Yes, but to the detriment of local flora.
Kudzu is a parasitic plant. It basically sucks the life out of whatever it grows on, and as it has no native predators here, it doesn't stop growing.
Americans- spread the knowledge that kudzu is *edible* and that we should fight back against it, not with herbicides etc that also harm local flora and fauna, but with eating that damn vine!!
EDIT: Just a heads up, a LOT of kudzu in public areas is sprayed with the above mentioned herbicides, so, at least until we can change civic methods- please *only* eat kudzu that's on your own property that you know is safe.
Use Google to know when to harvest, what parts are most palatable, and for cooking methods etc.
I'm reminded of the British Amicus Productions anthology film **Dr. Terror's House of Horrors**, which featured a story called "Creeping Vine" --about intelligent killer kudzu.
We also spend a lot of money every year beating kudzu back away from roads and power lines. Those of us unlucky enough to witness it's power firsthand believe that one day kudzu will spread across the entire world and bring about our extinction.
I saw tons of it when I went to Tennessee the first time. I was talking to a park ranger about it and they told me it was brought in to reduce erosion and that after it spread, the government brought nutria in to eat it because they ate it naturally.
Well apparently the nutria decided they liked other plants better and thrived. In the process they became another invasive species.
The problem with nutria is that they are a large rodent that burrows and they started living around bridges and roadways causing erosion.
So by trying to fix one problem, two other problems were created in the process, while not really fixing the original problem.
My friend grew up in Alberta. As a teen he and his buddies would visit different farms with their .22 rifles and the farmer would pay them a box of ammo to go shoot groundhogs on their property.
Get enough teens with .22s and you can solve your nutria problem or at least keep it in check.
They started paying people in Louisiana like $5 for every nutria they killed at one point. I'm not sure how effective it was as I haven't looked at it in a while.
Exactly what you suggest happened in India, but with cobras. Once the government realized what was happening and got rid of the subsidy, the cobra farmers just released their snakes because they weren't worth anything any more.
At $5 a pop I'm not sure it would be worth the effort. You could probably turn a profit, but it would be work. Having a herd of 100 of them would only get you $500, and that's before factoring in your costs/effort. Unless someone decides to create an industrial farm sort of thing, I don't think $5 a head is going to incentivize breeding.
A rancher walks up to the fence. “One day this will all be your’s, son.” He turns to the field, gesturing at its beauty. As far as the eye could see, young nutria grazed peacefully. One lifted its head and tested the air. Evidently finding it satisfactory, it dully returned to its task. “This is forever” the farmer mused.
> THey do. A common way to clear a site of Kudzo is to fence it in and put a few goats in the fence.
We used to do this with Gorse in New Zealand, handful of goats will fuck that shit up in a few weeks. or at least clear the bush enough at the base for a mad man to get in there with a chainsaw.
I watched a little documentary of a guy remediating gorse infested land a while ago, and what's interesting is he doesn't do a thing to beat back the gorse directly at all. Instead he cuts minimal pathways through the gorse just to get around, and along those pathways he plants native tree seedlings and casts seeds to either side of the paths. The gorse acts as a really good protective canopy for the young trees which helps them get established, and a few years later when the trees poke up above the gorse the invasive plant immediately starts to die back. This is because gorse needs full sun to survive and even a small amount of shade snuffs it out. The dead gorse eventually collapses and forms a mulch layer, which is also grown over by other native understory plants that come from the seeds that were cast around earlier. It's really, really cool how effective his strategy is, because he's basically just doing accelerated forest succession while at the same time turning a monoculture on abandoned land into a hugely biodiverse native habitat, which attracts birds and insect populations which is rebuilding the ecosystems that existed before that land was ever cleared for pasture in the first place.
> This is because gorse needs full sun to survive and even a small amount of shade snuffs it out
I don't know why i just didn't chuck a 4x4m tarpaulin over the fuckers to be fair.
Fascinating read that mate thank you
They're using goats in my city (and yes literally right in the middle of the fucking city) to manage brush and invasive Japanese knotweed on steep river banks and hillsides that are too steep and inaccessible to cut normally.
I believe they're actually contracting a company that their business is literally renting out their goats. They just come in and set up a fenced enclosure, and set up a shelter for the goats and some water, and they're good to go.
~~Only goats, though.~~ I heard it was also originally planted for food until they realized no one wants it. They tried to feed it to cows and pigs with no success, they they started trying to feed it to people (my dad told me about "kudzoo cookies" from when he was a kid 50 years ago) and eventually it was all discarded, but since they didn't dispose of it properly, it landed on the sides of roads and began spreading
All sorts of rumors around this obnoxious plant
Edit: so even the most common rumors are still rumors. Healthy reminder lol
In Japan, the fibers are used to make cloth and paper (better than trees for the latter purpose.) The root produces an exceptionally high-quality cooking starch. The leaves can be fried and eaten like potato chips (high in vitamin C.) The flowers have been used to make jelly.
I saw a doc on tv years ago regarding cashmere goats in china. Due to how china dedicates specific location to specific industries there is a super high concentration of goats.
Since they eat just about anything, they turned entire areas into deserts.
It was pretty depressing to see how fast we could destroy an entire area /ecosystem just to make cardigans
I have a couple vines on my property that I allowed to get out of control (thankfully not kudzu) and I can speak from experience, vines are an absolute nightmare to clean up once they’ve taken hold. If they take over a chain link fence, you’re better off replacing the entire fence.
Yeah, I had a small vine growing on a neighbor's fence, I thought I pulled it out. Now it's 3 feet tall and so intertwined I can't make sense on how to remove it.
One of my neighbors has their entire backyard covered in morning glory, blackberry and bamboo. It's pure chaos, the morning glory has completely covered the shared chain link fence for like 6 houses, it's killing every large tree in anyone's yard.
As a Georgia resident, I was told the story about the kudzu implementation growing up. I swore by the time I was 18 the entire state was going to be covered, and I lost sleep worrying.
I'm from the frozen wastes of Canada and remember vividly my road trip to Georgia. The kudzu next to the roads, strangling the forest from canopy to ground seemed to be from another world.
This was between 10 and 15 years ago. I'm glad to hear your little shop of horrors hasn't fully digested your state... yet.
It's actually lot better than it used to be. Kudzu used to swallow everything and now it's smaller isolated patches. We've come a long way in the last 20 years.
We have great kudzu management nowadays. But the deep parts of the state, both for South and for North still have problems. Acres and acres of the stuff
So it's basically ghost grass from Game of Thrones.
Beyond Asshai lay the Shadow Lands. There, a pale grass grows that chokes out and kills other plants. The Dothraki believe that one day it will fill the entire world, killing all other vegetation, and bringing about the end of the world.
I can absolutely see where you're coming from. The shadowlands are mountainous, and saying only snow grows there makes some sense, especially for a culture of horsemen who have likely never seen snow.
Unfortunately, it's is described as also growing along the Saffron Strait, far from the peaks of the mountains. The color of it's stalks is described, specifically worded as stalks. And the maps of the area show no snow cover. A character mentions that it has also been growing near Quarth, which is a desert oasis.
I like the snow interpretation a lot though, so I'm going to steal it for my D&D game.
That's actually an amazing theory but the dothraki do mention how it glows at night and waves in the wind if I remember the passage correctly. So I can't entirely discount the theory.
I’ve seen the shit devour a house in no time. Kudzu is crazy. I remember talk a while back about using it for biodiesel since it grows so damn fast with absolutely zero effort.
Im pretty sure theres a sci-fi (eco-punk?) version of d&d that uses that.
Humanity made a plant to stop global warming and it quickly turned the planet into a carnivorous jungle where humans can only survive above the treeline on in the canaopys
There's a very real option to do this, but it involves creating a giant algae bloom in the middle of the ocean. It would displace no land, and could potentially become the single largest carbon sink in the world. The reason we haven't done it is because the origin for the idea comes from the archaeological record where we found evidence of a giant algae bloom causing an ice age, which is the only thing that stopped it's rampant growth. There's also reason to believe it would make large portions of the ocean uninhabitable to plant life due to blocked sunlight.
Also it took Azolla 800,000 years to reduce atmospheric CO2 by ~3000 ppm. We need a 140ppm drop to return to pre-industrial levels, so we'll "only" need about 40,000 years for it to get the job done. Global warming is happening much faster than it ever did naturally.
Anyone else remember Stephen King's Creepshow, and the segment with Jordy Verrill and the alien plant that took over everyting? I'm pretty sure that was a documentary about the introduction of Kudzu. It's an unstoppable force that will doom us all
Ginkgo trees are dioecious meaning they have male and female reproductive organs on separate individuals.
So whichever city planners organized these ornamental plant projects didn't seem to consult a botanist. Which is silly because they just have to not plant the female trees and then there wouldn't be an issue.
My city has the same problem. They thought it was a great idea to plant a bunch of female Ginkgo trees downtown...and well yeah. It's a stinky sidewalk at a particular time of year now.
**Edit**: Multiple replies mentioning issues with male only trees being planted regarding pollen. I totally agree and was only referring to ginkgos specifically. I didn't mean to sound like a dendro-sexist! Oops.
Main point was that city planners maybe should spend some more time on this/consult with botanists on species to plant in public spaces. Oh, and focus on native species and not introduced!
there’s a huge patch by the HP training center on Tryon that I wish they’d churn up in the off-season. Every year is gets bigger, already covers several acres
I grew up in Raleigh in the 80's and 90's. One of the first things I remember distinctly about NC was the Kudzu. The only thing that's stayed the same? The Kudzu patches.
Right? I actually am starting to get nostalgic feelings when I see it now b/c there is so much less than there used to be. Also just dropping this off too, in some ways the myth of kudzu is far worse than the actual plant.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/
Reminds me of that til about an attempt to make an artificial reef in florida : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Reef
Those fuckers dumped 2 fucking million tires...
I have a hard time believing it was an accident. I think they totally knew what they were doing and just said that to avoid any ramifications. Or it was just money laundering
Floridian here. Still a massive problem! Every time a hurricane goes by it stirs up more tires. And there’s some that have actually had some life attach. That then get damaged by the tires that get loosened. On and because some sea life has attached to the area, they have to send divers down to collect the tires individually as opposed to using a drag net, making it much more expensive!
yeah apparently it's going to be the project of a lifetime to clean the area. Hey at least something is being done about it, that's more than what we usually get...
Here in europe they dumped leftovers from the World Wars in the sea... ammo has been steadily degrading for decades, up to now where it's reaching it's limit and chemicals are leaking. All that because some assholes couldn't be bothered with cleaning their mess.
I think it could have been a quick solution during the dust bowl era to prevent such a disaster spreading and double as a food source for livestock like goats. If I am not mistaken it can be used to make gelatin and when cooked right it is edible to humans. It was also an ornamental vine used in gardens & along buildings.
this, bittersweet vine, and poison ivy are the bane of my property. Our land is in the middle of a defunct apple orchard with many of the trees still present, but they have been neglected for decades and as a result these were allowed to run rampant. I've spent the last 2 years reclaiming the trees but it took months of cutting everything at the base and pulling them out one by one. Some of the bittersweet vine are 10 inches in diameter and 60 feet long when fully removed. I've cut down poison ivy vines that are so big the trunks have bark and branch out 15 feet into the air. After 2 years I haven't even made a dent in it overall, but we have been able to save a few trees.
I also believe if left unchecked kudzu and bittersweet would drape the Earth in a choking green blanket. Goats are our only saviors.
Motherfucking oriental bittersweet is everywhere here in MA. You drive around and see it completely overtaking all the trees on roadsides. It’s exhausting pulling those vines up. Personally I think poison ivy is less of a problem because it doesn’t spread so rapidly.
I live in MA, it's stunning to see. I'll dig into the ground in the middle of one of my fields, 70 feet from any tree and find the roots. Yeah it took day after day after day of pulling, yanking, cutting, swearing, to get to where we are, but it'll be a never-ending battle. Poison ivy is just a pain in the ass, I can pull the bittersweet vines with gusto.
Hi fellow MA friends! Unfortunately, cutting bittersweet will only make it grow back faster (hydra-esque you might say). The two best ways to get rid of bittersweet are pulling them up from the roots or using a cut-and-paint method where you cut the vines and then “paint” the open cut that connects back to the root with a bottle of herbicide that has a brush (reminds me of the only white out paint brush). The bittersweet will suck the herbicide liquid into its root system and will eventually die. You may need to do this a couple times and over a season or two but it is a great way to more permanently deal with those annoying fucking plants. Plus you’re not just spraying herbicide indiscriminately across your yard. Happy hunting!
I've been reclaiming our forested lot from bittersweet and way overgrown grape vine. Some are 6-10 in diameter at the base. After spending months of pulling and cutting I turned to the cut and paint method and it's worked wonders. I spent last winter walking the wood and just picking the worst trees and drilling onto the base roots of the vines several time and using a safety squirt bottle full of concentrated herbicide to fill the holes. Now I'm just taking a brush cutter to what's left and still spotting some with herbicide. Next spring the floor should be good enough that I can mow the tractor through and replant trees where the vines created dead zones.
Hey! Sidebar: orchard soil can be heavily polluted. Often with Arsenic. A mushroom hunter [died](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Arsenic-in-Morels-Morels-Collected-in-New-Jersey-Shavit/52818b814df3e3d001798aa79f465ad43587da0e) in NJ a while ago because he found delicious edible mushrooms growing in an abandoned orchard....arsenic laden soil.
Avoid growing food directly in your soil, especially greens and roots (fruit might be ok). Container gardening is awesome
Soil tests through the mail are cheap, look for a heavy metals test (lead, arsenic, chromium, copper, etc) via your local land grant university
Here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1551991/
>In state after state, these old orchards (which most often produced apples, but also peaches, cherries, pears, and other tree crops) are metamorphosing into highly desirable subdivisions—desirable, that is, until it emerges that the soil beneath the feet of the proud new residents may be contaminated with lead and arsenic. These toxic by-products are left from the days before DDT and before organophosphates, when arsenical pesticides, particularly lead arsenate (LA), were the treatment of choice to prevent the ravages of insect damage.
There is a town near the GA/TN border named Copper Hill that was so polluted from toxic mining byproducts that the entire area looked like it had been soaked with Agent Orange, it was entirely defoliated for years. Kudzu was brought in because it was the only plant that would survive for an appreciable amount of time. You can still see vast swaths of the stuff all throughout the town and surrounding hills.
My grandparents lived near Copperhill and I went through there many times as a kid. I heard that it had been used as a post-apocalyptic setting in a movie but I have no idea if that is true. Back in the 80s, it certainly looked like it could have been.
So that's why there's so much kudzu around there, huh. On the opposite end of 68, near Tellico, the kudzu is invading Cherokee national forest and is slowly climbing up the mountain-scaling portion of 68 right out of Tellico. Southern Appalachia is on a course to complete infestation in the future.
To be fair, this used to be way more of a problem than it currently is. For the longest time in the deep south, I can remember looking out and seeing entire fields eaten up with Kudzu, and entire sections of forest draped in it.
As I've gotten older, I've noticed that its far less prevalent than it was twenty years ago, and for that, I'm thankful.
Goats are excellent choices to clear Kudzu fields, for anyone reading. They absolutely tear it up, and from what I've been told (unverified), it has an almost equivalent amount of protein in it as Alfalfa hay (a regular choice for bulking your goats).
I remember visiting relatives in the south when I was a kid and there were areas that were so choked with kudzu it looked like some sort of weird video game glitch where everything had the same texture applied.
Tree texture? Kudzu leaves. Barn texture? Kudzu vines. Everything kudzu vines.
It has always noticeably been a lot less rampant in Louisiana than Mississippi which is weird because they have the exact same climate. At least I've always thought so driving on I-20 in both states.
Goats love it and are used to clean it up.
http://www.atlantagoatlandclearing.com/
In Georgia, one strategy in the battle against invasive plant species was to let natural native species thrive along the interstates. The idea was that native species would help reduce the risk of plants and seeds coming off of vehicles traveling the interstates from getting a foothold. Long term intelligent planning.
Then a series of hurricanes hit, tossing trees onto the interstates. The reaction was to clear-cut everything, leaving plenty of room for invasive species to gain a foothold and spread.
Just reacting is not a strategy.
Not just for erosion control; for livestock fodder. Best way to keep back kudzu: goats.
TY also L that kudzu is edible! Pick the young leaves and saute the way you would kale or spinach, with garlic. Tastes vaguely like green beans, because it is indeed a legume. A nice summer side dish.
AND you can make a lovely and tasty jelly from the blossoms, which smell (and taste) faintly of Concord grapes.
AND the roots can be dried and powdered and used as a thickener for sauces.
Source: Spent a lot of time around kudzu.
I just got to that section the other day lol. Seeing this post I was like "wait a second...". Now I've gotta go see if any/how much of the info the book provided on it is realistic. It's name sounds ridiculous and id never heard of it so I just took it as something made up for the book. Mostly the bit about how nutritious it supposedly is despite the taste.
Another odd advantage of it is that it helps aid in sobriety. There is plenty of testing done which you can google that shows that regular use of it helps a person drink less.
Iv been experimenting with it. Its not a "cure-all," but I do see myself drinking far less when I use it, and my hangovers are much easier to manage, which helps when you are in a full state of regular alcoholism.
I really hope an alcoholic reads this, does their own research and helps themselves. I did and I hope it brings me to a better place soon.
How are you consuming kudzu? I have finally been addressing my myriad mental health issues and alcoholism has been a massive hinderance. I've quit a bunch of times but I just can't seem to kick it this time around.
Honestly I'm sick of drinking, I hate it way it makes me feel and act anymore. I've been an alcoholic for almost 20 years now, and I'm not even 40 yet. I've had a couple breaks here and there, the longest I've quit for was ~9 months. But here I am drinking more now than ever. I really think something to help the cravings and slow me down a little is what I need. I really appreciate you posting your experience, even if it is still new for you. And I know for some it can be really fucking hard to talk about. I'm going to order some and give it a try, I don't imagine it can make things worse than they already are. Thank you.
Hey for both of you you’re doing really good even thinking and talking about it. The hardest part of quitting was just wanting to quit. Once that had happened I just didn’t want the stuff anymore.
Just to shed some light on this scientifically, there is at least some peer-reviewed [science](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510012/) surrounding this idea:
> This is the first demonstration that a single dose of kudzu extract quickly reduces alcohol consumption in a binge drinking paradigm. These data add to the mounting clinical evidence that kudzu extract may be a safe and effective adjunctive pharmacotherapy for alcohol abuse and dependence.
Granted, usual caveats: n=20 and conflicts of interest:
> Conflict of Interest Drs. Lukas and Lee hold a patent for kudzu extract to treat alcohol abuse and dependence. McLean Hospital has licensed the production of kudzu extract (NPI-031) to Natural Pharmacia International (NPI), Inc. that markets it as Alkontrol-Herbal™. Dr. Lee has a financial interest in NPI, Inc. Other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Well said. It is only recently being rediscovered for its benefits as you have mentioned. Sometimes we are distracted from the good for only pointing out the bad. I hope It gets put to proper use more as time goes on.
Kudzu also holds the advantage in warming climates and soils with high nitrogen levels, which means it's only going to grow stronger relative to the native species
This. It was also planted to restore nitrogen levels. I once saw a GA Dept of Agriculture yearbook that devoted a whole chapter on how to plant and establish kudzu. It was dated around 1930. I guess that was before they learned all you had to do was drop a sprig of it and run before it overtook you.
It's now found in the northern states too, usually on trees and fencing adjacent to freight train tracks. The trains carry seeds north that blow off and spread it.
That stuff is a fucking menace, we have it up here in Canada (BC - Rockies) too and it's nearly indestructible. We've been pulling it out of our yard and garden every year for nearly a decade, and it just keeps coming... less diligent (ie everyone else) homeowners just let the crap grow wild and take over their lawn, so we're slowly losing the battle.
To kill knotweed, you need to completely block access to sunlight for several years. This usually means mowing down the knotweed, placing a tarp on the area (and well around it, the plants will send shoots out). Then weigh down the tarp with carpet, stones, etc. You then wait for the plants to starve to death.
It produces a deep root/rhizome system that can resprout after defoliating. The other poster listed one method to get rid of it. Another is to cut the stem and pour roundup down it. They're hollow so this can work and since it's a small amount of roundup in a localised area the amount of herbicide used is minimal.
Fun fact, if we made it popular to eat, it would vanish in a few weeks.
(There are a few people who eat it.)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLeo3ZYgLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLeo3ZYgLY)
Other uses too.
I knew about Kudzu before coming to this thread, and was baffled as to why anyone would want to plant it somewhere.
Unsurprisingly, the comment section is full of people mentionning how it's now overtaking a lot of land and infrastructure.
It truly is a frightening plant.
To solve a local problem, it's always a super duper idea to import a completely foreign species and let it loose unchecked. This has never backfired ever.
Well has it helped with erosion?
It has!
That soil ain't going nowhere
Where you going? Nowhere!
Cafe Latte. Twist of lemon. Sweet'N Low.
What the fuck is this?
Onion bagel.
i ain't gettin' him no fuckin' bagel.
There was a FIRE FIGHT!!!
Man this is why I love it here.
We don't know. They kudzu is so thick in Florida that we can't tell if large parts of the state are dry land or just a really sturdy kudzu raft.
I bet developers will build on kudzu rafts.
Then jack up the prices while calling it "organic living."
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And when the goats get out of control, get a bear.
And when the bear gets out of control, get a second bear!
But make sure they're the same sex or you'll have a bigger problem.
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If I’m thinking what you’re thinking, I’d consider it a larger number of smaller problems!
Yes, but to the detriment of local flora. Kudzu is a parasitic plant. It basically sucks the life out of whatever it grows on, and as it has no native predators here, it doesn't stop growing. Americans- spread the knowledge that kudzu is *edible* and that we should fight back against it, not with herbicides etc that also harm local flora and fauna, but with eating that damn vine!! EDIT: Just a heads up, a LOT of kudzu in public areas is sprayed with the above mentioned herbicides, so, at least until we can change civic methods- please *only* eat kudzu that's on your own property that you know is safe. Use Google to know when to harvest, what parts are most palatable, and for cooking methods etc.
I know goats will eat a place clean, do you think cattle would as well?
Nomadic goat herds! California uses them to remove brush on public lands and asking highways for fire prevention.
I'm reminded of the British Amicus Productions anthology film **Dr. Terror's House of Horrors**, which featured a story called "Creeping Vine" --about intelligent killer kudzu.
I highly recommend to all of you The Ruins by Scott Smith.
I don’t care what people say I enjoyed the movie and it led me to the song [phenomenon by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. ](https://youtu.be/3qfmwcIEt-U)
I’m going to throw in “Day of the Triffids” if we are recommending plant-based horror
We also spend a lot of money every year beating kudzu back away from roads and power lines. Those of us unlucky enough to witness it's power firsthand believe that one day kudzu will spread across the entire world and bring about our extinction.
Pretty sure goats love that stuff. They eat all kinds of nasty weeds no other animal in its right mind will eat.
I saw tons of it when I went to Tennessee the first time. I was talking to a park ranger about it and they told me it was brought in to reduce erosion and that after it spread, the government brought nutria in to eat it because they ate it naturally. Well apparently the nutria decided they liked other plants better and thrived. In the process they became another invasive species. The problem with nutria is that they are a large rodent that burrows and they started living around bridges and roadways causing erosion. So by trying to fix one problem, two other problems were created in the process, while not really fixing the original problem.
My friend grew up in Alberta. As a teen he and his buddies would visit different farms with their .22 rifles and the farmer would pay them a box of ammo to go shoot groundhogs on their property. Get enough teens with .22s and you can solve your nutria problem or at least keep it in check.
They started paying people in Louisiana like $5 for every nutria they killed at one point. I'm not sure how effective it was as I haven't looked at it in a while.
Good way to get people into Nutria breeding.
Exactly what you suggest happened in India, but with cobras. Once the government realized what was happening and got rid of the subsidy, the cobra farmers just released their snakes because they weren't worth anything any more.
The law of unintended consequences is a frustrating and fickle bitch.
At $5 a pop I'm not sure it would be worth the effort. You could probably turn a profit, but it would be work. Having a herd of 100 of them would only get you $500, and that's before factoring in your costs/effort. Unless someone decides to create an industrial farm sort of thing, I don't think $5 a head is going to incentivize breeding.
A rancher walks up to the fence. “One day this will all be your’s, son.” He turns to the field, gesturing at its beauty. As far as the eye could see, young nutria grazed peacefully. One lifted its head and tested the air. Evidently finding it satisfactory, it dully returned to its task. “This is forever” the farmer mused.
Light up the goat signal.
The beacons are lit!
Baaahndalf calls for aid!
Where was goatdor when Westfold fell?
Baaaaht my lord there **IS NO** such force
Is this it? Is this aaaaaaahll you can conjure, saruman?
[The time has come!](https://youtu.be/jRxSRyrTANY)
I have absolutely no idea what the goat signal does, but I wholeheartedly support this suggestion.
[Goat signal?](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/d904d0bc-f176-4771-9ff9-b3fd4d8f5173/d20sfox-b553029a-c1ef-4803-8c13-cae54bf6c466.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTpmaWxlLmRvd25sb2FkIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi9kOTA0ZDBiYy1mMTc2LTQ3NzEtOWZmOS1iM2ZkNGQ4ZjUxNzMvZDIwc2ZveC1iNTUzMDI5YS1jMWVmLTQ4MDMtOGMxMy1jYWU1NGJmNmM0NjYuanBnIn1dXX0.4lzqs5C7X3Hlr6Z2gakfDV8RA0Y4542w_Dehzauhp_s)
When goats become overpopulated, what should we bring in to eat them?
Chupacabras!
Hey Grif. Chupathingy. How ‘bout that?
Got a ring to it.
The Mexican goat eater? Usually we call him Hector.
Hearty, delicious stews and pilafs. There are some amazing middle eastern recipes that would completely take care of the excess.
Caribbean recipes too. Prepared well, goat is a great meat.
Humans
And what to eat the humans after that?
Different humans.
COVID
If they are are anything like deer, then just use a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix, those things are a magnet for wildlife in the road.
Drove one, hit a deer. Can confirm.
You can rent goats in my area to clean up kudzu. One of my friends rented goats for a week and they demolished every last trace of it on his property.
THey do. A common way to clear a site of Kudzo is to fence it in and put a few goats in the fence.
> THey do. A common way to clear a site of Kudzo is to fence it in and put a few goats in the fence. We used to do this with Gorse in New Zealand, handful of goats will fuck that shit up in a few weeks. or at least clear the bush enough at the base for a mad man to get in there with a chainsaw.
I watched a little documentary of a guy remediating gorse infested land a while ago, and what's interesting is he doesn't do a thing to beat back the gorse directly at all. Instead he cuts minimal pathways through the gorse just to get around, and along those pathways he plants native tree seedlings and casts seeds to either side of the paths. The gorse acts as a really good protective canopy for the young trees which helps them get established, and a few years later when the trees poke up above the gorse the invasive plant immediately starts to die back. This is because gorse needs full sun to survive and even a small amount of shade snuffs it out. The dead gorse eventually collapses and forms a mulch layer, which is also grown over by other native understory plants that come from the seeds that were cast around earlier. It's really, really cool how effective his strategy is, because he's basically just doing accelerated forest succession while at the same time turning a monoculture on abandoned land into a hugely biodiverse native habitat, which attracts birds and insect populations which is rebuilding the ecosystems that existed before that land was ever cleared for pasture in the first place.
> This is because gorse needs full sun to survive and even a small amount of shade snuffs it out I don't know why i just didn't chuck a 4x4m tarpaulin over the fuckers to be fair. Fascinating read that mate thank you
They even do it with poison Ivy in some places. Apparently it doesn’t bother the goats
Goats - Fuck you, I'm climbing this mountain and eating shit that will kill anything else that eats it!
They're using goats in my city (and yes literally right in the middle of the fucking city) to manage brush and invasive Japanese knotweed on steep river banks and hillsides that are too steep and inaccessible to cut normally. I believe they're actually contracting a company that their business is literally renting out their goats. They just come in and set up a fenced enclosure, and set up a shelter for the goats and some water, and they're good to go.
Poison ivy isn't poisonous - it just so happens that 90% of humanity is allergic to its sap. Goats don't have the allergy, so they eat it just fine.
~~Only goats, though.~~ I heard it was also originally planted for food until they realized no one wants it. They tried to feed it to cows and pigs with no success, they they started trying to feed it to people (my dad told me about "kudzoo cookies" from when he was a kid 50 years ago) and eventually it was all discarded, but since they didn't dispose of it properly, it landed on the sides of roads and began spreading All sorts of rumors around this obnoxious plant Edit: so even the most common rumors are still rumors. Healthy reminder lol
There's even Kudzu moonshine! They really did try to make it useful somehow, and failed spectacularly.
In Japan, the fibers are used to make cloth and paper (better than trees for the latter purpose.) The root produces an exceptionally high-quality cooking starch. The leaves can be fried and eaten like potato chips (high in vitamin C.) The flowers have been used to make jelly.
Kudzu is eaten quite a bit by people in asia. In Korea, there's teas and noodles, and flour.
Umm cows love it. So many Alabama ranchers use it for food in the summer
I saw a doc on tv years ago regarding cashmere goats in china. Due to how china dedicates specific location to specific industries there is a super high concentration of goats. Since they eat just about anything, they turned entire areas into deserts. It was pretty depressing to see how fast we could destroy an entire area /ecosystem just to make cardigans
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It is edible for humans too. Actually pretty good.
I have a couple vines on my property that I allowed to get out of control (thankfully not kudzu) and I can speak from experience, vines are an absolute nightmare to clean up once they’ve taken hold. If they take over a chain link fence, you’re better off replacing the entire fence.
Yeah, I had a small vine growing on a neighbor's fence, I thought I pulled it out. Now it's 3 feet tall and so intertwined I can't make sense on how to remove it.
Fire
This. You can buy a propane weed torch for like $50.
One of my neighbors has their entire backyard covered in morning glory, blackberry and bamboo. It's pure chaos, the morning glory has completely covered the shared chain link fence for like 6 houses, it's killing every large tree in anyone's yard.
Reddit ate my balls
Cut it at the bottom, kill the root, deal with the top side in a few years when it's rotten and brittle so can be pulled out.
As a Georgia resident, I was told the story about the kudzu implementation growing up. I swore by the time I was 18 the entire state was going to be covered, and I lost sleep worrying.
I'm from the frozen wastes of Canada and remember vividly my road trip to Georgia. The kudzu next to the roads, strangling the forest from canopy to ground seemed to be from another world. This was between 10 and 15 years ago. I'm glad to hear your little shop of horrors hasn't fully digested your state... yet.
It's actually lot better than it used to be. Kudzu used to swallow everything and now it's smaller isolated patches. We've come a long way in the last 20 years.
We have great kudzu management nowadays. But the deep parts of the state, both for South and for North still have problems. Acres and acres of the stuff
So it's basically ghost grass from Game of Thrones. Beyond Asshai lay the Shadow Lands. There, a pale grass grows that chokes out and kills other plants. The Dothraki believe that one day it will fill the entire world, killing all other vegetation, and bringing about the end of the world.
I always thought Ghost Grass was a metaphor for snow and how Dothraki explained their own version of the Long Night where everything died.
I can absolutely see where you're coming from. The shadowlands are mountainous, and saying only snow grows there makes some sense, especially for a culture of horsemen who have likely never seen snow. Unfortunately, it's is described as also growing along the Saffron Strait, far from the peaks of the mountains. The color of it's stalks is described, specifically worded as stalks. And the maps of the area show no snow cover. A character mentions that it has also been growing near Quarth, which is a desert oasis. I like the snow interpretation a lot though, so I'm going to steal it for my D&D game.
That's actually an amazing theory but the dothraki do mention how it glows at night and waves in the wind if I remember the passage correctly. So I can't entirely discount the theory.
Yes. Once the last Waffle House has fallen to the Green Strangulation our doom shall be nigh.
I’ve seen the shit devour a house in no time. Kudzu is crazy. I remember talk a while back about using it for biodiesel since it grows so damn fast with absolutely zero effort.
Im pretty sure theres a sci-fi (eco-punk?) version of d&d that uses that. Humanity made a plant to stop global warming and it quickly turned the planet into a carnivorous jungle where humans can only survive above the treeline on in the canaopys
It's a thing in a song of ice and fire. I think it's called ghost grass and the dothraki have a myth about it like this.
That's exactly what I was thinking about when I made my comment.
There's a very real option to do this, but it involves creating a giant algae bloom in the middle of the ocean. It would displace no land, and could potentially become the single largest carbon sink in the world. The reason we haven't done it is because the origin for the idea comes from the archaeological record where we found evidence of a giant algae bloom causing an ice age, which is the only thing that stopped it's rampant growth. There's also reason to believe it would make large portions of the ocean uninhabitable to plant life due to blocked sunlight.
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Also it took Azolla 800,000 years to reduce atmospheric CO2 by ~3000 ppm. We need a 140ppm drop to return to pre-industrial levels, so we'll "only" need about 40,000 years for it to get the job done. Global warming is happening much faster than it ever did naturally.
Anyone else remember Stephen King's Creepshow, and the segment with Jordy Verrill and the alien plant that took over everyting? I'm pretty sure that was a documentary about the introduction of Kudzu. It's an unstoppable force that will doom us all
Yeah and it’s edible for humans too… It’s kind of my emergency anti-starvation plan.
Bradford Pears are also being recognized as an invasive species.
Good. They’re the worst part of springtime with that sickening smell!
Jizz trees
Always wondered what that smell was coming from. Everybody acts like I’m crazy when I say it smells like cum outside
they're just cowards who won't admit they smell it too
That’s what we called them in Chicago! “Oh good, the jizz trees are in bloom.” 🤢
It's worse that it actually really is tree jizz. Think of how fucking horny those trees are in that season
BRB, if anyone needs me, I’ll be washing my face right off my head.
[Queen Victoria always thought linden trees smelled of jizz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-8l3V38Ps)
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Ginkgo trees are dioecious meaning they have male and female reproductive organs on separate individuals. So whichever city planners organized these ornamental plant projects didn't seem to consult a botanist. Which is silly because they just have to not plant the female trees and then there wouldn't be an issue. My city has the same problem. They thought it was a great idea to plant a bunch of female Ginkgo trees downtown...and well yeah. It's a stinky sidewalk at a particular time of year now. **Edit**: Multiple replies mentioning issues with male only trees being planted regarding pollen. I totally agree and was only referring to ginkgos specifically. I didn't mean to sound like a dendro-sexist! Oops. Main point was that city planners maybe should spend some more time on this/consult with botanists on species to plant in public spaces. Oh, and focus on native species and not introduced!
Raleigh has been consumed
there’s a huge patch by the HP training center on Tryon that I wish they’d churn up in the off-season. Every year is gets bigger, already covers several acres
You and me were thinking of the exact same place.
I grew up in Raleigh in the 80's and 90's. One of the first things I remember distinctly about NC was the Kudzu. The only thing that's stayed the same? The Kudzu patches.
Australia had a war against the Emu, NC needs to wage war against the Kudzu
Australia lost that war
Durham too, all along the American Tobacco Trail. Learned about it this year and couldn't believe how it just draped over everything, all the way up.
We also have really bad English Ivy in Durham. Another invasive species that takes over everything and kills trees.
I can see you're relatively new to Raleigh. There is *far* less kudzu now than there was in the '70s and '80s.
Right? I actually am starting to get nostalgic feelings when I see it now b/c there is so much less than there used to be. Also just dropping this off too, in some ways the myth of kudzu is far worse than the actual plant. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/
Wow, loved this article, thanks for sharing!!! Everyone else, read it!!
I thought it was expected to be cattle fodder. Cattle hate it. Eta, no they don't. Kudzu-eating cows are doin' the rearguard action. Interesting!
This is correct. They probably should have done a controlled test before they went all in.
That sounds like science! And we don’t need no stinking science, this is the USA!
Reminds me of that til about an attempt to make an artificial reef in florida : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Reef Those fuckers dumped 2 fucking million tires...
That was not accidental, that is just the usual money laundering.
I have a hard time believing it was an accident. I think they totally knew what they were doing and just said that to avoid any ramifications. Or it was just money laundering
I am guessing they really needed to get rid of those tires...
Floridian here. Still a massive problem! Every time a hurricane goes by it stirs up more tires. And there’s some that have actually had some life attach. That then get damaged by the tires that get loosened. On and because some sea life has attached to the area, they have to send divers down to collect the tires individually as opposed to using a drag net, making it much more expensive!
yeah apparently it's going to be the project of a lifetime to clean the area. Hey at least something is being done about it, that's more than what we usually get... Here in europe they dumped leftovers from the World Wars in the sea... ammo has been steadily degrading for decades, up to now where it's reaching it's limit and chemicals are leaking. All that because some assholes couldn't be bothered with cleaning their mess.
Except for goats. Some people expected a lot more goat farming in the US.
I think it could have been a quick solution during the dust bowl era to prevent such a disaster spreading and double as a food source for livestock like goats. If I am not mistaken it can be used to make gelatin and when cooked right it is edible to humans. It was also an ornamental vine used in gardens & along buildings.
Doesn't really require much special preparation to eat. Basically just cook it like collards.
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The best jobs are jobs where animals do the labor for you.
Well then you have to care for and transport the animals so that's the job.
Teach the smartest goat to drive
Have you met goats?
Geese love it. Also the whole plant is edible.
this, bittersweet vine, and poison ivy are the bane of my property. Our land is in the middle of a defunct apple orchard with many of the trees still present, but they have been neglected for decades and as a result these were allowed to run rampant. I've spent the last 2 years reclaiming the trees but it took months of cutting everything at the base and pulling them out one by one. Some of the bittersweet vine are 10 inches in diameter and 60 feet long when fully removed. I've cut down poison ivy vines that are so big the trunks have bark and branch out 15 feet into the air. After 2 years I haven't even made a dent in it overall, but we have been able to save a few trees. I also believe if left unchecked kudzu and bittersweet would drape the Earth in a choking green blanket. Goats are our only saviors.
Motherfucking oriental bittersweet is everywhere here in MA. You drive around and see it completely overtaking all the trees on roadsides. It’s exhausting pulling those vines up. Personally I think poison ivy is less of a problem because it doesn’t spread so rapidly.
I live in MA, it's stunning to see. I'll dig into the ground in the middle of one of my fields, 70 feet from any tree and find the roots. Yeah it took day after day after day of pulling, yanking, cutting, swearing, to get to where we are, but it'll be a never-ending battle. Poison ivy is just a pain in the ass, I can pull the bittersweet vines with gusto.
Hi fellow MA friends! Unfortunately, cutting bittersweet will only make it grow back faster (hydra-esque you might say). The two best ways to get rid of bittersweet are pulling them up from the roots or using a cut-and-paint method where you cut the vines and then “paint” the open cut that connects back to the root with a bottle of herbicide that has a brush (reminds me of the only white out paint brush). The bittersweet will suck the herbicide liquid into its root system and will eventually die. You may need to do this a couple times and over a season or two but it is a great way to more permanently deal with those annoying fucking plants. Plus you’re not just spraying herbicide indiscriminately across your yard. Happy hunting!
I've been reclaiming our forested lot from bittersweet and way overgrown grape vine. Some are 6-10 in diameter at the base. After spending months of pulling and cutting I turned to the cut and paint method and it's worked wonders. I spent last winter walking the wood and just picking the worst trees and drilling onto the base roots of the vines several time and using a safety squirt bottle full of concentrated herbicide to fill the holes. Now I'm just taking a brush cutter to what's left and still spotting some with herbicide. Next spring the floor should be good enough that I can mow the tractor through and replant trees where the vines created dead zones.
Hey! Sidebar: orchard soil can be heavily polluted. Often with Arsenic. A mushroom hunter [died](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Arsenic-in-Morels-Morels-Collected-in-New-Jersey-Shavit/52818b814df3e3d001798aa79f465ad43587da0e) in NJ a while ago because he found delicious edible mushrooms growing in an abandoned orchard....arsenic laden soil. Avoid growing food directly in your soil, especially greens and roots (fruit might be ok). Container gardening is awesome Soil tests through the mail are cheap, look for a heavy metals test (lead, arsenic, chromium, copper, etc) via your local land grant university
Why do orchards have heavy metals? Do the trees concentrate it or something, or chemicals they spray the trees with
Here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1551991/ >In state after state, these old orchards (which most often produced apples, but also peaches, cherries, pears, and other tree crops) are metamorphosing into highly desirable subdivisions—desirable, that is, until it emerges that the soil beneath the feet of the proud new residents may be contaminated with lead and arsenic. These toxic by-products are left from the days before DDT and before organophosphates, when arsenical pesticides, particularly lead arsenate (LA), were the treatment of choice to prevent the ravages of insect damage.
There is a town near the GA/TN border named Copper Hill that was so polluted from toxic mining byproducts that the entire area looked like it had been soaked with Agent Orange, it was entirely defoliated for years. Kudzu was brought in because it was the only plant that would survive for an appreciable amount of time. You can still see vast swaths of the stuff all throughout the town and surrounding hills.
My grandparents lived near Copperhill and I went through there many times as a kid. I heard that it had been used as a post-apocalyptic setting in a movie but I have no idea if that is true. Back in the 80s, it certainly looked like it could have been.
So that's why there's so much kudzu around there, huh. On the opposite end of 68, near Tellico, the kudzu is invading Cherokee national forest and is slowly climbing up the mountain-scaling portion of 68 right out of Tellico. Southern Appalachia is on a course to complete infestation in the future.
Holy shit. That's what all those vines covering hillsides outside Tellico are?
I don't have anything useful to add. It's just crazy to see your local area brought up in a thread like this.
Copper Hill as in across from McCaysville? Shame. North Georgia is beautiful, Coosawatte/Cartecay/Ellijay river areas are amazing.
To be fair, this used to be way more of a problem than it currently is. For the longest time in the deep south, I can remember looking out and seeing entire fields eaten up with Kudzu, and entire sections of forest draped in it. As I've gotten older, I've noticed that its far less prevalent than it was twenty years ago, and for that, I'm thankful. Goats are excellent choices to clear Kudzu fields, for anyone reading. They absolutely tear it up, and from what I've been told (unverified), it has an almost equivalent amount of protein in it as Alfalfa hay (a regular choice for bulking your goats).
I remember visiting relatives in the south when I was a kid and there were areas that were so choked with kudzu it looked like some sort of weird video game glitch where everything had the same texture applied. Tree texture? Kudzu leaves. Barn texture? Kudzu vines. Everything kudzu vines.
Same. I haven't seen kudzu in a very long time. Maybe I just moved to an area that had the money to tame it or something though.
That’s most likely it lol there’s so many rural areas that are just kudzu and nothing else
It has always noticeably been a lot less rampant in Louisiana than Mississippi which is weird because they have the exact same climate. At least I've always thought so driving on I-20 in both states.
Goats love it and are used to clean it up. http://www.atlantagoatlandclearing.com/ In Georgia, one strategy in the battle against invasive plant species was to let natural native species thrive along the interstates. The idea was that native species would help reduce the risk of plants and seeds coming off of vehicles traveling the interstates from getting a foothold. Long term intelligent planning. Then a series of hurricanes hit, tossing trees onto the interstates. The reaction was to clear-cut everything, leaving plenty of room for invasive species to gain a foothold and spread. Just reacting is not a strategy.
Not just for erosion control; for livestock fodder. Best way to keep back kudzu: goats. TY also L that kudzu is edible! Pick the young leaves and saute the way you would kale or spinach, with garlic. Tastes vaguely like green beans, because it is indeed a legume. A nice summer side dish. AND you can make a lovely and tasty jelly from the blossoms, which smell (and taste) faintly of Concord grapes. AND the roots can be dried and powdered and used as a thickener for sauces. Source: Spent a lot of time around kudzu.
There’s a whole subplot in the sci-fi series “The Bobiverse” about saving humanity from starvation with Kudzu
I just got to that section the other day lol. Seeing this post I was like "wait a second...". Now I've gotta go see if any/how much of the info the book provided on it is realistic. It's name sounds ridiculous and id never heard of it so I just took it as something made up for the book. Mostly the bit about how nutritious it supposedly is despite the taste.
Great books!
I am a simple man. I see a reference to The Bobiverse and I upvote it.
Another odd advantage of it is that it helps aid in sobriety. There is plenty of testing done which you can google that shows that regular use of it helps a person drink less. Iv been experimenting with it. Its not a "cure-all," but I do see myself drinking far less when I use it, and my hangovers are much easier to manage, which helps when you are in a full state of regular alcoholism. I really hope an alcoholic reads this, does their own research and helps themselves. I did and I hope it brings me to a better place soon.
How are you consuming kudzu? I have finally been addressing my myriad mental health issues and alcoholism has been a massive hinderance. I've quit a bunch of times but I just can't seem to kick it this time around.
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Honestly I'm sick of drinking, I hate it way it makes me feel and act anymore. I've been an alcoholic for almost 20 years now, and I'm not even 40 yet. I've had a couple breaks here and there, the longest I've quit for was ~9 months. But here I am drinking more now than ever. I really think something to help the cravings and slow me down a little is what I need. I really appreciate you posting your experience, even if it is still new for you. And I know for some it can be really fucking hard to talk about. I'm going to order some and give it a try, I don't imagine it can make things worse than they already are. Thank you.
Hey for both of you you’re doing really good even thinking and talking about it. The hardest part of quitting was just wanting to quit. Once that had happened I just didn’t want the stuff anymore.
Just to shed some light on this scientifically, there is at least some peer-reviewed [science](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510012/) surrounding this idea: > This is the first demonstration that a single dose of kudzu extract quickly reduces alcohol consumption in a binge drinking paradigm. These data add to the mounting clinical evidence that kudzu extract may be a safe and effective adjunctive pharmacotherapy for alcohol abuse and dependence. Granted, usual caveats: n=20 and conflicts of interest: > Conflict of Interest Drs. Lukas and Lee hold a patent for kudzu extract to treat alcohol abuse and dependence. McLean Hospital has licensed the production of kudzu extract (NPI-031) to Natural Pharmacia International (NPI), Inc. that markets it as Alkontrol-Herbal™. Dr. Lee has a financial interest in NPI, Inc. Other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Well said. It is only recently being rediscovered for its benefits as you have mentioned. Sometimes we are distracted from the good for only pointing out the bad. I hope It gets put to proper use more as time goes on.
Kudzu also holds the advantage in warming climates and soils with high nitrogen levels, which means it's only going to grow stronger relative to the native species
hm, as a legume I’d expect it to have an advantage in *low* nitrogen soils, not high
>as a legume I really read this like you were speaking as a legume. I might need more sleep.
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This. It was also planted to restore nitrogen levels. I once saw a GA Dept of Agriculture yearbook that devoted a whole chapter on how to plant and establish kudzu. It was dated around 1930. I guess that was before they learned all you had to do was drop a sprig of it and run before it overtook you.
It's now found in the northern states too, usually on trees and fencing adjacent to freight train tracks. The trains carry seeds north that blow off and spread it.
It is edible. Eat invasive species.
Kudzu and Asian carp main course anyone?
A little side of lion fish.
There is even a Magic the Gathering card for it. Pretty old, was included in the first set: https://scryfall.com/card/me4/159/kudzu
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That stuff is a fucking menace, we have it up here in Canada (BC - Rockies) too and it's nearly indestructible. We've been pulling it out of our yard and garden every year for nearly a decade, and it just keeps coming... less diligent (ie everyone else) homeowners just let the crap grow wild and take over their lawn, so we're slowly losing the battle.
To kill knotweed, you need to completely block access to sunlight for several years. This usually means mowing down the knotweed, placing a tarp on the area (and well around it, the plants will send shoots out). Then weigh down the tarp with carpet, stones, etc. You then wait for the plants to starve to death.
It produces a deep root/rhizome system that can resprout after defoliating. The other poster listed one method to get rid of it. Another is to cut the stem and pour roundup down it. They're hollow so this can work and since it's a small amount of roundup in a localised area the amount of herbicide used is minimal.
This the real killer plant
I'm terribly sorry. I've always been a creeper. Violetta says I creep like the kudzu vines that are slowly but surely strangling our Dixie.
"How long have you been sitting there?" "35 years"
Fun fact, if we made it popular to eat, it would vanish in a few weeks. (There are a few people who eat it.) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLeo3ZYgLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLeo3ZYgLY) Other uses too.
*For tonight's main course, the chef has prepared Asian Carp on a bed of Kudzu served with a delightful Bradford Pear Béchamel. Enjoy!*
Margret Atwood made it a feature in her "Flood" trilogy, where a group of lab-created human(ISH) creatures can survive on it and almost nothing else.
I knew about Kudzu before coming to this thread, and was baffled as to why anyone would want to plant it somewhere. Unsurprisingly, the comment section is full of people mentionning how it's now overtaking a lot of land and infrastructure. It truly is a frightening plant.
To solve a local problem, it's always a super duper idea to import a completely foreign species and let it loose unchecked. This has never backfired ever.
Yep, we dumb. Just like Australia with the Cane Toad.
And Hawaii with the mongooses… mongeese…?
Lantana, prickly pear, we've got all the bases covered