In news media and scientific accounts and on some government websites, kudzu is typically said to cover seven million to nine million acres across the United States. But scientists reassessing kudzu’s spread have found that it’s nothing like that. In the latest careful sampling, the U.S. Forest Service reports that kudzu occupies, to some degree, about 227,000 acres of forestland, an area about the size of a small county and about one-sixth the size of Atlanta. That’s about one-tenth of 1 percent of the South’s 200 million acres of forest. By way of comparison, the same report estimates that Asian privet had invaded some 3.2 million acres—14 times kudzu’s territory. Invasive roses had covered more than three times as much forestland as kudzu.
Chinese privet is terrible and practically impossible to kill off. Not only does it grow from seeds but from the roots as well, so just cutting it down isn’t enough.
The best technique as far as I’ve heard is to cut it down to the stump and put a bit of Glyphosate (Roundup) on the fresh cut. I’ve used an eyedropper but seen these little bottles with a foam top to stamp the stump with.
Groups around us will have privet clearing parties and that’s what they do.