Killing Albezias; How-to

[Guest]

Albezias are an invasive pest tree introduced by the state into Puna many decades ago for 'reforestation'. As usual when introducing new species into Hawaii, things blew up in their face. Albezias grow very rapidly, become huge, form dense thickets, shade out native vegetation and become a serious hazard to everything under them due to falling limbs. They have no economic value or use, and removal of large ones is very expensive and dangerous work. Albezias are now a serious threat to the low elevation natural forest ecosystem of E. Hawaii and the state has officially designated them a pest species.

Fortunately, if you want to kill Albezias and just let them rot in-place, that is cheap and easy.

First, do NOT waste your time/money chainsawing albezias unless they are threatening a nearby structure. They will just grow back aggressively from the stump again and again. You must poison them.

The Univ of Hawaii Ag extension did a scientific study on the most effective herbicide to kill these things. It is called Milestone ™. Search 'albezia' on youtube.com for the presentation.

To buy the herbicide, go on the internet and google 'milestone herbicide'. You can find the stuff for about $110/quart. Sounds expensive, and is, but it works and a little goes a long way.

I ordered mine from KeystonePestSolutions.com. They air ship to Hawaii via US Postal. I think Amazon may also carry it. Buy the CONCENTRATE.

Buy a good quality squirt/spray bottle at home depot. Not a cheap one, but one that will not leak. Pour the undiluted Milestone into it.

Wear gloves, eye protection and a long sleeve shirt. You do not want to get this stuff on you. A hat is also a good idea.

To kill an albezia, whack the side of the tree with a machete. Make a good deep cut, twist (but do not remove) the blade to open the cut, then squirt the UNDILUTED Milestone herbicide into the cut. Enough to fill the cut, but not drip out of it. Use the blade to funnel it into the cut and keep it from splattering. It doesn't take much. Four to five such cuts will kill the largest tree. Smaller trees can be killed with 3. If lopping saplings, squirt a few drops on the exposed stump to prevent regrowth. For trees with multiple trunks (common) be sure to whack each trunk, not just one.

The albezia will drop its leaves within two weeks and show no signs of life after a month. My jungle property was infested with dozens of these things, some of them over 100' tall. Now they are just dead snags that will disintegrate in a few years. Since the herbicide is not sprayed over a large area and only a tiny amount is used, it does not contaminate the earth and will eventually biodegrade.

Keep in mind that eventually what is left of the dead snags will topple over, and they will drop their limbs over time. Also when working around big ones, beware of falling limbs. Killing these things is not without hazard.

Total cost to clear 3 acres of monster trees: about $125, plus hours of sweaty bushwacking, fire ant stings, etc. but worth the effort.

So that is what worked for me.

[kalakoa]

Milestone is available at Farm Coop -- call ahead, it sells out pretty quick.

[Royall]

Thanks for the tutorial. I checked the cost of shipping from Keystone. It is 18 bucks to ship so you'll be spending about 128 bucks to get it here. I just called Garden Exchange, and they have it in stock for 125 bucks plus tax... works out to about the same price. I called Farm Co-op, and they have it "on sale" for 130 bucks. Looks like it is time for a trip to Garden Exchange today. Flat tired of fighting the junk trees on my acre of paradise!

On a side note. My friend says he wears a long sleeve polyester shirt when working around LFA's. He wears a big hat and buttons the top button up too. Seems the LFA's can't hold onto the polyester fabric and he seldom get stung when working around them.

[csgray]

Do not use Milestone when the albizia are blooming, unless you want to kill our endangered pollinators too.

Carol

[bananahead]

FWIW FYI
Milestone, RoundUp, Honcho, etc. are 100% plant specific! they Will NOT kill Bees, Birds, Moths, Butterflies, Earthworms, WWOOFers, or even LFAs in or around your Albizia (or anywhere).... especially if you squirt it into a wound on the trunk of a huge albizia via machete or drill like OP described in detail... its apparently also not fatal even if you spray it directly on the bees too.



Aminopyralid TIPA salt is the active ingredient in Milestone and Capstone herbicides. Aminopyralid has also been show to be practically non-toxic to honeybees as well as birds, fish, earthworms, and aquatic invertebrates[4].

One Aminopyralid formulation, Opensight, also contains 9.45% of metsulfuron-methyl. While Metsulfuron-methyl is in a different family of chemistry, it also has a mode-of-action that is plant specific and has no insect or animal equivalent. Because of this, bee LD50 values greater than 25 µg per bee were recorded in EPA required studies, it too is characterized as “practically non-toxic” to bees[5].

same thing with Glyphosate (RoundUp/Honcho etc.)

they only kill plants they touch! dont believe all that anti-Monsanto fear mongering BS!

http://techlinenews.com/articles/2013/in...-honeybees

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[csgray]

Actually Aminopyralid is a product of Dow chemical, not Monsanto. There have been many cases in Europe and the United states where use of Milestone has contaminated gardens and even mulch to the point where the land had to be left fallow for up to 2 years. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/program...ryover.pdf

I did err by transposing aminopyralid with imidacloprid in my memory. I still would not use it on land I planned to grow anything else on due to the persistence in organic material. Other products will work the same way, just slower, without the long persistence.


Carol

[Justin]

FWIW, I've had better success applying this sort of thing by drilling in at a 45 degree angle (going down and in), and then using a funnel to apply poison. A good cordless drill should do the trick, as Albizia wood is not particularly hard (which is why it snaps off all the time in the wind).

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by Justin

FWIW, I've had better success applying this sort of thing by drilling in at a 45 degree angle (going down and in), and then using a funnel to apply poison. A good cordless drill should do the trick, as Albizia wood is not particularly hard (which is why it snaps off all the time in the wind).

---

That is the same technique I use. I squirt the Milestone in with a 3ml syringe (no needle) leftover from a livestock injection. I've never needed any more poison than that for albizias.

[Ronni]

Did the storm help with the leveling of the trees? I paid to have my trees cut down 3 wks ago, I should have waited LOL, NOT. I hope your place is not damaged in the storm but trees are down.

veronica moore

[Carey]

Actually there a many areas with just the tops off, and areas where a few trees are still standing in the middle of a tree war zone & some are more overhanging with no easy access, having to climb around huge limb tangles & trunks...so it is not all that the trees are now down for most & the work will be soo much more involved...

you were very lucky to have gotten yours down before this devastation