This is the second of a four-part story to recap a virtual symposium conducted by Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group on “Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants: Assess, Remove, Replace, and Restore.”

Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) hosted its 2022 virtual symposium with the theme of “Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants: Assess, Remove, Replace, and Restore” on November 3.

The full-day webcast took place from 8:30 am to 4 pm. It featured multiple sessions that covered terrestrial and aquatic invasive plant topics.

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Pesticide Management Program Supervisor Diane Jorsey was the second speaker for the morning session of the symposium. Her talk was titled, “Requirements for Pesticide Applications on Conservation Lands.”

She explained that the Connecticut General Statutes defines pesticide as “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pests or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.”

As a result, any pesticide that is used in Connecticut must be registered through the state and classified. Classifications are: general use, where anyone can buy it; restricted use, where a person needs a certification to buy it; or where one needs a permit to use it.

Jorsey said that home remedies, such as a do-it-yourself (DIY) weed killer, can be used for non-commercial home use but not anywhere else.

She detailed how there are different requirements for becoming certified as a Commercial Supervisor, Commercial Junior Operator, and having an Aquatic Permit.

“In a school setting anyone making a pesticide application on school grounds needs to have certification either as a Commercial Supervisor or Junior Operator, because the law requires that. [For] municipal land, other than school property or school grounds, there is not a specific certification requirement,” Jorsey said.

Even if a pesticide is considered to be a “low toxicity” product, she emphasized that precautions still need to be taken before using the pesticide. Some helpful personal protective equipment (PPE) would be wearing long sleeves, pants, a hat or bandana, safety glasses or goggles, and closed-toed shoes with socks; then washing everything afterwards separate from other laundry.

For those with pesticide questions, people can contact Jorsey at diane.jorsey@ct.gov or 860-424-3328.

Breakout Sessions

The invasive plant symposium offered two concurrent sessions with attendees being able to select their desired option.

Those who selected Session 2 heard from three speakers on the topic of “Managing in Your Backyard: Failures and Successes.”

Kathleen Nelson, of Mad Gardeners, spoke about an issue facing Newtown, as well as throughout Connecticut, with her talk, “Managing Mile-a-Minute in One Hundred Backyards: A Case Study.”

For more than 15 years, her group has been monitoring and working to remove the mile-a-minute vine and found over the years it continues to reoccur.

“Mile-a-minute vine is a vine. It has leaves that are perfect equilateral triangles. The stems have little barbs. The plants climb by hooking not twining. We could not manage them as we do if they twined,” Nelson said.

She noted to look for round green parts, they could be flower buds, flowers, or fruits. Similarly, round blue parts can be seen on mile-a-minute, and if those are spotted it means it has viable seeds. The seeds will then fall off quickly.

“Before the end of the season mile-a-minute can grow six inches a day,” Nelson said. “Individual plants become very large, easily covering a large shrub or group of shrubs, and eventually spreading to cover the landscape in just a few seasons.”

She later added, “Mile-a-minute germinates in March or April. There is almost never later germination. Because it germinates all at once, a carefully timed pre-emergent herbicide can help sometimes, but we found it to be not worth the effort. General purpose herbicides, such as Roundup, are in our opinion, no help. They kill the competition, but not the seeds.”

Ideally, it is best to remove the plants before they go to seed. Mowing and weed whacking the invasive can be helpful; however it is best to pull the plants out. After, it should be bagged and not composted.

Nelson recommended that mile-a-minute be monitored and pulled every three weeks, because in her experience waiting four weeks is already too long and the plant gains traction.

For more information, she advised people visit madgardeners.com and e-mail her at knelson151@sbcglobal.net.

‘Engraved Invitation’

Landscape Designer Kathleen Connolly spoke next during the breakout session about “Managing Invasive Plants at Home: Details That Make a Difference.”

She started off by sharing how in her profession she is constantly asked about plants on people’s property, if they are invasive plants, and what should be planted instead.

“I thought it was important to talk about what happens in the backyard, but also to think bigger because our yards are not islands,” Connolly said. “I’d like to call attention to three topics that affect all of our backyards. One, the ‘engraved invitation’ that many of us put out to invasive plants; two, neighborhood conversations and public conversations about invasive plants; and three, how to do better.”

She described the “engraved invitation” to be when people pick up free topsoil, fill, and mulch/compost, because even though they think they are getting a deal, they do not know what is truly in it.

“In reality, a lot of this material can contain seeds or propagules of invasive plants or creatures, such as jumping worms,” Connolly said.

Even if homeowners do everything they can to prevent inviting invasive plants into their yards, what is happening around their yard can ultimately affect them.

“There are no fences good enough to defend us totally from invasive plants,” Connolly said.

In her career, she has seen a client with a neighbor who had bittersweet hanging from a dead tree over the fence that would drop berries/seeds into the person’s yard. She has also seen multiple clients who have a neighbor with mugwort on their property and the invasive plant’s strong roots creep under the fence to her clients’ side.

Going to the town about these issues can be done, but it can impair the relationship between neighbors. Connolly suggests looking at the bigger picture of creating a community conversation about invasive plants.

As for how to do better, she says to avoid those engraved invitations and help educate the public about invasive plants through signs, handouts, and events.

For horticulture consulting, Connolly guided people to visit speakingoflandscapes.com.

Professional Applicator

Zachary Donais, of the CT DEEP Pesticide Management Program, concluded the breakout session with his presentation called, “When Is a Licensed Professional Applicator the Best Option for Invasive Plant Removal?”

He explained that his agency promotes using Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

“If you get to the point where you’ve determined a pesticide application is needed and should be made, you should be familiar with the label. As Diane [Jorsey] stated earlier this morning, the label is the law,” Donais said.

The label has information about how and where the product can be used, the proper dilution rate, and the required PPE.

“People who are running a pesticide application business must have a pesticide business registration. In order to have a pesticide business registration they must employ at least one Certified Supervisor in any or all categories they do work,” he explained. “We currently have 24 categories of certification.”

The business can also employ Junior Operators that can be supervised or have written instruction on what to do.

According to Donais, pesticide application signs need to be posted within a hundred feet of a property line and at conspicuous points of entry for homeowners. The exception is for fenced areas and land less than 100 square feet.

For commercial applications, it needs a posting every 150 feet of road frontage.

Online services he recommended using are elicense.ct.gov and portal.ct.gov/DEEP/pesticides/information-look-up.

For questions related to pesticides, contact Donais at zachary.donais@ct.gov or call 860-424-3326.

For more information about CIPWG and to access symposium access handouts from the speakers, visit cipwg.uconn.edu/2022-symposium.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.