[King Prout]

ok... tell me: how the HELL do you kill off muscadene vines???

they are doing their level best to kill my pines, destroy what lawn and bushes I have, tear out my fences, and are otherwise occupying space I'd rather use for a stand of native-species bamboo.

slash-and-burn did NOT work.

[Dawsonville_Doc]

ok... tell me: how the HELL do you kill off muscadene vines???

Ok, I already did... first, you live in Georgia, it's spelled muscadIne, and Round-Up is your friend. Either that or plant kudzu or wisteria (translation- throw a seed as far as you can and RUN) and let them fight it out for dominance. Since you want to replace it with bamboo, which wouldn't stand a chance of competing, very carefully spray the leaves of the vines with Round-up on the morning of a hot day well before the thunderstorms arrive. You shouldn't have to do this more than twice.

[Carry_Okie]

ok... tell me: how the HELL do you kill off muscadene vines???

I am not familiar with this weed, but here is what I would try on most any viney plant:

1. Whack out as much as you can with a saw blade on a brushwhacker or cut them off with a hand lopper and pull the stuff out into piles.
2. Burn, cover in black plastic, or dispose as appropriate (if it starts from cuttings, don't chip it.
3. Mix up some straight RoundUp with an indicator dye and daub the mix on the cut stubs within eight hours of having cut them off (the dye helps you see which ones you missed and precludes you from hitting any of them twice).
4. Spot spray of RoundUp thereafter should keep them down. If you maintain grass (which included bamboo) in that area, you may prefer a selective herbicide such as Garlon or Turflon for spot spray application. Be sure to use an indicator dye therein as well. You may also need a spreader sticker and/or drift control agent in the mix. Surfactants can help a lot with efficiency because they can allow you to back off on the concentration of the active ingredient and save some money if the leaf has a waxy surface.

What I don't know is if muscadine has long seed dormancy. If it does, it will help you to keep germination down by either maintaining some other groundcover or keeping your forest so dark and loaded with needles that nothing gets started. Just remember that if is does have long seed dormancy and you do a harvest, be ready for it to come back.

Finally (and this is a general rule), make absolutely sure that every piece of heavy equipment gets washed thoroughly before and after every job. I would also banish roadside mowing and ditch cleaning equipment and take care of the right-of-way yourself.