Undoubtedly introduced into South Africa for its beautiful floral display, Lantana now invades forest and and plantation margins, savanna, watercourses, roadsides, and degraded land.
Described by Lesley Henderson in her book “Alien Weeds and Invasive Plants”, as a compact floriferous shrub or untidy scrambler of up to 2m high or higher, Lantana is a declared weed and the whole plant is poisonous. It is predominantly found in the northern and eastern regions of South Africa and follows the coast line right down to Cape Town.
We have a client who bought a property with an old caravan park adjoining the river at Kidds Beach. The Lantana growth had almost taken over the entire site and after removing the Lantana his neighbour reported him to DEAT for spoiling the environment. Fortunately we had video footage of the before and after situation as well as the process of removal which helped him with his submission. If you think Lantana is confined to the coastal regions, we have also had people phone from Ficksburg in the Free State asking for solutions to remove this species.
Traditional methods of removal include herbicides and there has been some experimentation with natural enemies. Driving around South Africa just confirms the extent of the problem with this invader plant as we see it alongside the national roads and in our Game Reserves. Animals eat the bushes and it makes many of them ill sometimes with fatal consequences.
Problems associated with herbicides include the misuse of chemicals through improper application. This is particularly problematic around river courses where residual affects affect future fertility of lands. Of course killing Lantana with herbicides doesn’t remove the problem as the plants still have to be removed. So other methods have to be employed.
The Exit range of machinery provides the most effective method as the plant removals occur simultaneously with the eradication of the weed. The dense thickets are easily removed with the patented tractor mounted V Plate machine (Model 4). The Exit machine which fits on the tractors hydraulic linkage system easily removes the bushes. The tractor hydraulics are used to position the machine but are not part of the mechanism of removal. The design of the machine uses leverage to assist the extraction of the bushes and the forward motion of the tractor is the only force applied. The overall effect is effortless.
The design of the footplate easily lends itself to hooking around multi stemmed plants and creepers.
Once the larger bushes are removed a second program of removing the smaller re growth is necessary and this is best applied by using the smaller hand model (model 3).
