Bush Honeysuckle Removal in Illinois: Plan and Cost

To clear bush honeysuckle from an Illinois woodlot or fence row so it stays cleared, cut every stem first, then deal with what comes back. On acreage, a forestry mulcher does the cutting in one pass. The resprouts and new seedlings are handled over the following season or two, by more cutting or by stump and resprout treatment from a licensed applicator. One cut on its own buys a year or two, not a cleared woods.

This guide is written for central Illinois, from the bluffs along the Illinois River around Peoria to the fence rows of Tazewell and Woodford county farm ground: how to recognize the shrub, what the Exotic Weed Act means, how it spreads, why one cutting fails, a removal plan and the cost.

Which Honeysuckles These Are

“Bush honeysuckle” in Illinois is a group of Asian and European shrubs. The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission’s management guideline covers the four most often invasive here, Tartarian, Morrow’s, Belle (a hybrid of the first two) and Amur, and treats them as one problem. It says that although many counties have no official record, bush honeysuckle is probably found in all of them.

Telling the species apart takes a close look at leaf hairs and flower stalks. Telling bush honeysuckle from the rest of the woods is much easier:

• It is green when nothing else is. It is among the first plants to leaf out in spring and among the last to drop its leaves in fall, often holding them until mid-November through most of Illinois. In late fall, says Illinois Extension’s Good Growing, it is “one of the only green things left in the understory.”
• Paired leaves with a drawn-out tip. Leaves sit opposite each other on the stem. The Amur leaf tapers to a long point.
• Hollow stems. Older branches are often hollow inside, which separates it from most native shrubs.
• Red berries. Paired white to pink flowers in May and June turn into red, sometimes yellow, berries.

The INPC notes that the only native bush honeysuckle in Illinois, American fly honeysuckle, is very rare and recorded only from Cook County. Its rule of thumb for the rest of the state is that a honeysuckle with a bushy form is not native. Coralberry is the look-alike to check for: a shorter shrub, about three feet, with small pinkish fruit.

What the Exotic Weed Act Means

Amur, Tatarian and Morrow’s honeysuckle, with Lonicera fragrantissima, are designated exotic weeds under the Illinois Exotic Weed Act. As amended by Public Act 99-0081, Section 4 makes it unlawful to buy, sell, offer for sale, distribute or plant their seeds, plants or plant parts without a permit from the Department of Natural Resources. Illinois Extension puts it plainly: it “cannot be sold or distributed.” Grinding the shrubs where they stand keeps every piece on your own ground.

How Bush Honeysuckle Spreads

Birds and deer carry the seed. At least 20 songbird species eat the berries, and the INPC notes the seed stays viable after passing through white-tailed deer. A few shrubs along a fence can seed a whole timber.

It starts at the edges. The plant invades the brighter ground first, forest edges and field margins, then moves into the shade. Fence rows, woods roads and the rim of a bluff lot are where a stand usually begins.

It fruits early and heavily. Seed production usually begins after two to five years. A single Belle honeysuckle about six and a half feet tall, studied in Wisconsin, produced 3,554 berries in one year.

A carpet of waiting seedlings. The seed does not last long in the soil, but the shrub makes up for it with what the INPC calls “a persistent, slow-growing seedling bank” that shoots up when a gap opens in the canopy. Clear the big shrubs and leave the small ones, and the small ones take over.

It shades out everything else. Leafing out first and dropping its leaves last, it takes the light spring wildflowers and tree seedlings need.

Why One Cutting Fails

Cut a bush honeysuckle at the ground and the root system is untouched. It sends up new stems from the stump. Illinois Extension’s Chris Enroth explains that a large shrub cut without treatment has to be cut “over and over and over again until we exhaust the root system.”

That leaves two ways to finish the job:

1. Treat the stump. Herbicide applied to the outer ring of a freshly cut stump carries down to the roots. The INPC says to apply it immediately after cutting, and notes that some resprouting may still need a follow-up treatment.
2. Cut the resprouts again, and keep cutting until the roots give out.

Mulching changes the picture in one important way. The INPC guideline names a hydroax or tractor-mounted brush cutter as possibly the most efficient way through a severely invaded site with many large shrubs, but warns the debris it leaves makes the stumps hard to find for treatment. Its answer is to treat the resprouts while they are small. So a mulching pass is not the finish line; it is the step that turns a thicket you cannot walk into ground where the follow-up is easy.

A Removal Plan for a Woodlot or Fence Row

1. Walk it in late fall. Before anything is cut, walk the ground when the honeysuckle is the only green layer left. You will see exactly how far it runs, and that makes the quote tighter.
2. Flag what stays. Mark the oaks, hickories, walnuts and native shrubs you want kept. Each one is a line the machine steers around.
3. First pass with the mulcher. Our crew grinds the honeysuckle, brush and saplings to mulch in place, stumps flush, with nothing piled or hauled. Pick a dry or frozen spell so the machine does not rut wet ground.
4. Stump treatment, if you choose it. The INPC reports late summer, early fall or the dormant season work for cut-stump treatment. Cut Brush does mechanical work only and applies no herbicide; a licensed applicator you hire can work right behind the machine or treat the resprouts later.
5. Return visit for resprouts. Next growing season, cut or treat the new stems while they are small. On open ground our crew can return with the mulcher or a mower.
6. Watch the gaps. Seedlings fill openings in the canopy. Pull young plants when the soil is moist, as Illinois Extension suggests, before they grow large.
7. Plan what grows next. The INPC notes garlic mustard often moves in after honeysuckle comes out, and that native plants can be slow to return on ground invaded for years. Seeding or planting natives fills the space.

Pro tip: Clear the honeysuckle before you thin the timber or build, not after. The guideline advises starting control before any work that lets more light into the shrub layer, because light is what wakes up the seedling bank.

What Bush Honeysuckle Removal Costs

Clearing bush honeysuckle from under timber you keep typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 per acre, the honeysuckle and understory band on our Peoria pricing page. An old thicket of large shrubs prices as forestry mulching, $1,500 to $4,000 per acre.

Job	Typical range	Notes
Honeysuckle and brush under trees you keep	$1,500 – $2,500 per acre	The understory band
Dense thicket of large, multi-stemmed shrubs	$1,500 – $4,000 per acre	The forestry mulching band
Small backyard or fence row stand	$1,500 minimum charge	Where small jobs start; access and density set the final quote
Return visits for resprouts	Priced per visit	Listed in the quote as their own lines
Stump or resprout treatment	Separate trade	Quoted by a licensed applicator

Each pass grinds stems and stumps into mulch on site, flush with the ground, with nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade is priced in the quote if you want it, and grading is not part of our price.

What moves a honeysuckle job inside its band is the stem count, how many keeper trees the machine works around, slope, and how wet the ground is. The INPC notes honeysuckle wood is very tough and dulls cutting blades, which is why an old thicket costs more than young growth. The Peoria forestry mulching cost guide explains hourly against per-acre quotes.

Around Peoria and the Illinois River Valley

Honeysuckle work here has a local example. Illinois Extension’s ILRiverHort blog, from the unit serving Fulton, Mason, Peoria and Tazewell counties, reported in February 2026 on Spring Creek Preserve, a 344-acre park of the East Peoria Fondulac Park District in Tazewell County. Volunteers and hired removal contractors have cut and stump-treated woody invasives there, and most of the larger bush honeysuckle and autumn olive is gone, with a few problem spots left. Expect the same pattern: the big shrubs go first, then the work is keeping the gaps clean.

Two kinds of ground shape the job around Peoria:

Bluff and ravine timber. The wooded bluffs along the river are where honeysuckle has had decades to fill in under the canopy. Slopes and ravine edges slow the machine, and the steepest pitches are better cut by hand. Inside the City of Peoria, clearing that leaves more than 5,000 square feet of soil exposed needs an erosion and stormwater permit from Public Works, and the city’s rules exist partly to protect ravines and stream banks. Mulching leaves a chip layer over the soil, but the city decides what applies.

Fence rows on farm ground. Out toward Morton, Eureka and Elmwood, honeysuckle lines the fence rows and field edges, sometimes mixed with multiflora rose and autumn olive. These are long, narrow jobs on flat ground that clear fastest in late summer and fall, when the black prairie soil is dry. If your woods also hold buckthorn, that is a separate shrub with its own removal plan.

Requirements vary by parcel, scope and jurisdiction, and the governing authority makes the determination. Start at land clearing in Peoria and the Illinois River valley for the ground, permits and towns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will mulching kill bush honeysuckle?

Not on its own. Mulching cuts every stem at once, but the roots resprout. Cutting the resprouts again, or having them treated while small, is what clears a stand.

Is bush honeysuckle illegal in Illinois?

It is a designated exotic weed under the Illinois Exotic Weed Act, so it may not be bought, sold, distributed or planted without an IDNR permit. Grinding it where it stands moves no plant material off your land.

When is the best time to clear honeysuckle?

Late fall is the easiest time to see it, and the INPC reports late summer through the dormant season works for cut-stump treatment. For a machine, pick dry or frozen ground.

How much does bush honeysuckle removal cost?

Around Peoria, understory clearing runs $1,500 to $2,500 per acre and dense thickets $1,500 to $4,000, with a minimum charge of about $1,500 for small jobs. Return visits are priced separately, and herbicide is a separate trade.

Get Bush Honeysuckle Out of Your Timber

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Our crew plans honeysuckle work in the order that works: flagged, cut, followed up, and checked the next season. Whether it is a bluff lot in Peoria Heights, a farm timber outside Metamora or a fence row near Canton, every season left alone means more seedlings waiting under the canopy.

Read more: statewide costs and soils in the Illinois land clearing cost guide.