Pull the bamboo babies and sell them on ebay? Invite your neighbor over for a cup and tea and to help pull destroy the invaders? If they're impossible to kill as you say, I guess just learn to love 'em or give them a haircut every once in a while.

In all seriousness maybe boiling water or a mixture of vinegar/salt/peroxide might keep them off your property but then it might have negative consequences on what you're able to grow on your own soil. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can advise on that.

While warmer zones have their share of fast-growth problems, I still envy you folks. It makes me wonder why your neighbor would choose bamboo while there are thousands of other wonderful plants that would easily thrive in zone 10 and provide beauty and privacy.

Best case, the control should be taking place on the other side of the fence....neighbor should have a trench or rhizome limiting barrier installed - and that should have taken place at the same time the bamboo was planted. Do they attempt some control, are you on good terms with them?

For growth coming your way, your shovel may be your best friend....

Here is a link that might be useful: Weedy or running bamboo

offer to kill the neighbors.. and go at it ... amybe even offer to plant an expensive replacement of some kind ... maybe a JM or something ....

anything can be killed with round up or generic.. put the undiluted goo in the applicator at the link.. cut to ground level.. and DRIP [and thats the key with the applicator] on the cut wound ... the piece in the pic.. should take about 3 drops... it is NOT a spray thing ...

and i doubt.. that you will kill momma by killing the parts in your yard .. most likely.. too vigorous a plant ... but i have no experience with the 'boo' .... [but if you do eventually kill momma .. who will know.. lol .. and whats the downside .. ;you just look the neighbor in the eye and say.. wow.. who would have thought it would just die gratuitously ... go figure..lol]

as noted.. if you dont go after momma ... your problem will never end ...

and if you refuse to go full bore nuclear war ... i doubt you will ever eradicate it ... and at that point.. i would suggest.. you dont get to complain ... lol ... or at least.. i wont listen to it ... which is easy.. since i dont know you ... lol ...

good luck ...

ken

ps: when i moved out here from near dad in suburbia ... GRHS .... he kept bringing me all the invasive plants i left behind ... saying.. you have 5 acres... so i planted them.. and 'dealt with it' on an emotional level .... but then one day.. i am walking around doing my weeding with diluted round up [not much choice on 5 acres] .. and i just sprayed one of his weeds ... and just left it there... and next time he sees it... i say ... well golly gee dad... i must have forgot to water it ... live and learn ... and that is how i got rid of chameleon plant.. after moving 65 miles from what i left at the old house ... rotflmbo .... and then.. i just continued to get rid of every prize he brought .. lol.. and dont get me wrong.. he brought a lot of good stuff ... and i loved him for it ...

Here is a link that might be useful: link

morz8's link is good, as is the rest of her advice. Containment of running bamboo is an ongoing project.

Boiling water/vinegar, etc. will have little to no effect. And I'd think twice about using any herbicide on what is essentially a single plant that is not yours but located primarily on your neighbor's property. Trenching down and placing a barrier along your side of the property line is about the best you can expect unless the neighbor agrees to have the bamboo removed.

I agree it is irresponsible for someone to plant running bamboo without any sort of containment system in place. It can be very aggressive in its spread with rhizomes popping up as much as 30' away from the mother plant. Root barriers ARE an effective spread control but best installed before planting rather than after the fact.

btw, if those really ARE seedlings, you have something to look forward to -- the death of the mother clump. All bamboo species die after flowering and seeding. But that is highly unlikely. The occurrence of flowering and seeding is quite rare - depending on species , it can be on a 75-100 year cycle - and it tends to happen to all plants of the same species at the same time. Much more likely the 'seedlings' are just very immature culms and very much attached to the mother plant.