As well as our Knotweed services, we are also highly experienced at dealing with Giant Hogweed: another invasive plant species that can cause severe skin burns if handled incorrectly.
What is Giant Hogweed?
Giant Hogweed, like Knotweed, is an invasive plant type that can grow to over 10ft tall and is a close relative of cow parsley. The sap of the plant can be extremely harmful if it comes into contact with human skin and has the potential to leave nasty burns. It’s therefore important to be able to identify Giant Hogweed to minimise risk of injury.
Key identifiers of Giant Hogweed include:
- Thick bristly stems that are often purple in colour
- White, clustered flowers
- An appearance much like cow-parsley
Controlling and disposing of Giant Hogweed
Unlike Knotweed, there is no legal obligation for home or landowners to remove Giant Hogweed and local authorities will often take action towards removal if it’s identified in public areas.
However, it is recommended that Giant Hogweed is controlled professionally to stop the invasive plant spreading and causing more damage in the future.
Giant Hogweed can often be dealt with in a non-chemical manner, such as digging out. However, where these methods aren’t feasible, due to breadth of spread for example, chemical controls may be brought into place such as glyphosate-based weedkillers.
Like Knotweed, Giant Hogweed must be disposed of as a controlled waste. Therefore, it must be taken off site and to a licensed landfill area.
Work with us
When dealing with Giant Hogweed, it’s important to work with an experienced professional to avoid personal injury and ensure the disposal methods are in line with various regulations. That’s where Japanese Knotweed Sussex come in. We’ve years of experience across Sussex, Surrey, Brighton, London and Kent at identifying, controlling and safely disposing of Giant Hogweed.