Japanese Honeysuckle

Miller, James H.; Manning, Steven T.; Enloe, Stephen F. 2010. A management guide for invasive plants in southern forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–131. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 120 p.

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.) is a semievergreen to evergreen woody vine, high climbing and trailing to 80 feet (24 m), branching and often forming arbors in forest canopies and/or ground cover under canopies. It has opposite leaves, ovate to oblong being green above with the undersurface appearing whitish. Both surfaces smooth to rough hairy. Vines root at nodes when covered by leaves and make control difficult. Often coexists with other invasive plants. Occurs as dense infestations along forest margins and rights-of-way as well as under dense canopies and as arbors high in canopies. Shade tolerant. Persists by large woody rootstocks and spreads mainly by vines rooting at nodes and less by animal-dispersed seeds. Infrequently seeding within forest stands and having very low germination. Seed survival in the soil is less than 2 years. Still planted in wildlife openings and invades surrounding lands. Resembles viney native honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) that usually have reddish hairless stems and hairless leaves and do not form extensive infestations.

Management strategies

Do not plant. Remove prior plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of plants and fruit in a dumpster or burn.
Treat when new plants are young to prevent seed formation.
Pull, cut, and treat when fruit are not present.
Manually pull when soil is moist to ensure removal of all stolons and roots.
Prescribed burning in spring will reduce dense ground mats and sever climbing vines for more effective herbicide treatments to resprouting vines. However, resprouting after one prescribed burn can intensify infestations. Climbing honeysuckle vines can become ladder fuels for fire to reach tree canopies. Repeated burning treatments will not control the plant, and burning is difficult due to absence of fine fuels under honeysuckle mats.
Readily eaten by goats.

Recommended control procedures

When nontarget damage is not a concern, apply Escort XP* with a surfactant to foliage (June to August) either by broadcast spraying 2 ounces per acre in water (0.6 dry ounce per 3-gallon mix) or by spot spraying 2 to 4 ounces per acre in water (0.6 to 1.2 dry ounces per 3-gallon mix).
Or treat foliage with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant (July to October, or during warm days in winter), keeping spray away from desirable plants: a glyphosate herbicide as a 2-percent solution (8 ounces per 3-gallon mix) or Garlon 3A or Garlon 4 as a 3- to 5-percent solution (12 to 20 ounces per 3-gallon mix).
Or cut large vines just above the soil surface and immediately treat the freshly cut stem with a glyphosate herbicide or Garlon 3A as a 20-percent solution (5 pints per 3-gallon sprayer) in water with a surfactant (July to October). ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective for treating cut-stumps and readily available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants) while Brush-B-Gon and Enforcer Brush Killer can be mixed in water and used as foliar sprays.

* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.

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