Killing Albezia pest trees; How-To (power lines, mover, Home Depot)

[imagtek]

Albezias are an invasive pest tree introduced by the state into Puna many decades ago for 'reforestation'. As usual when introducing new species into Hawaii, things blew up in their face. Albezias grow very rapidly, become huge, form dense thickets, shade out native vegetation and become a serious hazard to everything under them due to falling limbs. They have no economic value or use, and removal of large ones is very expensive and dangerous work. Albezias are now a serious threat to the low elevation natural forest ecosystem of E. Hawaii and the state has officially designated them a pest species.

Fortunately, if you want to kill Albezias and just let them rot in-place, that is easy.

First, do NOT waste your time/money chainsawing albezias unless they are threatening a structure. They will just grow back aggressively from the stump again and again. You must poison them.

The Univ of Hawaii Ag extension did a scientific study on the most effective herbicide to kill these things. It is called Milestone (tm). Search 'albezia' on youtube.com for the presentation.

To buy the herbicide, go on the internet and google 'milestone herbicide'. You can find the stuff for about $110/quart but it KILLS these things dead, regardless of how big they are.

I ordered mine from Keystone Pest Solutions, Low price herbicides and pesticides. They ship to Hawaii via USPS. I think Amazon may also carry it.

Buy a good quality squirt/spray bottle at home depot. Not a cheap one, but one that will not leak. Pour the undiluted Milestone into it.

Wear gloves, eye protection and a long sleeve shirt. You do not want to get this stuff on you.

To kill an albezia, whack the side of the tree with a machete. Make a good deep cut, twist (but do not remove) the blade to open the cut, then squirt the UNDILUTED Milestone herbicide into the cut. Enough to fill the cut, but not drip out of it. Use the blade to keep it from splattering and funnel it into the cut. It doesn't take much. Four to five such cuts will kill the largest tree. Smaller trees can be killed with 3. If lopping saplings, squirt a drop or two on the exposed stump to prevent regrowth. For trees with multiple trunks (common) be sure to whack each trunk, not just one.

The albezia will drop its leaves within two weeks and show no signs of life after a month. My jungle property was infested with dozens of these things, some of them over 100' tall. Now they are just leafless snags that will disintegrate in a few years. Since the herbicide is not sprayed over a large area, it remains within the treatment area and will eventually biodegrade.

Total cost to clear 3 acres of monster trees: about $115, plus hours of sweaty bushwacking, fire ants, etc. but worth the effort.

Now you know.

[hotzcatz]

How long until they fall over? Isn't it hazardous until they do? Still, if it kills them, that's a good thing.

I suppose you could chainsaw the trees down and then paint the stump with the stuff and that would keep them from resprouting. Will fallen albizias sprout and grow from the fallen trunk?

Fencing and adding goats might keep cut down albizias from re-sprouting, but I'm not sure if goats eat albizia sprouts.

[Mark.ca]

Is there any way to stop them from growing from seed or you just have to inspect each year and kill the small ones individually?

[dchanmer]

My understanding is that they will first drop their leaves, then smaller branches, then begin to disintegrate fairly quickly until you are left with a manageable snag. However it is not recommended to use this approach where there is a risk of damage to neighboring structures, power lines, people etc...also girdling a tree will have the same effect, just slower.

[dchanmer]

One thing you don't want to do is clear your property before you are ready to build. Albizia thrives on cleared land. I would guess as long as there are albizia in the 'hood you will be continually weeding them out. Probably easier when they are small saplings I think you can just pull them out.

[mdand3boys]

Injection Methods for Controlling Albizia - YouTube

Watch the above video, which is a controlled test done by Dr. James Leary, CTAHR Invasive Weed Specialist.
Milestone has some very impressive (and fast) results.

[terracore]

I just drill a hole (aim the hole downwards so gravity keeps the Milestone in) into the albezia with a cordless drill and squirt 3ml of Milestone into the hole with a syringe (no needle) leftover from a previous livestock vaccination. If it's raining I plug the hole I drilled with a rock, otherwise I just walk away. Within a few days the tree will drop all its leaves, the limbs take much longer to fall.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by imagtek

Albezias are an invasive pest tree introduced by the state into Puna many decades ago for 'reforestation'. As usual when introducing new species into Hawaii, things blew up in their face. Albezias grow very rapidly, become huge, form dense thickets, shade out native vegetation and become a serious hazard to everything under them due to falling limbs. They have no economic value or use, and removal of large ones is very expensive and dangerous work. Albezias are now a serious threat to the low elevation natural forest ecosystem of E. Hawaii and the state has officially designated them a pest species.

I guess that items like canoes, pens, and tables have no "economic value."


Albezia wood pen


Albezia wood table

Originally Posted by imagtek

First, do NOT waste your time/money chainsawing albezias unless they are threatening a structure. They will just grow back aggressively from the stump again and again. You must poison them.

The Univ of Hawaii Ag extension did a scientific study on the most effective herbicide to kill these things. It is called Milestone (tm). Search 'albezia' on youtube.com for the presentation.

To buy the herbicide, go on the internet and google 'milestone herbicide'. You can find the stuff for about $110/quart but it KILLS these things dead, regardless of how big they are.

I ordered mine from Keystone Pest Solutions, Low price herbicides and pesticides. They ship to Hawaii via USPS. I think Amazon may also carry it.

Buy a good quality squirt/spray bottle at home depot. Not a cheap one, but one that will not leak. Pour the undiluted Milestone into it.

Wear gloves, eye protection and a long sleeve shirt. You do not want to get this stuff on you.

To kill an albezia, whack the side of the tree with a machete. Make a good deep cut, twist (but do not remove) the blade to open the cut, then squirt the UNDILUTED Milestone herbicide into the cut. Enough to fill the cut, but not drip out of it. Use the blade to keep it from splattering and funnel it into the cut. It doesn't take much. Four to five such cuts will kill the largest tree. Smaller trees can be killed with 3. If lopping saplings, squirt a drop or two on the exposed stump to prevent regrowth. For trees with multiple trunks (common) be sure to whack each trunk, not just one.

The albezia will drop its leaves within two weeks and show no signs of life after a month. My jungle property was infested with dozens of these things, some of them over 100' tall. Now they are just leafless snags that will disintegrate in a few years. Since the herbicide is not sprayed over a large area, it remains within the treatment area and will eventually biodegrade.

Total cost to clear 3 acres of monster trees: about $115, plus hours of sweaty bushwacking, fire ants, etc. but worth the effort.

Now you know.

That's one method of getting rid of Albezia trees; however, using a chainsaw and a stump grinder is quicker, more environmentally-friendly, and just as effective.

[terracore]

There are some species called albizia which do produce a hard wood (like the monkeypod, albizia saman) that they make canoes, furniture, pens, etc out of. They are similar to the soft wood albizia pest trees in misused nomenclature only. To further clarify, the soft spongy albizia tree referred to as an invasive albizia in Hawaii cannot be used for lumber and has no commercial value (unless you are a tree remover). There was some talk awhile back about using it as biomass for energy production, but as far as I know that was only talk.

Need to add, the albizia leaves and smaller branches actually make excellent livestock feed, as it is very high in protein (technically, I believe the albizia is a legume), and there are small brush albizia relatives grown for this purpose, but the large trees are only good for this purpose if they aren't allowed to get beyond sapling size. I sometimes machete down albizia saplings and lower hanging branches of larger trees from easements or property owners who let me. The goats, sheep, and rabbits love eating albizia, and its good for them.

A full grown albizia cannot be removed with a chainsaw, except maybe by a bona fide expert. The big ones I've seen had canopies larger than the 1 acre lots that they were on, and they had to use chains attached to bulldozers to safely bring them down, which is one of the reasons why you can often buy a property for less money than it costs to get the albizias removed from it.

[McFrostyJ]

Originally Posted by terracore

To further clarify, the soft spongy albizia tree referred to as an invasive albizia in Hawaii cannot be used for lumber and has no commercial value (unless you are a tree remover).

Surfboard builder finds gold in albizia wood - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL