On 8/6/2013 8:15 PM, Bob F wrote:
Moe DeLoughan wrote:
On 8/5/2013 1:22 PM, Lisa T wrote:
My neighbour has a huge oak tree literally on my boundary fence.
It's so massive that it takes all light from the middle section of
my garden. The trees on my side (an apple and rowan tree) are
bending, trying to look for light.

I've been in this situation before, including having the
passive-aggressive neighbor who is fully aware that the tree is a
nuisance to you - but instead of candidly discussing the problem, she
prevaricates, promises, and complains.

I'll tell you what I finally resorted to (and this was after a third
of the tree crashed down onto my parked car during a storm, leaving me
responsible for the removal and cleanup, since it fell onto my
property):
I acquired a bottle of brushkiller (failing that, the most
highly-concentrated formulation of Roundup could be used). In the
middle of the night, I quietly went to the tree and dug away some of
the soil to expose a spot on one of the larger roots. I scraped off a
small patch of the root's surface with the knife, applied a goodly
spoonful of the brushkiller to the exposed area. I then patted the
dirt back over the spot and went back to bed.

Within a week, the tree began to show some browning of a branch or
two. I said nothing, but repeated the process in a couple of weeks,
this time finding another root to treat, as well as hitting the
original root with another dose. By the time the damage from the
second application showed up, the neighbor noticed the tree was in
distress and had it removed. Good thing; I was prepared to continue
until the tree died.

You can also kill a tree by girdling it - removing a collar of bark
from the base of the tree - but that is much easier to detect than a
few scraped patches on some roots.

I had an elderly neighbor that didn't like a shrup growing on his neighbors yard
edge. He sprayed it with some weed killer at night. His neighbor hired a sprayer
to spray his fruit tree, and the sprayer asked about the dying shrub. The
sprayer took it upon himself to notify the local state EPA equivalent about it.
They sent an investigator who tested the plant to determine the chemical, then
cornered the elderly neighbor and had a long talk with him. He could have been
prosecuted, had the investigator chosen to.



I'm calling BS on this one. The feds lack the funding and thus the
inclination to investigate a single incident complaint. They declined
to investigate a local "lawn care expert" who was recommending the use
of a banned chemical for off-label purposes and openly selling at his
store. Additionally, we had one hell of a time getting the state, much
less the feds, to do anything about all the complaints about
misapplied chemicals from the lawn care services in the area. The
reality is that the regulatory agencies have been deliberately starved
of funds and are thus so short-handed, they have to practice triage -
which means no, they do not go out an conduct an investigation of a
lone neighbor complaint.

Hell, we couldn't even get them to investigate the chemical dumping
along the local railroad tracks, until we got the media involved.