:-( Too bad, I LOVE Black Caps with their unique flavor.

Other than a good dose of a poison specifically for raspberries, it's constantly cutting them back to the ground the minute they show themselves.

thank you, Jean, that was helpful!

Thanks, I have the same problem. I moved a few to a controlled area, but the rest need to go! My husband just pulled one out that was 12 ft long! That's all from the past 2 or 3 months!!! They are horrible!

Everybody around here says that the only way to get rid of them is RoundUp. I hate the thought of having to use it, but I may have no choice. If it were a smaller area, it could be covered in black plastic, without air, and it would die after a couple months. But this area would be impossible, it covers about half of an acre, going over a fence.

We got rid of ours with roundup. Our neighbor was not happy. He loved sneaking over and getting our berries, but they were a pain, especially with a chain link fence! We have so many other quality fruits that we actually planted that we don't miss those berries at all.

Thanks, that's good to hear, that it actually works on blackberries. Did you have any dogs or cats come into contact with the RoundUp? That's my main concern- cause I've read that it can be deadly to pets.

I don't use chemicals. We used a mattock. It helps make sure you get the roots. Goes much faster with longer lasting results.

Agree with Kaillean, use a mattock and a digging fork to remove all the root crowns.. The next year a few will re-sprout and need to be dug, but that is usually the end of it.

Plus you can give up your gym membership too! ;)

I use Roundup in my anti-Bermuda grass quest. It's pretty benign stuff. My dogs are just fine.

That's good to hear.

jxbrown, you don't like bermuda grass? I have bermuda grass and i love it. LOL my husband tried to roundup the crab grass and it just left yellow rings around the crab grass.

And everyone should look this up.. Glyphosphate the active ingredient in Roundup is in many foods we eat.

I'd like to know if anyone has used RoundUp around cats- and were there any noticable effects from them walking through an area that had been recently treated with it? Our cat is #1 boss here, so we don't want to risk harming him.

One word--goats.

Re cats...I had cats for years. Use Roundup extensively. Never a problem.

I wish I could have a few dairy goats, but my city does not allow it. :(

Goats are a good idea, but here they would also eat our fruit trees, shrubs, etc.

Chickens do a great job of weed control! I've even got my two girls eating the buttercup.

With all we know now about what we are doing to the earth I cannot in good conscience use chemicals where a good garden tool and some work can have the same result. I'd use Roundup in an extreme situation I suppose but so far I have not come across any like that in my city garden lot with adjacent wild ravine.

I battle creeping buttercup, blackberries, salmonberry, bindweed, Oregon grape, etc. So far our community ravine cleanup team has had to resort to glycoposhate only once to control Japanese knotweed on the creek banks.

I hate to use chemicals too, but chickens cannot eat up these blackberries. These are bushes about 12 feet tall, about 150 feet long and 60 feet wide, and continuing to spread by inderground runners. It's down to Us vs. Them.

cake z9 CA, Thanks, that's good to hear, and gives me the confidence I need to go ahead. Right now the blackberries are winning the takeover, and I need to fight back with strong weapons.

Look into the goats first - I have nothing against Round-up, but your real problem is dealing with the mass of thorny vines which won't go away when they are dead - in fact they will be harder when dry. There are companies which will bring a portable electric fence + goats to do the job on large areas like yours. After they are gone you can kill the sprouts with Roundup.

I followed your suggestion and called the closest goat-rental place, and was told that 'starting cost' would be $2600, and that we'd still need to use Round-up afterwards. So, sorry, but that's not a practical solution.

OK maybe you can cut them down, and then cover them with some cheap plastic tablecloths? Hold the tablecloths down with rocks or staples, and let the summer heat kill everything underneath. Next spring reseed with grass seed.

I would do that but mine are not as big and intertwined with my roses :(

Also, you might be able to make some money selling them on ebay if you want to sell them for like 2$ a cane +shipping, just leavelike 8 inches and some rootball attached! That would be a lot of work though.

Thanks, Lauren, we tried that the first year that we were here, and it just made them spread further, out from under places where the black plastic couldn't be secured. The vines are growing up and over a chain-link fence, and also up through some old-growth redwood stumps, so unfortunately, covering them with plastic cloth is not an option.

Much as I hate-hate-hate to use it, it looks like Roundup is the only sure-fire solution here. It's not a perfect world....

Oh no! ok maybe altering the PH of the soil will do it... http://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-bushes-salt-vinegar-28063.html 

Thanks, I'll read it and see.

I just clicked that link, and the story was "not available"...do you know it it said anything about dealing with the massive amount of blackberries that we have here? If so, how? Thank you!

If you're going to use herbicides I think a brush killer would work better than Round Up. It's for use on woody type plants, Round Up works better on softer green plants, like seasonal weeds. Looks for something containing "triclopyr", you'll find it in products such as Brush-B-Gon or Brush Killer, etc. We use it for poison oak and it works better imo.

Here's a link to some info on controlling blackberries by UC Davis;

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7434.html

Thank you, Barb, for this helpful info! I looked at the Davis site but it didn't really have any alternatives that would work here. But the 'brush killer' products sound like the ticket.

I had a big problem with ailanthus trees along a steep bank which are notoriously hard to get rid of. I first had a tree service cut them down. Soon they began to send up shoots and last year every single Saturday throughout spring and summer I sprayed the shoots with a combination mixture of Roundup and Bayer brush killer. It worked. This year there are just a few stragglers that I have to spray most of the others are just dead stumps.