Bamboo removal

[Speccy1]

We live in S London and have quite a bamboo infestation at the back of our (small) garden. It has spread to neighbouring gardens as well. Any recommendations for treatments or specialist companies?

It will cost a fortune to get someone to remove it. If you do it yourself you need to dig - not by hand, using a hired digger to get most of it out and then spend the next few years monitoring and removing the new growth. Round up might work but not sure your neighbours would be ok with that, it'll kill everything around it and. And shouldn't be used around pets. (if at all)

Cutting it will make it panic and spread even more. It's near on impossible to eradicate, particularly as it's now spread to neighbours. Have they complained yet?

Thanks for this. Yes, one neighbour has started to complain, but we’re equally worried about what might happen to our own house if the roots start spreading. All the consensus seems to be that you have to dig the whole thing out, probably with a hired excavator (if I can get it into our garden!) plus a ‘root slayer’ type of spade. Specialist gardening / tree surgeons are prohibitively expensive. Sigh…

Is it the running bamboo or clump forming. I removed bamboo from my garden in March - it was clumping and I had no issues at all - very easy and there is no sign of it - same cannot be said for Clerodendrum bungei - I'm still pulling up its offspring.

Roundup or other product containing glyphosate kills what it touches, you don't pour it on the soil. So treating the bamboo leaves with it will cause the plant to take up the poison and circulate it round the roots, which is what you want to kill. You would seriously want to avoid breathing in any spray though, and keep pets away from the area until it has completely dried.

I also did it myself. You have to soak the ground for a few hours so it's really easy to dig and then you just dig down and take it out. I then lined the "hole" with plastic to stop any errant pieces that can start re growth. Now have a flower bed on top and it's fine.