"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Ted Mittelstaedt" contains these words:


"elalamein" wrote in message
...

A neighbour has
planted four Poplar trees on his/my boundary fence.

Your best bet, IMHO, is to wait until the trees leaf out, then give them
a
good spraying of Roundup.

Bad idea; the visible leaf damage from toxic spray is entirely
different from natural dieback. One look at the leaves will be a
complete giveaway that someone has just applied poison to his trees (no
prizes for guessing whodunnit). Using a soil- poison over the roots also
risks a deadly giveaway, as it will kill any existing weed growth and
prevent weed recovery or seed germination for 6 months after, leaving
telltale bare soil patches.


Ah, but you see, he is in a very difficult position here. He's really got
only
1 shot to kill his neighbors trees. Once the neighbor realizes what he is
planning the neighbor will probably setup a camera and film him. Then
he is going to be screwed, the neighbor will have enough to sue him.

Roundup is very effective and will be translocated to the rest of the tree -
as will many other herbicides. He really doesen't have to spray the entire
tree - just get enough on his side of the tree will do it. Of course, if
the
neighbor is smart he will get wise to it - but I think the neighbor isn't
smart
or he wouildn't have planted the things in the first place. If the neighbor
catches on, he can always argue "oops, I made a mistake when I was
spraying my garden" Spraying accidents, while not everyday occurances,
happen with enough frequency that claiming it's an accident is pretty
believable - the worst that might happen is he might be required to pay
for the trees, but if they are on the property line, there will be a lot of
question
of who really owns them.

If he ever gets a clue you poisoned his trees, remember, he has already
set a precedent of killing your pet. It would be easy for him to
retaliate by laying poison bait to kill other animals you have. Are you
prepared to risk that? Getting into rural/neighbourhood tit-for-tat
feuding can escalate out of hand so is a seriously bad idea unless you
are 100% certain the crime is undetectable.

There's not really any such thing as an undetectable crime in this context.
The neighbor dislikes him and is obviously trying to do whatever possible
to be a complete asshole and jerk. As soon as the trees die, the neighbor
is going to assume that he killed them, even if it's done in a completely
clean manner. And the more effort he goes to to hide the crime, the more
effort the neighbor will put into hiding the retaliation.

He is already in a tit-for-tat situation, and it is going to escalate until
the
two neighbors make life so unpleasant for each other that one of them
decides it just isn't worth it, and sells out and moves away. And, he
already does correctly realize that the trees are planted, and if he tips
his
hand attempting mediation or some such, it will just give the neighbor
documentation that he disliked the trees - which later on when he kills
them, will be used by the neighbor against him. Further, any attempt
at mediation is going to result in some idiot mediator making the neighbor
promise to keep the trees topped, or some such, that will simply be
ignored later on. It certainly won't result in the removal of the trees
now.

Really, the best thing in a tit-for-tat situation is for him to make such a
massive retaliation that is so over the top, so that while the neighbor is
still not that emotionally involved the neighbor makes a logical conclusion
that he is an insane wacko, and it's not worth continuing the escalation.

Among other things, that
means you never, ever discuss the problem or the solution in the local
pub, at home with even your closest friends, at the local garden centre,
etc. Or blag about it on the internet.


Um, his ID that was used could be completely fake, there is no way that
you or the neighbor could trace it back to him. But you are correct about
bragging about it or telling anyone about it - that is how most criminals
get caught.

I'll admit that I discovered this in my younger days myself when I was
involved in a few relatively harmless pranks (removing No Parking signs
and such from the college strip that literally had them every 3 feet on
posts)
We never were caught actually doing the stuff - it was always later on
when someone told someone else about it that we were discovered.

If you must kill the trees, it has to be in a way that looks natural
The simplest, if they are still small enough to reach, is simply to rub
off with fingers every single leaf bud on every twig (soon, before they
start to swell and open; and keep it up with any new ones that appear
later) . A newly planted deciduous young tree which never opens a
single leaf in the first spring /summer after planting, will die.


Poplars are notorious for suckering and I don't think that this will
work right away. It might in the long run but it's going to require him
to spend a lot of time on doing it, and the more time he spends screwing
with the trees the higher the chance the neighbor will catch him in the
act.

Ted