There are legal, technical and financial issues that must be addressed. Japanese knotweed is simply one of the things in life that should not be brushed under the carpet with a botched attempt at removal, unless of course you want to incur delays and major expense at a later stage. While it may seem like a large task to remove Japanese knotweed, you are better off sorting the problem out at the beginning, before any works start. We have a number of Japanese knotweed removal methods that can be used to ensure complete removal. Many attempts at “controlling” Japanese knotweed are counterproductive. They kill off some of the plant, leaving the majority of the rhizome system below ground in a state of temporary dormancy, ready to resurface when you least expect it. There may be no obvious evidence of the knotweed above ground, but you can be pretty sure that viable rhizome remains. This is what we see in a lot of DIY attempts. The plant looks dead, but it is in fact dormant. Imagine a development site where viable knotweed rhizome remains hidden in the ground, possibly to a depth of 2m or more, having laterally spread into areas you might think are unaffected. Once you disturb these soils whether by ignorance, accident or intentionally, you would almost certainly fragment and spread the knotweed rhizomes to other areas of your site. This would significantly increase the scale of the problem, and hence the cost of remediation. All too frequently we are called in to help with removing Japanese knotweed, because other less experienced operators have failed to completely kill off the knotweed.