Hi,

My neighbor has a 30ft tall locust tree planted 10+ yrs ago, he planted just 1foot from his fence that now I see them sprouting all over my yard (front & back). I told him but he is reluctant to cut it down and said I can cut any branches that come over to my yard. I told him the problem is not only with those branches but also with those young locust sproutings. So I told him that I will begin using herbicide to kill whatever roots that I can find from my yard and he said 'sure'.

So I bought a gal of Triclopyr herbicide (expensive) from Amazon and began to strip the skin of any roots that I can find under my lawn. I then use the concentrated liquid with a foam paint brush brushing around the area that I can strip the bark off.

Boy, any sprout that I brushed died about a week later and almost half of his tree now the leaves are turned yellow because the herbicide was carried back to the mother tree and according to the instruction: it could eventually killed the tree. So my question to you is:

Am I responsible for killing his tree? I only applied the chemical on my side of the fence wherever I can find the root that run over. I am a bit worry but I do not see my lawn, garden becomes a locust forest.

Any thought is sure appreciated.
Thanks, Steven

He would have to sue you in court to recover damages. When you are in court anything goes depending on who has the best lawyer. Did you cause his tree to die, yes. Did you do it be an illegal means, no.