Japanese Knotweed more effective than antibiotics for Lyme disease

Japanese Knotweed article

Japanese knotweed and other plants more effective treating persistent Lyme disease than antibiotics

Unfortunately,  Japanese knotweed is extremely invasive outside of Japan, where natural predators control its spread. Always nature has its swings and roundabouts!

I wouldn't call it unfortunate that an opportunistic pioneer effective against Lyme disease thrives in places prone to Lyme disease. I would call that fortuitous.

All we need to do is introduce our own Japanese Knotweed control. Our Lyme disease sufferers can become Japanese Knotweed predators.

Oh, and wasps just love the stuff. If you have Japanese Knotweed anywhere near your garden, I seriously doubt that you'd have issues either attracting pollinators or predatory insects. I know I didn't.

-CK

Yeah, Lyme disease is a terrible disease here that can destroy a person's quality of life forever.  I'm more concerned about it's invasiveness than knotweed's.  Anyway, I believe you can buy it in supplement form if you don't want to grow it.

You also won't have anything else except knotweed, it's taken over entire valleys in southern England and killed EVERYTHING there, It's probably not as bad as people make it out to be but in the UK if it is in the garden or close by you will not get a mortgage and you MUST employ a licensed company to remove it. It has apparently knocked £20bn off property values in the UK.

SO most certainly Never plant it but sure go grab some to use if you wish.

I have it (knotweed, not lyme disease) in my garden in Derbyshire (UK), and it was an uphill battle to get the mortgage (but I did get one).

But a few years later and placing the chicken run on top of it has quite effectively killed it.

James Freyr wrote:

Let's please keep this thread on topic and discussion focused on knotweed and lyme disease.

I don't mean to rock the boat, but invasive species can favor disease-carrying ticks  by creating a suitable microclimate or favoring tick hosts like whitetail deer.  

I don't know if the research has been done on Japanese Knotweed specifically, but the tall, dense stands sure seem like great tick habitat when you're walking through them.  The history of both invasive species and miracle cures is absolutely riddled with cases of unintended consequences, and I think there's value in acknowledging and learning from those experiences.  If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I think there's value in proceeding cautiously.  

Tom Worley wrote:

James Freyr wrote:

Let's please keep this thread on topic and discussion focused on knotweed and lyme disease.

I don't mean to rock the boat, but invasive species can favor disease-carrying ticks  by creating a suitable microclimate or favoring tick hosts like whitetail deer.  

I don't know if the research has been done on Japanese Knotweed specifically, but the tall, dense stands sure seem like great tick habitat when you're walking through them.  The history of both invasive species and miracle cures is absolutely riddled with cases of unintended consequences, and I think there's value in acknowledging and learning from those experiences.  If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I think there's value in proceeding cautiously.  

*sigh*

hey, hey, here's another note about lyme and knotweed...

https://www.facebook.com/thesacredscience/videos/episode-5-the-silent-epidemic-lyme-disease-interview-with-stephen-buhner/303508987138634/

We find what we seek and we seek what we find. If we look to invasive plants as harboring (and being) the enemy, then we potentially miss an opportunity for medicine of food.

I don't want to get off topic too much...there's a lot of info on lyme disease. Folks with lyme disease don't seem to get supported by their doctors. We studied lyme disease in school. Our herbal professor had lyme disease. After many years she was able to walk again. She was/is amazing! Then we had clients with lyme disease. I'm not an expert, it's difficult to get a correct diagnosis and just as difficult to treat.