*ROFLMAO*.....

Looks like you got your own Yellow Brick Road...LOL
Tropicalfreak

Tony

You are very poetic in a curmudgenly Twainish way on this topic! You make me want to join you at the barricades in your revolution! :-)

Can you help me write something about lovebugs? I was having similar thoughts as I tried to eat lunch in the garden but love bugs keep dive bombing my plate and drowning in the fajita juice there. Then I noticed the rail on which the sliding glass doors move is full of dead little black bodies. Because it is windy today the dead bodies are being blown into a corner of my front stoop and have formed a pile alomst a foot high. Lovely first impression for visitors, no?

Anita

You have my sympathy!!!!! While, so far, I don't have any of these in my area there is a row of them planted in an empty lot behind my work place. My boss, who is a gardener too, gets in a bad mood every year about this time since the crap blows into her beds and she knows she will be pulling seedlings all year. And to think that if you join the Arbor Day Club they will send you some of these "wonderful" trees for FREE! YEE-HAW!!!!!!!!

nova

Nova,

Good thing you know what to look for!

You can suggest to your co-worker that they start sprinkling pre-emergant on a regular basis. This is the ONLY way I have been able to deal with all this.

I hate using the pre-emergant in a veggy garden because then I have to start the seeds in a container and transplant them to the garden. I usually just plant seeds, even mato seeds directly.

Maybe your hubby can come up with some contraption or idea to rid these invasive trees.

It looks like a plague of Biblical proportions.

Hey Tony, I think Tropicalfreak is laffing at you!!!

Arghhhh I am sorry your neighbor is an idiot. Perhaps next hurricane threat you just take the chainsaw to it and tell him "OH MY look what the storm did to your tree"!! Make sure you have the silencer on the chainsaw.

Hi Tony, Pre-emergant won't work for my boss since she grows alot of things from seeds that she direct sows. She also deadheads her annuals and tosses the seeds back into the beds. The results are an amazing butterfly garden constantly full of blooms!
I consulted with Dave and his suggestion was to treat the GRT like the Brazilian Pepper we had down south. Take a drill with a large bit and drill a hole in the tree at a downward angle. Fill the hole with undiluted Round-up. Refill the hole with the Round-up a couple of times till said tree starts to die. Funny how his garden suggestions always involve power tools! But honestly, I am tempted to do this on my neighbors Chinese Tallow Tree!

nova

Nova,

good idea on the tree solution. I have one too I have been meaning to try.

Find a main root and attach one leg of a 220v line and drive a ground rod in the earth for the other.

Along with the worms that come shooting out of the ground like an arrow, I would hope the soul of the tree does too.

Autopsy shouldnt show a thing.

Cindee, I will be bring that T-freak a GRT seedling next time I see him.

Poor Tony! It really IS a mess for you, and the resulting seedlings throughout the neighborhood are awful, too. Such a shame because I can't think of many things PRETTIER than a golden raintree in full bloom. They are breathtaking. It's sad that they are so invasive and so messy, especially for someone who didn't even PLANT one. That's adding insult to injury, for sure.

It'll aaalll be over soon, Tony. (Isn't that what that mother on the Titanic was telling her babies as they waited for the ship to go down???) eeeeeek.

Marcia

Dadgummit Tony!

Now I have to figure out another candidate for a shade tree. DH took one look at your pictures and said, "No Way".

(Have to say I agree with him and our neighbors, who leave a car their driveway, would thank you as well.)

Thanks for the heads up.

Terri

Tony click your ruby slippers,dahling.
More are coming up your road, I have planted THREE of those gawgeows Golden rain trees.
Now ,Nova, tells me that they're free.I would love to plant them along my very long driveway. I just can't wait.I will be contributing to the beauty of my neighborhood. Just imagine all golden yellow,awesome.I'm not telling them. I'll surprise them.
I want to join "Marion County Golden Rain tree Society"
4928 Silver Spring Blvd. Ocala,Florida. Their tel.# is listed.
Anyone wanting to contribute seedlings or financial contribution, please do so.
Anyone wanting a seedling ? We'll ship it free of charge.
Let's make it our state tree.
Felix

Tony, I feel your pain. My neighbor has a tree close to the property line that does the same thing. Only this one blooms in the spring, salmon clusters of flowers with black shiney seeds, millions, that go everywhere. I am still weeding out seedlings from the springs. I have offered to take it down and buy him a new tree, but no dice. I thought that was the raintree, so what is my neighbors tree?

DH bought a high powered leaf blower and plans on blowing it all over to his yard.

Katkin,

this one does the same thing. First these yellow bits of toilet paper come down, then the pinkish oriental like lanterns fall with the seeds in them. A bunch of sticks fall too probably after the lanterns. Then come the abundance of the bugs you will never get rid of.

Its an ongoing cycle.

There is a dead corner in the back of the yard where the fences join together and there is a pocket of GRT seedlings growing in there as well now.

The pool behind me hasnt had the pool pump on for about 10 yrs because of all the seeds that wrecked the pump and germinated in the plumbing.

on and on and on.......

Felix.........

I will send you seeds, seedlings and box elder insects, I will send you dropped yellow crap and then the delicate looking lantern which is the seed pod.

Just let me know where to send em.

Maybe you dont have neighbors that have flower beds or unenclosed swimming pools. In the 'right place' the rain tree is fine.

Friends dont let friends plant these PITA trees.

Tony,
I'm sorry for using you as my comic punch bag.
Shame on me for poking fun. I have been in tears
laughing about all this,I needed it.
I sometimes take myself too serious.
You sound so frustrated and I can understand.

I pray for a wind of Biblical proportion. Help me here Coffeemom.
Felix

Tony,
you made me laugh so much!!!
I feel really sorry for you, but you put it in such funny way.
Same like Felix, my tears kept running from all that laugh.
Veronika

Tny -
don't hold back - tell us how you REALLY feel !!
Just teasin'- I feel your pain. We had them in our old neighborhood.

There will be a more precise description coming in the next few days for all you 'funny guyz'. You know who you are, each and every one of ya's.

I need this crap to build up a little more before I can do so.

Oh, lordy! What a thread! You know, I planted one of these once, just because I thought it was so pretty. That was before I found out how they are taking over our woodlands and choking out other stuff. They are just too invasive, even if you don't mind the yellow "crap" as Tony so delicately puts it. (I didn't, actually. I have a thing for fallen blossoms on the ground.)

I still confess to admiring the bright golden color against a blue autumn sky, and then the lovely seedpods. BUT...I will never plant another one, and I pull all the seedlings I see, too.

Tony...can't wait for your next round!

Marcia

Tony,

So what's the right soap to water ratio for the box elder bug killer? My over-the-fence-in-the-backyard neighbor has one of these horrors and the bugs are all over my fence. I don't like them too much, and I'm not opposed to midnight drilling and roundup reconnaissance, if need be.

Melissa

Hi Melissa,

A small squirt of any dish soap (maybe 1-2 tablespoons) in a two gallon sprinkling can does the job. They die within a few steps of being hit.

It WORKS. WD-40 works too. It clogs their breathing parts and they suffocate.

Problem is, you have to hit them, you cant put it down and have it continue.

I will say I did have my lawn sprinkler setup to inject soap but if it worked, I could never tell. There will definitely be BODIES !

Let me know how it works!

tony

I think I'll stick with the soapy water. I imagine the spots of WD-40 scattered all over my unfinished fence will look unattractive. Thanks!

MsMarion posted a poem on "conversations" and since I am on business travel and am bored to death sitting in the hotel I wrote a new verse. When I saw what was going on here I decided I had to share. I only wrote one verse - the rest is what MsMarion posted....

"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
But what they never mention
Though gardeners know itÂs true,
Is when He made the goodies,
He made the baddies, too.
All things spray and swattable,
Disasters great and small,
All things paraquatable,
The Lord God made them all.
The greenfly on the roses,
The clubroot on the greens,
The slugs that eat your lettuce,
And chew the aubergine.

The drought that kills the fuchsias,
The frost that nips the buds,
The rain that drowns the seedlings,
The blight that hits the spuds,
The midges and mosquitoes,
The nettles and the weeds,
The pigeons in the green stuff,
The sparrows on the seeds.

The yellow crap that falls into
Tony's yard each year,
The pornographic love bugs
that drown in our open beer,
The lubbers that go "crunch"!
when we smack them with our shoe
The fire ants that build their hills
No matter what we do

The fly that gets the carrots,
The wasp that eats the plums,
How black the gardenerÂs outlook,
Though green may be the thumb.
But still we gardeners labour,
Midst vegetables and flowers,
And pray what hits our neighbours,
May somehow bypass ours.

Thanks for sharing that, Anita! And Marion, thanks for writing it. It's really a treat!! And so true. And very funny, as well!

Marcia

Oh, do I feel your pain. I give you sooo much credit for venting your anger through this forum. And you vented it very well, I may add. When we moved to this house 15 years ago we were welcomed with 2 mature rain trees. I thought they were gorgeous right around til this time of the year. We must have filled the dumpster daily with all that yellow crap. It's too bad such a pretty tree can drop so much trash. We weren't dabbing tears when we fired up the chainsaw to say the least.
If you've been there for 20+ years, your neighbors are well aware of the problem. I have to agree with many of the comments posted prior to mine that it's time to take action. And time to play with a toxic cocktail that will put an end to the misery you've been having to deal with. Doesn't look like we're in for any hurricanes otherwise you could have blamed it on the winds.
Good luck. I certainly feel for you and hope this selfish neighbor of yours has a change of heart otherwise karma will eventually find him.

SueGrew's Husband,
It wasn't a chainsaw, it was personal- a mean snaggle-tooth handsaw. And I took a great deal of pleasure with every push and pull as the sharp nasty shark teeth chewed into the yellow monster. "Bite me, bark boy!"
Oh, and don't let us forget the taps with my axe just to make the dirty yellow blossoms and ants drop onto my Panama Hat as I destroyed this unwanted and undesirable pest.
Someone in the 1950's decided to play a joke on their children and now we are dealing with this blight. I think this is another good reason for flame throwers or Agent Orange, but my wife insists that my sabertooth handsaws have done their work and we are free of this plague... But I'm watching that damn stump! I've a gallon of gas by the lawnmower, and...

I am so glad I check out this forum. I was looking for a not-too-tall shade tree and I thought golden raintree would fit the bill. The tree is in the mail from the online shop, but it's going straight to trash once it arrives. I did not even realize that it was an import.

The previous owner installed some zoysia grass in my front yard that I now have to round-up this summer. I live in soutwestern CT. IN the back side of the property, Oriental Bittersweet and "tree of heaven" have taken root. Asian plants just don't fit in well, and I am not about to test whether Golden Raintree is an exception.

You'll be sooooooo glad you didn't plant this tree.

It sucks. If it were sterile it wouldn't be so bad. But it's not. So it is.

I keep pulling up the starts from that *^%*@+#&!@% tree all over my yard...front yard, side yard and back yard, and the tree isn't even in my yard!

I got so sick of it's crap coming over my side of the fence that I cut a monster sized limb out of the tree this past Fall. Didn't want to risk a run-in with the #)%*()#^@! neighbor by using my gasoline powered pruning attachment, so I attacked it with my saw blade attachment on my 16 ft long pruning pole. Never have I had so much satisfaction with a saw before. Really worked out my frustration on that tree. Cut it in the most un-arborly fashion in hopes of killing the entire tree, but I doubt it will suffer that badly. Next I'm considering drilling a hole through the fence and into the tree and attaching a direct feed from a bottle of Round-Up, the really concentrated woody vine and brush killer kind. Yes, I'm that insane.

Oh, and about the red bloated tick looking bugs that come with this tree...TonyK was right, you can't kill them with anything but soapy water and it has to be almost waterless soapy water or else they just keep on going. UGH!!!!!!!

Nativemel-just so you'll know...It is hard to kill a tree with round up. Here is what I did to an oak tree that came up in my orange grove and I let get too big-maybe 4" in diameter: first I girdled it-no good. I girdled it wider, didn't work. I girdled again (with a hatchet) and painted on 41% round up and got some funny growth but it wasn't about to die. I finally chopped it down. Your neighbor MIGHT notice if you chopped the GRT down...ya think?

I sense such hostility toward nature. All living things have a right to grow and thrive in this planet.
Everyone that got plants from me at the swap will have a g.r tree. I put seeds in each pot as a surprise gift.
he he he!
Felix

Felix, I'm ignoring you and I'm DEFINITELY not taking any of your plants from any swap.

Yes, Laura1, I think the neighbor would notice me in his backyard with an axe. Hmm, I wonder if he'll think I'm coming after him or the tree...

Maybe I'll make a big batch of rock salt brine and start feeding that to the tree. Cheaper than Round-Up, works on camphor trees...

Wow, this was so long ago and here I am, feeling your pain and looking for ways to get rid of that neighbor tree. Plus they have 50 feet of horror thorny Bougainvillea bushes aling the fence line. Luckily, one of their Rain trees fell down during a hurricane, breaking my fence. The happiness of that tree down went above and beyond any money and work spent fixing my fence.

Thanks for the laugh! That's all I can do for now, until a next hurricane.😂