GOALKEEPER April 29, 2015

Who would you rather have in your goal, an inexperienced, nervous young lad with tiny hands or a slightly older guy with huge hands and a string of successful cup finals under his belt? I’m using the goalkeeper metaphor as an example of someone protecting your interests, someone dedicated to stopping the problems.

You need experience, you need skills and you need a professional team to support the keeper…

Here at Japanese Knotweed Solutions we consider experience to be vital in our campaign to rid the UK of its most aggressive of invaders.

We don’t send children out to do a ‘mans’ job.

If we have a particularly complex site with a variety of issues we send ‘Team 1’, also known as the ‘A’ team, they’ve been everywhere, done everything and nothing will ‘faze’ them…

We always pair a new lad with someone who will teach and encourage the best from the ‘newby’, they do this not by bullying but instead by explaining and going through the processes so that the new guy understands the process and isn’t just acting like an automaton.

It’s this ‘understanding’ that enables our lads to react in the correct way when something doesn’t go quite as planned.

For example Japanese Knotweed rhizome is often described as going 2 to three metres deep and 7 metres in all directions form the surface growth.

What happens if it doesn’t? What happens when a building is within that 7 metre zone of spread?

Duuuuh – do you stand and scratch your head? Do you get a tape measure and put a peg in the building at exactly 7 metres form the surface growth and dig for victory (I’ve seen this done!).

Our teams are encouraged to realise that Japanese Knotweed is, at the end of the day – a plant. Yes it does some weird stuff, but when all’s said and done it has many of the same characteristics as many of the other trees and shrubs that grow in the UK. It needs moisture, it needs sunlight and its primary function is to spread and reproduce.

It will also take the easiest option when spreading and will grow quickest in the environment that is easiest for it to spread into…what it will not do then… is grow through concrete for fun.

It will NOT see your semi-detached property on the horizon and think – …WHOOPIE I’M GOING TO TRASH THAT HOUSE…

Now don’t get me wrong here, if you have built your semi-detached property on top of actively growing rhizome – then you are going to have some major problems – but if your house was there first and the Knotweed has arrived after the house has been there for 30 years then you will not have too much to worry about as any new growth will find easier ways to spread than through your front room.

Our teams understand these growth habits and will look at your knotweed problems with an open eye to where the plant is most likely to spread. They will ensure that when they excavate to remove the plant – AND – they will not be digging up huge swathes of clean soil

To carry on the earlier metaphor we want you to have a goalkeeper with the hugest of hands and the safest of grips…

So to ensure that your ‘goalkeeper’ is the most competent you can employ we ensure that all our ‘players’ are trained and qualified to the highest of standards – premiership ‘players’ are required to be members of INNSA…

So don’t employ a non-league team, employ a professional team at the highest level and make sure that not only do you win all your matches …but no own goals are scored.

CAN (INSERT SUBSTANCE HERE) KILL JAPANESE KNOTWEED? April 29, 2015

Every week, I do an analysis on our Google Adwords account, to see what people searched for to lead them to our website.

It may sound a little boring, and I bet most of you are thinking “well, all anyone is going to look up is just ‘Japanese Knotweed’ plain and simple!” right?

Wrong.

I get the odd ‘gem’ of a word or phrase that pops up in my list of matched searched queries, that either make me giggle or confuse the heck out of me.

One such example – of which someone actually got our sponsored link and we were charged for – was ‘bear den’.

It turns out Google decided we should show up in the listings, as Mike once wrote a blog which contained the words ‘bear den’ – however, our ad that came up had nothing else to do with bears, so I am not sure what compelled the person to actually click our sponsored link…. but there you go.

Google would probably say we should thank them for getting people onto our site, but I think it’s daft that having only one recurrence of those words got us on Google.

…It’s a lesson to keep your website strictly to the matter at hand, and not go on about other things. Unless your website is about bears, then you can go on about them as much as you like.

As well as the random, we always get the usual “can (insert substance here) kill JK?” such as; Caustic soda, salt, Clinic ace, or even Diesel (I would hate to think what happened when someone use the latter on their garden).

Some other funny phrases include “wot kills not weed”, “will goats eat Japanese Knotweed”, “Japanese Knotweed b*ll*cks” (not sure what they were getting at there), and even the scientific likes of “what type of cell division does the japanese knotweed plant use for reproduction”.

If I knew the answer to the last question, I would not be here talking about funny words!

I wonder if anyone else suffers from random website visitors…

Jamie

THE EXORCIST April 29, 2015

The Exorcist, The Possessed, Poltergeist, The Evil Dead….pick whichever horror story you want, they all have a common story line. Something bad happens and everyone is horrified and doesn’t know what to do about the problem.

Everyone scratches their heads then someone wanders down into the cellar and is killed in the most horrific way the ‘special effects’ team can produce.

Then someone calls in an ‘expert’ who gets rid of the problem…everything settles back to normality….

…then aaaaarrrrggghhh out of the blue….

….the ‘thing’ comes back and kills everyone…

Cue – The Exorcist 2, The Possessed 2 etc

Hmmmm does this remind you of anything?

A Japanese Knotweed infestation can be as horrific as even the most ‘18’ rated movie. Your house suddenly can’t be sold, neighbours are walking past your property and pointing and whispering. Friends avoid coming round…and the postman won’t walk up the path to deliver your post.

You just don’t know what to do so you hit the internet and start to look for a local ‘expert’, you haven’t really got a clue what you’re looking for so you just pick the one with the cheapest price? The guy turns up in his white chemical suit and sprays some dodgy ‘XXX Brand’ chemical onto your Japanese Knotweed and it quickly turns brown and curls up.

He takes the cash with his grubby fingers, shoves it in his back pocket and jumps in his white van with a nod and a wink….then drives off at great speed leaving you with nothing other than a slight suspicion that you’ve just been ‘had’.

You are reasonably happy though – pretty convinced you’ve done the right thing.

Phew..

The problems are over and you can sleep easily at night, the neighbours start talking to you again and the postman happily whistles as he delivers your post through your letter box…

….but….what’s that red stem appearing through the debris of the surface growth…

Aaaaaaaarrrgghhhh

Its back!

What I’m saying here is don’t get taken in by the first film, jump straight to the sequel or even the final chapter in the Trilogy….get someone in who knows what they are doing at the first visit.

Films and horror stories are fine, but with movies the second chapter is never as good and by the time you’ve hit Poltergeist 4 – the plot has gone completely bonkers.

With Japanese Knotweed eradication the first attempt to kill the plant is often the weakest and most ineffective – done by someone who just isn’t qualified to deal with the issues. It then takes the second or third attempt to put things right.

This can be avoided by coming straight to the experts as soon as you realise that you are dealing with a ‘monster’ of a plant – call Japanese Knotweed Solutions as soon as you suspect you have a ‘Possession’ by this most ‘horrific’ of plants.

WEED SOLUTIONS ‘R’ US April 29, 2015

Another new weed control company and another new name on Google, and unfortunately another company copying my photographs and putting them on their website (…you would think I would get tired of suing people….but I don’t).

But….dear reader….how can you….the Google punter – decide which are the best companies to call once you have done a quick search of the generic term Japanese Knotweed?

All of these companies state that they are ‘experts’ they are all ‘the number 1 service provider’ they are all ‘the first company to recognise the problems’…..aaarrrrggghhh…..who’s telling the truth….who should you believe?

Do you go for the ‘Number 1’ on the PPC (Pay Per Click) adverts on the top of the page or do look within the ‘organic links which have been optimised by the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation teams)…

Or do you think… ‘hmmmm the person on top of the PPC page is just paying for that position and may not actually be the best company to deal with….?’

Or….do you phone a few different websites and see what takes your fancy? Maybe you ring a couple of numbers and see who you like the sound of …..maybe….?

Or…..you could take the guesswork out of the equation and look for a trade body that actually checks the qualifications and skills of its members?

You need to be looking at the Invasive Non –Native Specialists Association website – www.innsa.org – all of their members are vetted and checked, they must all be members of BASIS and be able to meet the Amenity Assured standard, they must have ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 and all of their teams must be qualified to the highest of standards.

You will be able to see on the INNSA website all of the company qualifications and skills – and see examples of their works on the section marked case studies. Any domestic works will be covered under the INNSA insurance backed guarantee and any commercial works will be covered under specific insurance policies specific to the company that you select.

Take away the guesswork , use a trade body you can trust – www.innsa.org

More Horror Stories April 29, 2015

As our team of surveyors travel around the country they often come up against our competitors. Obviously clients want to know that they are getting value for money so it’s only right that they get quotes from other companies that deal with Japanese Knotweed. However…we don’t half get to hear some interesting stories;

On a large (Olympian scale) project where a screening process was used, the arising material was sold as ‘clean’ topsoil – aaaarrrgghh this is both illegal and incorrect. The arising material from screening must be kept on site and dealt with as contaminated as it is highly likely to contain active rhizome. Ideally it should be buried on site and monitored over the coming seasons, as an option it can be stockpiled and monitored in a waste management area.

On a large housing project rhizome material was being buried on site in a terram liner which split during the burial process – when asked by the client what they were going to do about this the contractor replied – ‘if you won’t tell anyone then I won’t either’ …again aaaaarrrggghhh. JKSL (and other INNSA members) use landfill grade liners (which aren’t cheap) which don’t split and tear under stress – these liners are heat sealed and glued together to give the most secure of barriers available in the market today.

JKSL have been looking at a project in Middlesbrough where a client had a small Japanese Knotweed problem – they had called us in because they were a little doubtful of the advice given by the French speaking contractor they had contacted. They had been told that ‘every house’ on ze estate ‘had to have how you say …an insurance backed warranty …’ even though only one of the properties had been impacted by an adjacent infestation of knotweed. They had quoted £60,000.00 yes SIXTY THOUSAND POUNDS – plus VAT …our quotation was £3885.00 plus VAT …again …aaaaarrrggghhh
It is no wonder that the industry has been accused of malpractice when idiots like these are wandering around. My problem is that people keep employing these morons – and I can’t quite understand why?

Luckily the company that was involved with the first two incidences has ceased to trade – unluckily they have started to trade again under pretty much the same name but just adding Research and Development to their previous abbreviated name…be warned…!

My theory with some of the other nonsense that goes on is that people just don’t understand knotweed removal. They go into a panic with some of the stories that are circulated and then they believe what the scaremonger contractors tell them…

Well please let me give you all a piece of good advice – please DO NOT just pick any old contractor to give you advice – use the INNSA website www.innsa.org.

The Invasive Non-Native Specialists Association will not give you any bullshit, they won’t tell you horror stories and they won’t over charge you. You will get clear impartial advice and you will get prices that are comparable – if one of our members is cheaper or more expensive there will be a valid reason for the cost difference (probably geographic) …and…you will not find one INNSA member quoting £500.00 and the next one £128,000 as has happened on a recent tender bid on which we submitted prices (…not an INNSA approved tender list I should add!).

Japanese Knotweed eradication is not a mystical science, it’s not smoke and mirrors and there are NO ‘secret techniques’ – there are clear rules and regulations that must be followed, as set out in the Environment Agency Code of Practice. The techniques employed have clearly defined parameters with clear costs associated with them – do NOT employ anybody that tells you they have a secret chemical mix …and do not employ anyone that has an acronym in their method statement.

Acronyms are used to just try and make something simple… sound complicated…

So PLEASE for my peace of mind and to stop me banging my head against a brick wall – please, please use an INNSA contractor and don’t employ anybody that’s French.

Let’s turn the horror stories into fairy tales with happy endings…

Mike C

MAINTAIN YOUR HYGIENE… April 29, 2015

Do you wash your hands after going to the toilet? …no brainer, ‘yes’ obviously…

Did you clean your boots after the last site visit you made?

Er, duuuh, probably that would be a NO…

What about all the seeds that you have been walking through?

Himalayan balsam produces thousands upon thousands of seeds all of which are looking to find a new home to spread the parent plant population. Fishermen casually wading through marginal areas of wetland will disturb the seed heads of these plants and then cross contaminate the next area that they fish unless strict cleaning procedures are carried out each time they visit a new location. Nets and boots as well as waders must all be cleaned and de-contaminated – easily done but how many of these anglers are actually doing this?

Crassula helmsii (Australian swamp stone crop) is gradually making its way Northward through the country, but how is it doing this? Birds have been blamed for picking up fragments of the plant and then dropping them in the next watercourse – unlikely – it is far more probable that a fisherman has used a contaminated net or boots and unwittingly caused the problem to spread.

Japanese knotweed doesn’t actually spread by seed, it spreads by what are called ‘propagules’ this basically means any part of the plant that you break off has the ability to re-grow. So if a piece breaks off and is casually picked up on your boot as you leave site, you will cause the plant to spread.

Good hygiene and bio-security arrangements are essential to the successful operation of any business within the land based sector.

Current high profile news stories about mortgages being refused due to the presence of Japanese knotweed will only raise the number of legal cases and litigation and is bound to result in fingers being pointed and blame being allocated wherever a mistake has been made. Anybody carrying out site works in contaminated areas must ensure that they cannot be held liable for casual cross contamination.

The exact arrangements for maintaining hygiene and bio-security will depend upon the environment in which you work and the activities carried out.

Maintaining bio-security is the responsibility of everyone who enters the site, and you will be expected to encourage others, particularly visitors, contractors or customers – to follow established procedures.

You must encourage your teams to carry out work in a way which will consider any impact on the natural environment and bio –security should become as second nature as washing your hands after going to the loo!

DON’T CRY – SHE’S NOT WORTH IT April 29, 2015

I have been shocked twice this week and both of these incidents involved Japanese knotweed. The first was a couple who came to one of presentations who ended up in tears and the second related to a couple whose knotweed problem ended up with someone being killed!

I really thought that I had seen everything with JK….but apparently not.

What is sad about both of these shocking incidents is that they were all born from the misconception that a Japanese knotweed infestation is the end of the world. I admit it’s not a laughing matter but it’s also not something worth killing somebody over.

The first of these incidents involved a couple that came along to my presentation – they had been duped when they bought their house and were now struggling to sell their property because of a knotweed infestation. The seller didn’t confess to having knotweed in their sale documents and the surveyor didn’t pick up on the tell-tale signs of Japanese knotweed in it’s over winter state. So the sale went through and it was only in the following Spring that the new owner noticed bright red shoots rapidly growing in the bottom of the garden and began to wonder what this plant could be. A bit of Google research and a nifty look over the fence led to the conclusion that they had a major problem in their garden and an even bigger issue on the adjoining river bank. Japanese knotweed was everywhere and in such an advanced state of growth that even the thought of trying to start an eradication strategy was mind boggling.

The second incident was in the paper this morning with an article describing a husbands defence in the murder of his wife being that the ….’stress of a nearby Japanese knotweed infestation’ which had driven him to the terrible act in the heat of the distress caused. This – from what we are told- related to Japanese knotweed on adjacent land – with the land owner refusing to take action to eradicate the plant, again resulting in an un-saleable property.

Whilst I don’t profess to having all the answers to Japanese knotweed legal problems – both of these incidents are covered under legal precedent. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act it is illegal to allow Japanese knotweed to grow from your land into an adjacent property – this is covered under ‘common law’ as a ‘nuisance’ and can result in fines and compensation.

With the first incident where the house sale went through and the Japanese knotweed wasn’t spotted by the surveyor – I’m sorry – but his Professional Indemnity Insurance would be my first port of call. It is fairly straightforward to tell how long Japanese knotweed has been in a certain location. Growth patterns and size of growth will give a clear indication of whether the plant has been there for one year two years or ten years. So any signs of growth (and there are always signs) the surveyor should have picked up on them – whatever the time of year. I would be asking for compensation from the surveyor and would happily get a solicitor to pursue them for the costs of employing a reputable contractor to resolve the issues – and to provide a twenty five year insurance backed warranty for the new purchaser of the property.

With the second incident we are given to understand that the infestation was on local authority land – and again they are in breach of the law for allowing the infestation to spread onto adjacent properties. This is pretty straightforward stuff – first a letter advising them of the problem and giving them a timescale to resolve the issues. Second a letter from your solicitor telling them that you want the issue resolving and compensation for your stress and the upset caused.

So in both of these cases it isn’t worth tears and it certainly isn’t worth killing somebody over. Japanese knotweed isn’t pleasant but it is treatable and it shouldn’t be seen as the end of the world.