A concerned Redditor took to the r/gardening forum to ask the community about some questionable decisions made by their parents.
In a thread titled, "Got a bad feeling... Uncontrolled Bamboo in BC, Canada?" the original poster stated their parents live on "a large plot of fairly open land" and scattered at least eight groups of bamboo across the property.
"Knowing them this is a fire and forget kind situation. After getting planted most, if not all of these shoots will be left alone to grow and no control measures will be placed," they said, adding that they were unsure if the bamboo was of the running or clumping variety. "... I'm worried that if left alone, this is going to turn into a serious problem that needs to be dealt with in a few years."
"Yeah, your parents made a mistake. Bamboo is incredibly invasive, and if it is the running type, it will take over the space pretty quickly," one commenter wrote.
This Redditor's parents serve as one of many cautionary tales of homeowners tangling with an invasive species growing out of control. One homeowner had their power lines knocked out by a neighbor's bamboo, and another had their house infiltrated by the pesky plant.
Removing invasive species can be physically and mentally taxing, but it's a necessary hassle to preserve the health of the surrounding ecosystem. They can overtake valuable resources like sunlight and nutrients in the soil from other plants yet don't provide any habitat or sustenance to local creatures. Evidently, they can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage, too.
Replacing hazardous plants with native ones can mitigate all of those issues — and then some — as rewilding your yard can pay dividends by easing any financial burdens of maintenance and giving pollinators an area to carry out their crucial functions.
A couple of Redditors jokingly suggested getting a panda to mow the bamboo forest, while others offered more practical solutions.
"Have a small bulldozer dig low enough to graze those areas to get the roots. Then dispose and or burn all that so that bamboo doesn't take hold anywhere else," a user responded.
"Bamboo can be a handy material to have around if you want to build your own tomato cages and things like that," a commenter added. "Chop it and dry it in the sun. You'll have a good stiff pole. Thinner ones have flex. Also, I hear the young shoots are edible."
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