Killing bamboo

Hello!

We live on a terrace where every garden is quite small and, naturally, close together. At some point, someone planted bamboo into the ground (I'm not sure who) and it's spread like wildfire. It pops up everywhere in our (small) garden. If I lift up the patio slabs (our garden is all patio), the roots are there, everywhere, and they are STRONG. We recently replaced our fence panels so we were able to get at a thicket between our fence and next door's shed, so we cut it all down and squirted poison into the canes. We have tried pouring boiling water on it. It's a bit more under control now, but I want it dead. We want to repave our garden at some point but I don't want to spend a fortune re-doing it if bamboo is just going to push it up again! Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

@SecretSnorlax
I think the options are either dig it out or repeated treatment with weedkiller.
Dig it out: Hard work, I found the best tool to be a mattock. Fortunately the roots are not particularly deep. If you are going to repave you may very well need to do some root removal regardless.
Weedkiller: Wait for it to reshoot and then treat with glyphosate and repeat until it gives up. There are alternative weedkillers that could be used for example SBK brushwood killer, Tree stump killer See here for other products Bamboo control / RHS Gardening

 

Thank you very much! The problem we have is that a lot of the bamboo is outside of our property. We can remove our fences to get at the stuff in the garden behind us or a garden to the side (it is between our fences and their sheds), but I can't get rid of it all. But perhaps if I dig up everything on our property and then poison the hell out of it, that'll work. I've bought some of the SBK tree stump killer and will read the article. Thank you!

 

I notice SBK doesn't kill grass, now I know bamboo isn't exactly grass but it's pretty close.
Will it work?

 

According to a couple of Amazon reviews, they've managed to use it successfully on bamboo. I've got the kind that's also good for Japanese knotweed, so I reckon if it can kill that, it can kill anything...stay tuned, however.

 

Good point Pete, I didn't know so I had a further look. The active ingredient is trichlopyr which is a plant hormone mimic and is stated not to harm grass, or conifers except for some pines, the same goes for 2 4 D which is used in combination with trichlopyr in Crossbow.
There appear to be two modes of action at low concentrations it causes uncontrolled cell growth and then death; at high concentrations they inhibit cell division and growth so when applied to freshly cut stumps there is no regrowth. The label for SBK gives two dilutions one for brambles etc 30mL in 1.5 litres and for stumps add 200mL to 300mL of water and brush on, an awful lot stronger.
The trick seems to be that you cut the bamboo down and then apply the brushwood killer to the fresh stumps and this prevents reqrowth see 3 Ways to Kill Bamboo - wikiHow
I would treat any regrowth as soon as I saw it with glyphosate.

 

Hi Nigel! I'm very sorry but half those words don't make much sense to me. I've gone for Roundup Tree Stump Weedkiller 250ml (I would post a link but I have a brand new account so it won't let me.)

Do you reckon it'll do the trick?

 

Should do, I've had a look at the label and I would use the foliar dilution of 15mL to 1 litre for fresh regrowth and for freshly cut stumps the higher strength of 100mL to 1litre.