Tree-of-Heaven: Control Strategies

Learn control strategies for the invasive tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus).

[MudHancock]

Thank you for this video. It has helped me here at my property. No more 'Tree of Heaven' here!
🙂

[zilfondel]

Every house near me had at least 10 of these growing in their front yard. There are TOH growing every 50 ft down the freeways, on the highway bridges, on the cracks between the Jersey barriers. All the schools have them growing in huge clumps ... There must be 10 million of them just in our city! It's insane. Never saw one before this year.

[steph]

I had a small sapling growing in my flowers. It was about a foot high. I stripped all the leaves off and wrapped duct tape all around it and on top. Then slipped an aluminum pipe over it. It stayed like that all winter. Took it off in May and it was just a dried up twig that broke off. No light-no plant. So far it hasn’t come back.

[GO-xspj]

I've cleared Tree of Heaven in a couple of different groves and used glyphosate the first two years with little effectiveness. I talked to an arborist and he recommended using "Crossbow" brand herbicide that has Tryclopyr. I had much better results with tryclopyr. Hack and squirt as shown in this video was not very effective for the larger trees that I had. The larger trees had multiple trunks and I was girdling the trees but they were still getting enough nutrients so they came back the following year. I used a chain saw to cut down in between the trunks and sprayed tryclopyr there and also around each individual trunk and the main trunk. The small electric chain saw worked better for me in getting cuts around the tree rather than a hatchet.

It took four years to kill the small grove and six years to kill the larger grove. You have to plan to work on these trees and suckers for a couple of years.

[dddhhh]

Suggestion: If you are going to do the hack-and-squirt approach (at ~5:15), I recommend getting very good gloves or using two people. Rubber gloves used for pesticide application are often not tough enough to hold together when chopping with an axe. I did about 30 trees and went through a lot of gloves. Or try the electric chain saw suggested by another commenter.

[Grant-rrlh]

So glad I saw this at the beginning of August and didn't just cut it down.

[GutiarAce]

I cut one large tree of heaven down and stump sprayed it immediately. Another large tree of heaven next to it died from the herbicide a few days later. The stump spray went through the root system.

[blakespower]

I planted Paw paw tree where they used to grow that seemed to kill them but now I have a bunch of paw paws growing they are like weeds too but they produce fruit but had to chop a lot down because they started growing around a American chestnut I planted

[lindagarey]

I am working on getting rid of so many of these. I have had 8 huge ones cut down amp down now I am dealing with all the little roots. Let’s hope I get these under control

[josephcostanzo]

Used the hack and squirt method last July on ten 4 to 8 inch trees using 50% glyphosate. Tops were completely browned out in 7-10 days. Waited a month for the process to kill the roots and then cut them down. Seems to have been very successful with almost no new suckers. Be sure you are using the 50% Glyphosate. Roundup labeled as "concentrate" is only around 25%. Was able to find the 50% at either Lowe's or Home Depot although it is expensive and had to buy a gallon. This can be diluted for other uses.

[danielel]

I wish I knew this 30 years ago!
I absolutely HATE the smell of these and they're EVERYWHERE now!
And since I missed my window of opportunity this year, I'm going to have to wait another 9 months to do this now. 😖
I am not looking forward to that stench in late spring 🤢

[witchescrossing]

I have younger trees that I think are tree-of-heavens. The “trunk” is still green and not old enough to produce bark yet. How do I treat these young smaller saplings and trees if they don’t have bark yet? Where can I have someone look at a photo of my saplings and small trees to confirm they are even tree-of-heavens? Any suggestions? Thank you! 🌿

[sophiaandgeorgegeorganas]

There is a complicating factor involved in all ailanthus control strategies, seed. Should one proceed to anticipate the growing and maturing of seeds in trees mature enough to produce seed? Arguably the gain from preventing the seeds maturing is far greater than waiting for the sap to start flowing towards the roots, after the seeds start raining down. Perhaps a three-step strategy could be worth trying: Spraying, basal bark treatment or hack and squirting female trees only before their seeds mature, then cutting down to stump level after they wilt and, then, re-treating, preferably with foliar sprays when suckers and new low growth trees appear. The latter will take some time before they can grow seeds again.
Nothing scientific in the above, just speculation. Perhaps, though, the issue deserves some serious research.

[TheHolyMongolEmpire]

I chopped down about 12 tree of heaven in my backyard. That was a huge mistake ugh. Now they’re everywhere.

[courtneyschilperoort]

What if we have SEVERAL well established trees? I’m talking 80-90 feet tall. Will the same method work?

[Nain]

Could you drill downward holes and fill the holes with herbicide instead of hack & squirt? The herbicide would just spill out of the hacked spots but the herbicide would actually stay inside the drilled holes, allowing time for the herbicide to be absorbed into the tree.

Work smarter, not harder.

[zoyamargolis]

Hello, thank you for the video. They cut our tree to a stump a year ago. I wish I had seen your video before doing anything to the tree. Now we have a thousand shoots coming up from the ground. To make matters worse, my nice neighbor who made me cut it in the first place, refuses to treat the shoots coming up in her yard, claiming chemical danger.
Any advice? We live in an urban setting with very limited garden space. Thanks

[ron]

Hack/squirt seems to take 2 years to kill a tree from one treatment using retail products. I have done a few trees this spring since they are very hard to get to in summer. If the product stays in circulation it should gradually get into the roots. I did this with a few last year and never noticed any major foliage death. More like a slow poisoning.

[breannas]

I had one of these cut down, I wish my arborist would have told me it needed herbicide applied before chopping it down and grinding the stump. I am now battling so many starts all over my yard, any advice to help control it since it wasn’t poisoned prior?

[janetyoungwriter]

How often do 1:04 you need to follow up after initial treatment with the third method that involves making small cuts?