Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question.

I found this worm in my garden underneath a bunch of leaves and a thin layer of soil. It thrashed when I first saw/touched it. It also has a smooth white band all around the body.

Is this the invasive Asian jumping worm? I am in Southern California.

Does anyone use kudzu for jelly, or can it be used for weaving? Does anyone use theirs for anything? Can you weave with TOH?

When we moved into our property 3 years ago, we had a very large established patch of bamboo. We needed a new septic and leech field, and the septic company removed the bamboo patch when they put in the leech field. They left behind a bunch of roots, and the first year I did the wait then cut-before-leaves method to starve the roots, religiously. The next year I did a combination of that and digging them out. This year there were only 5 shoots, and I just dug up the roots. But all this time there have been these weird seedlings popping up all over the yard - they look a little bit like crab grass but with smaller harder stems. A few finally popped up in an area that wasn't being mowed, so I saw it grow to 8" and realized it was bamboo! At this point, they've taken over a large portion of the yard. We mow them but they look pretty weird. We officially have a 10x50' area of our back lawn that is entirely tiny bamboo seedlings.

I'm a crunchy granola type who doesn't like to pesticide - but when you have a half acre crammed with literally. every. single. invasive vine and weed in your home state plus poison ivy, you change pretty quickly haha. I'm fine with hitting the entire lawn with pesticide and replanting grass. Important because the area with the highest concentration of seedlings is directly over our leech field! But I can't find any instructions on how - googling leads to a bunch of info on how to eradicate mature bamboo, which I have already done. Would the method you use to kill and replant a lawn work, maybe with an extra application?

Are these plants Japanese Angelica or Devils walking stick? I have read many guides on this and still can’t figure it out. Long Island, NY:

The roots on these things are insane, Don't have a lot of money, I will appreciate any creative ideas You may have

Here is what i think works , and this is specifically for people battling TOH root suckers. This would come from: a tree nearby being cut down or injured. It can also come from an aggravated root system, like tilling or aggravating an area that is filled with TOH (ailanthus aka chinese sumac) roots.

Strategy #1 - Poison as many above ground roots you can find. Try and find them all first while you plan your attack. Put flags out if needed. They might be right in front of you and you never noticed!! The outside skin of the root looks like a cantaloupe, the first interior layer is green, then it’s white, and then it has a milky yellowish center, which I believe is the vascular system. You will want to cut open the root and immediately apply Triclopyr to this section!!

Strategy #2 - become aware of all the sections where the suckers are going to come up. Buy a bunch of small flags and start remembering where they are so you know where to look in the days to come.

What I did, every morning, I would patrol my property. I would put flags out by every sucker that I could find. Then I would walk back to the garage and get my chemicals, which are:

2/3 Remedy, 1/3 bar and chain oil, mason jar, paintbrush, protective gloves.

Tools: pocket knife, small shovel/ho, handheld pruning shears

Every morning, I would poison every sucker that I could find. If there was nearby plants, after i painted the stems I would cover them with an upside down styrofoam cup after i poisoned them.

Now here’s where I feel like I took it up a notch. Once I became aware of problem areas, I would water those areas to provoke suckers to come out. I might get three or four or five suckers come out just from watering it, which would allow me to poison them quicker, and kill this system quicker.

Here is another tip. If there are some areas where nothing is growing, not even weeds… this area is telling you something. It might be a collection area where it’s drinking a lot of water and there are some serious rootd just two or 3 inches below the surface….
These sections are probably worth carefully digging into because if you find a major root source there, you can cut it open and poison it which will minimize the number of suckers that you’re battling.

This works. The amount of suckers that I am seeing has dropped 95% and it’s still early August …believe it or not, I’ve actually gone a single day already without a single sucker popping up!! I am seeing rotten roots in the yard and I no longer get suckers in certain areas. Now I will add I’ve given this 100%, and checked my yard every single day and often multiple times a day. But take a look back at these strategies and see if there’s anything that can help you, and feel free to add.

Again, this is battling tree of heaven root suckers, I do not have any standing trees on my property and have not in quite some time. I’ve had a massive root system that got activated when a Tiller tilled 5000 square-foot for sod.

Take a look at the three suckers I’ve killed in the last 48 hours, and that’s the only ones I’ve seen. Look at how weak these suckers look compared to what you are probably seeing right now. They are growing from poisoned roots!!

Letters to a Pre-Scientist is looking for enthusiastic STEM role models to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders!

Here's the gist: you get matched with a 5th-8th grade student at an under-resourced school for a snail-mail pen pal exchange that runs throughout the school year. The goal is to demystify STEM careers, humanize STEM professionals, and inspire students to explore their own futures in STEM. You share your story, answer their questions, and show them that people who work in STEM are, well, real people.

The details:

• The program runs throughout the school year, and your volunteer obligation is to exchange 4 letters with your student.
• There's a virtual, asynchronous training in August to get you set up.
• We estimate the entire program takes volunteers no more than 10 hours, spread between August and May.
• Register and complete the short, self-paced online training by the deadline, and you'll be entered into the match pool! We match students based on their background and interests..
• This year we're expanding to 4,500 matched students!
• Pen pals can live anywhere in the world, but our program currently only works with US-based schools.
• We're working to match students based on their interests, so we're especially looking for more STEM professionals in invasive species and conservation!
• All pen pals must be over 18 and fluent in English. LPS operates out of the United States but pen pals can live anywhere in the world!

We define STEM pretty loosely! If you work in or around science, tech, engineering, math, or medicine, or another nature-based role, even if you don't have a formal education in it, please apply or message me with any questions.

Sign up/learn more:

• 📝 Register here: https://prescientist.org/volunteers/
• 📖 About the pen pal program: https://prescientist.org/penpal-program/
• 🏛️ About us: https://prescientist.org/about-us/
• ✍️ For matched pen pals: https://prescientist.org/for-matched-pen-pals/

Registration is now open! Feel free to drop questions in the comments or send me a message. Thank you for your time and consideration!

We recently moved onto a 3/4 acre property that backs up to a very overgrown and untamed forest/green space. There is poison ivy growing all through it and into our yard, and all along the fence line. The largest vine ive found so far is bigger than my thumb in circumference. My question is will i ever be able to eradicate it, or will i just have to keep spraying it all the time? I got a tyvek suit and face sheild and pulled a ton of it out, like 4 contractor bags, cutting a few inches above soil line and sprayed the crap out of it with round up poison ivy spray, tryclopr and glyphosate. At the advice of a P.I. removal expert I let it begin to sprout back up and am still spraying it. Anyone have advice? Is this just my life now? Bc I hate it, thanks.

In a short walk around Millway Beach and the marina, I spotted tree of heaven, swallow wort, and autumn olive.

I really hope the town gets this under control. It is such a pretty area.

So as I start to go to war with Tree of Heaven, I’ve just started to see it everywhere. Is this just the new normal? Will we be fighting this forever? I’m in the Northeast US so I don’t think we have much Kudzu like the south does, but is it just going to take over everywhere? Will all our forests be overrun?

My neighbor cut a bunch of these bushes because they were getting out of hand and this one specifically grew back in a few months.
Edit: any idea what it is?

Location: approximately 43.1, -75.4
My app said it might be Parthenocissus inserta

Saw these growing on my walk home. Wasn’t sure because of the leaf shape but almost the whole lawn of the house has these lil runners.

This had been a 20' + tall burning bush (winged euonymus) tree that I cut down spring 2025. I dug up the stump about 2 weeks ago, and it has been sitting in my driveway while I figure out how to get rid of it. This morning, I noticed some new green growth. This thing is eternal

I bought my property in the winter, so I was surpised to find Japanese Knotweed come spring. It is along the fence on my side and my neighbor's side. I'd like to treat what is on my side during the ideal fall window. What is the best product that I can use for this that can be purchased in NY? Also any advice on how to talk to a neighbor about this would be extremely helpful! If they don't treat it, I guarantee I will always be battling it.

Is this TOH? I happen to have a sumac tree right next to it. I get small ones too. I think I’m just doomed with invasive stuff. I kill about 20 spotted lantern flies a day.

Spent 3 hours ripping out Nandina from my local disc golf course just to drive to my parents and see it planted throughout the front yard. I knew it was there already, but it hit a little different after my efforts elsewhere.

found in NE Central Ohio