Herbicides

[B Hoofed]

Another way to control the bushes, if the OP has the inclination, is with goats. I have some hills I consider too steep to mow and would wash out if I sprayed. The goats do a fantastic job of chewing the bushes down in a short amount of time. Eventually the goats eat the bushes down to the point they stop sprouting back.

Donkeys love to eat multi-flora rose bushes. We put a couple of mammoth donkeys in the field where we had been spraying the rose bushes with glyphosate, and they ate everything that was left of the roses including the main stems.

 

[Mud Mechanik]

I've had real good luck using Polaris A/C....it is a imazapr brush killer, the only drawback is that it will kill any hardwood if wind drift is high. You can order it online, though it is kinda pricey.

 

[Mark Page]

2-4-D is a joke. It might be ok for use on a lawn but not on woody vegetation. You can buy it anywhere in MD in various concentrations.

 

[oldballs]

Somewhere along the line, someone planted them in your area. At one time, they were planted as ornamentals around homesteads, to control erosion, and as "fencing" around pastures.

I have a neighbor in his 70s who tells me that he remembers his HS vo. ag. class planting the darned things for erosion control. Birds have been effective in spreading the roses hither and yon.

Hey, I'm one of those 80 year old gizzers. We live on a gravel road, didn't have much money, so I bought 200 MultiFlora Rose bushes from Henry Field Co. and lined the road. They grew beautifully, about 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. Their white rose flower filled the air in the spring. The Brown Thrush, Mocking bird and others loved it. The road dust kinda rolled up and stayed out. Heck, I did know it was considered a "Noxious Weed".

Well, ultimately they got some kinda disease and died off. Chain sawed them down. That was a huge pile of brush to burn and a lot of roots to grub out. Today they are still present in random parts due to the rose hips spread by the birds, just like cedar, mulberry and many other plants.

The State Extension Service later recommended Pine and Russian Olives as wind breaks etc. Now look at what is happening to my pine and olive trees. They too, are diseased causing me a part time job of cutting 40 year old pines, burning and laboring to get rid of them. But "Hey", I like working outside.....keeps me fit and onery.

 

[Ruark]

How much do you have? Are talking about acres and acres of it, or just a few plants?

A LOT of herbicides are just glyphosate, now that the patent's run out. I use TSC Big 'n Tuf at 2% (read the label), but ALWAYS use a surfactant. TSC sells a good one called Top Surf. Mix it in at 1 oz. per gallon. Glyphosate will kill multiflora rose, but be sure it gets pretty well sprayed, not just barely touched.

 

[ptfarmermd]

When I lived in Western Maryland, we had a lot of multiflora rose on the farm. We used a mixutre of Banvil and 2-4D, which worked well for thistles but the multiflora rose just laughed at it. We had a 50 gallon spray wagon which hooked to the tractor with its own lawnmower engine to provide the power for the spraying. We used a gun sprayer on the multiflora rose to make sure we wetted it sufficiently to kill it.
The MD Weed Control agent suggested a chemical called Ally. It is for woody type noxious weeds like multiflora rose. For a 50 gallon mixuture put in your wetting agent along with about a quart or a little more of 2-4D because Ally works really well but slowly. Ally was not cheap, about $90 five years ago if I remember correctly, for 2 dry powder ounces. You use 1/2 ounce of Ally in the mixture. The multiflora rose was dead after about a month. It did not return.
I also used the bush hog to cut some of the smaller ones and pushed others out with the loader making sure I got the roots.
Fight hard. It can take over your property.