An escapee from the landscape industry, the invasive bush honeysuckles (Lonicera Spp.) are taking over much of Illinois (and the US). It’s degrading habitat for wildlife and reducing diversity of native plants.
While I admire this plant for its tenacity, I am doing my very best to eliminate it on our property, and am working with my neighbors to also get them on team “Anti Honeysuckle.” Why can this little shrub evoke such emotion? Because it is so darn successful it has made the forest understory almost unrecognizable from the ideal native habitat.
Devastating Effects
- Honeysuckles leaf out early and stay leafy late into early winter so they shade out native plants. The entire food chain is quickly disrupted and long-term they inhibit forest regeneration.
- The fruit is a wildlife food source, but it has the wrong nutritional composition to adequately support native and migrating birds.
- Honeysuckles are so prolific that they fill in the understory and make it almost unpassable (mostly a human problem)
- Birds nesting in honeysuckles are more likely to fall victim to predation.
Amur Honeysuckle Identification
Amur Honeysuckles (Lonciera Maackii) are the most prevalent in my area so the following tips focus on that particular species. There are a few keys to identification, but once you know them, you can’t not see them. For a much deeper explanation and many more photos, please visit invasive.org.
Leaves – Opposite, ovate, simple, toothless, smooth and have a tapered tip. They are the first to emerge in the spring and the last to fall in the fall.
Flowers – Appear in April thru early June. They are white, tubular and have a light pleasant scent.
Bark (in older honeysuckles) – is vertically grooved and the striped appearance is my go-to identifier in the winter.
Controlling Honeysuckles Takes Time and Perseverance
These shrubs seem to appear out of thin air, but in reality they are just super successful seeders and fast growers helped along by the birds and mice who eat their berries and replant them through their droppings. When the shrubs are small, the easiest control is manually weeding them out. Make sure that you either remove the plant completely or ensure that the roots cannot get back down to the soil and reestablish.
Once they outgrow the “pull them out of the ground” stage, the best control is chemical. I hate using chemicals, but on a large infestation I can’t find a better way. If you just cut down the shrub, they grow back aggressively.
So after trying everything else, the cut-stump treatment has worked best for me. And now that the big ones are gone, I can keep the new seedlings under control by hand pulling. To be successful, simply cut the shrub low to the ground and paint the stem/stump with an appropriate tree and shrub herbicide. Foliar treatments also work, but I’m leery of them getting on non-target plants. I’m not an expert on chemical control (I normally will do everything to avoid pesticides), but I’ve had good luck with Bonide Stump and Vine Killer and I like that it has a paint-brush type applicator top. For what would work in your situation, I suggest talking to an expert at your local county extension office. No matter what you do, plan on regular maintenance. The seedlings come back constantly and grow so fast they put Jack’s beanstalk to shame! But trust me, the rewards are worth it!
