9/3/2014 Kudzu Friend or Foe?

(Damascus, VA)

When we first arrived here, back in April, before we even got to the mountain, we couldn’t help but notice this particular kind of vegetation that seemed to, well, take over.

It covered everything!  Trees, hillsides, telephone poles, street signs, guard rails, simply everything.  It was thick and the vines grew long.



This seriously invasive plant has been spreading in the southern U.S. at the rate of 150,000 acres  annually, easily outpacing the use of herbicide spraying and mowing, as well increasing the costs by $6 million annually for the states that must try to control it.  To me it looks like a losing battle.
 

I asked around and found that it was called Kudzu and it was brought here to help with erosion on the hillsides.   It did its job, too well.  This vine is known as the vine that ate the south.

I can only imagine all the spiders crawling through that.