How do I kill these damned saplings?
 

So, maybe I'm naive but where I came from we didn't have this problem because it was hard as hell to get anything to grow. Up here in Iowa, I've learned that if you so much as drop a seed onto the ground the plant may impale your feet as it rockets up from the earth.

I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on near some big annual flowering privacy bushes in the backyard and I discovered earlier this summer that I've got 4 of these healthy-looking saplings growing through them, which I promptly cut and disposed of. They must have started a couple years ago and I guess the previous owner did nothing about them, because we're talking 2-3 inch little stumps now. They are growing right in the bushes so it is too awkward to attempt to dig them out without harming the plants, and they keep trying to sprout back. Now that I'm aware of these monstrosities, I've been murdering these baby trees when they come up (had a couple try to sneak up right against the house).

I dont think I can use any chemicals because I may harm the huge bushes they are re-growing in. How do I kill these things? If I just keep cutting them down over and over again several times a year, do they give up and die? Any other tips?

I don't know what a sapling is, but my suggestion is to Kill it with fire.

I'm assuming its a baby tree or something.

smoke them

unfortunately as I mentioned, these things are growing right in and through big privacy bushes that I want to keep. If they were in the middle of the yard or something I imagine I'd just dig them out with a shovel or burn them as you suggested.

If you can get a small limb you might try filling a beer bottle with roundup ,stick the end of the branch into it and secure it to where it stays for an extended period . The branch will absorb the roundup and hopefully kill the roots.

They're probably Mulberry...deposited in your bushes by bird turds.

Cut them and spray them with Tordon.

DDT if you can find it? Otherwise anti-freeze? :shrug:

Pretty much. You can cut them out and within ten minutes brush some herbicide (something with Triclopyr as the active ingredient) on the top of the stump. The tree will suck the herbicide into the roots and kill it without collateral damage.
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copper nail
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7 posts before antifreeze?? Let's not get this twisted, CP has lost it's burst.

Antifreeze only works against AidsTrees.

What about nacho trees?

You don't have to worry about those because they're not yours, or not chose, as it were.

"Paint" them with roundup. It will only kill the tree if you use a little paintbrush on them and shouldn't harm the bushes.

Tordon kills about anything that is freshly cut. Pick up a bottle at your local co-op for about 10 bucks or so. Cut them off at the ground cover the stump with it. It kills hedge if applied right after cutting and that's the hardest stuff to kill that there is.