to track something back in the house. I've had good success over the years w/ the "gardeners viniger"/dawn/ table salt mixture. Or even using large amounts of water softener salt, if you dont plan on anything growing in that area for awhile. I had a wooded area at my last house that I cleared by buying a cheap mower and going ham on the weeds once or twice a month for year or so. That plus the vinegar mixture will kill alot of those weeds. Maybe rent some goats for the rest? And harvest the bamboo for side money? Do you have any garden areas that you can bury the logs and thicker woody stuff in? Google Hugelkulture to get an idea of what I mean. Or rent a chipper for the bigger stuff and use it as mulch in the same area. A thick enough layer of mulch will kill almost anything and you wont have to worry about bringing up any more weed seeds.
+1 on the Amazon 45% "industrial vinegar". I lost the recipe so googled it.
I mixed 3/1 vinegar/water in a gallon jug and then added a half cup of Dawn dish soap. No salt but now I'm curious if that's help.
Mixed and sprayed with a yard sprayer, just soaking the leaves. It dried and then it rained that night.. and most of that E36 M3 was Dead the next day. Super impressed.
Salt?
Antihero said:Salt?
Been mentioned by some others above my post.
i halfway remember from some world history class that salt was used to berkeley up farmland when one empire was taking over another. so i never understood how calling someone the salt of the earth was a compliment.
In my experience the only way to get rid of bamboo is to dig it up.
Enough salt will definitely kill the plants but it may also make it difficult to grow anything after. Sort of like what Angry said above.
So I learned a valuable life lesson on Saturday that I will share....
Mixed up a gallon batch of
3 parts 45% industrial vinegar
1 part tap water
Half cup of dawn dish soap
..in the same 15 year old plastic yard sprayer that I used two weeks ago.
I took the wand apart and ran water through it in the kitchen sink like I always do. Then reassembled and closed it up and shook it to mix and then pumped it about 25 times.
The berkeleyer wouldn't spray. I slapped the wand on the driveway and it still wouldn't spray. Nothing. The pump doesn't have a pressure relief valve so next, my dumb ass unscrewe the wand and got my jeans and boots and bare arms and face soaked with the solution. Had glasses on but still got it on my right eyelid.
Immediately threw the sprayer down and ran inside and jumped into the shower. 45 minutes of rinsing with water and soap (like the bottles SDS said) were next. The fact that I had lubed up with sunscreen minutes before going outside (I am guessing) on all my bare skin + the immediate shower greatly reduced the chemical burns. I also suspect diluting the mix with water helped too... but I was still red and brown so I went to urgent care and was prescribed some steroid cream.
Other than the index finger that was right in the stream, I mostly got very lucky. That finger presently has skin that is drying up and looking like an alligator.
As I stood in the shower contemplating the possibility of very bad burns and thinking about how stupid I was.. I figured I should remind you guys to be careful.
Then I ordered a sprayer with a pressure relief valve - no idea how that hasn't been required forever.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
Wow, that sucks. I'm glad you didn't get it in your eyes.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to OHSCrifle :
Wow, that sucks. I'm glad you didn't get it in your eyes.
I was very lucky.
sounds like another one for the "don't get it on your hootus" list
Yeah that's beyond "vinegar", you got Acetic acid all over yourself. Glad your mostly ok!
Yeah, as a chemist by Degree, "45% vinegar" is insanely misleading, and I'm quite surprised it's sold to the public as such. 45% v/v Acetic acid is VERY STRONG and WILL BURN, as OHSC found out the hard way.
Also remember- AAA- Always Add Acid. When diluting/mixing/blending, always always always slowly add acid to your dilutions, not the other way around. I've seen many a coworker forget this, almost always with health impacts ensuing.
Is that vinegar/salt/soap mix effective on Himalayan blackberries? The ally behind our house is absolutely choked with them and it would be nice to not have to trim them back a few times a year.
A machete will work faster than most other ways but it's hard work swinging it back and forth!
In reply to golfduke :
Hey man.. I should have paid better attention in chemistry. I'm going to make another batch of this when I get my new sprayer.
Does this simply mean I should mix the water and soap then add the "vinegar"?
Heres the label. 
looks like my mix was a LOT strong also...
thatsnowinnebago said:Is that vinegar/salt/soap mix effective on Himalayan blackberries? The ally behind our house is absolutely choked with them and it would be nice to not have to trim them back a few times a year.
Same question here. Those things are the devil. We're going to cut out everything we can with a hedge trimmer and then spray this stuff as new growth pops up throughout the summer. It's worth a try.
OHSCrifle said:In reply to golfduke :
Hey man.. I should have paid better attention in chemistry. I'm going to make another batch of this when I get my new sprayer.
looks like my mix was a LOT strong also...
Yes, If you're using a garden sprayer, add your water and soap, and slowly decant (no glug-glug) the acid into the water solution until you reach desired concentration.
The science broken down- Acid + water is an exothermic reaction, due to anion (negative) exchange.
Using lots of water and adding small volumes of acid (slow pouring) allows the water to regulate temperatures of the reaction by means of dilution.
Adding water to acid creates the same reaction sequence, but there is no buffer to absord the (large) amount of heat generated by it, which can cause pretty violent vaporization/pressurization depending on the vessel, volume, and concentration of acid.
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