Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Locust Trees

I recently cut down a couple locust trees on my property and I was thinking of sinking them in my pond for habitat as I've heard they are rot resistant. However, they are thorny and I'm wondering if the thorns could harm the fish, like maybe if being chased around by predator fish and getting injured. Any thoughts?

Locust??? Kill them. Kill them with no remorse. Kill the with fire and brimstone. Nuke them. Kill them! I don't like honey locust. Kill them and send them to hell. Don't be shy about it. Attack with everything you have, then ask the military for more firepower. Kill... kill...KILL!

The best way I have found to kill honey locust is to girdle them by cutting through the sap wood all around. Once they die completely, they can be cut down. This seems to prevent the suckering you get when they are cut down live.

FR, girdling works because it cuts of the conduit of nutrients to the roots. So water and nutrients are able to flow freely up to the branches and leaves through the sapwood but the sugars produced in the leaves must be transported through a layer lying outside of the sapwood. There upper parts of the tree gets what it needs and the roots supply it (cooperating so to speak to get a reward of energy). But this depletes the energy in the roots needed to maintain the roots. Without a conduit back to the roots, the roots starve. When a tree top is cut completely off both pathways are cut. The absence of transpiration of the missing top of the tree triggers the roots to send suckers. So girdling is a tricky way to fool the roots that everything is OK even while they are starving.

Fairly difficult to get on my bad side, I'm a pretty understanding dude. But... honey locust has done me wrong more than a few times. It's now a war.

I have used the very thorny branches of honey locust to protect newly planted emergent plants and water lillies with good success. They rot away in a few years unlike the rot-resistant black locust.

The trees I cut down are not close to the pond. I originally sprayed the leaves with a strong mixture of Diquat and Roundup. They all turned brown and fell off, then not long after they all came back nice and green. Could not believe how tough they are.

Note to self - do not get on catscratch's "naughty list"!