How do we get rid of Brazilian pepper, air potato and other invasive plants on our Florida HOA's common areas?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 29, 2026

How a Florida HOA board removes Brazilian pepper, air potato, cogongrass and climbing fern from common areas: legal limits, timing, contractor scope and follow-up.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Treat invasive plant removal as a multi-year contract, not a one-day cleanup. Map where the plants are, confirm whether any of the land sits under a conservation easement or water management district permit, and hire a licensed applicator to cut and treat the worst stands at the right time of year. Then pay for follow-up visits, because every plant on this list comes back from roots, bulbils, spores or seed if you stop after the first pass. Florida law matters here in two ways. The state lists the worst of these species as noxious weeds, which limits what anyone may do with the debris. And anyone spraying herbicide on your common area for pay needs a state license. Rules also vary with your declaration and any permits recorded against the property. This guide is general education, not legal advice.

Know what is on the state list

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services keeps the Florida Noxious Weed List in rule 5B-57.007 of the Florida Administrative Code, last amended in September 2020. The plants a typical Florida community fights are on it: Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius), air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera), cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica), Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum), Japanese climbing fern (Lygodium japonicum), melaleuca, carrotwood and the Australian pines (Casuarina). Section 581.091(1) of the Florida Statutes makes it unlawful to knowingly sell, offer for sale or distribute a noxious weed. For an association, that rules out the yard sale and the free-plants table. Nobody should dig up a carrotwood seedling from the buffer and hand it to a neighbor, and debris with seed or bulbils should go to the landfill, not to an owner who wants mulch. Before you pay anyone, walk the property with a map and mark each stand. A county extension agent can confirm identification, and the UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants plant directory has photos and control notes for each species.

Check the easement and permits before anyone cuts

Many Florida communities own wetland preserves or wooded buffers that sit under a conservation easement tied to the development's environmental resource permit. The Southwest Florida Water Management District says protection of a conservation easement is the property owner's job, which usually means the HOA, and that the district monitors the easement but does not maintain it. Easements usually prohibit clearing or trimming any vegetation. The exception is exotic and nuisance plants, which the district says can be removed as part of a site-specific management plan. So before work starts inside a preserve, pull the recorded easement and the permit, read any management plan or monitoring condition, and call the district if the plan is unclear. The district will help identify exotic plants. A contractor who clears native understory along with the pepper can put the association in violation of its own easement. Around ponds and canals, the plant is in or near water, and the herbicide label decides what may be used there. The UF/IFAS Brazilian peppertree management guide says trees growing in aquatic systems should be treated only with glyphosate or imazapyr products approved for aquatic use. If your stormwater pond is also choked with aquatic weeds, our guide on setting up a retention pond maintenance schedule covers that contract.

How each plant is controlled

Brazilian pepper. Female trees flower from September through November and carry red fruit from about November to February, and birds and raccoons carry the seed off-site. Cut when trees are not fruiting. UF/IFAS says to cut the trunk close to the ground and, within five minutes, apply a glyphosate or triclopyr product to the cambium, the thin living ring just inside the bark. Basal bark treatment, an oil-soluble triclopyr ester sprayed in a 12 to 18 inch band around the lower trunk, works best in fall while trees are flowering, and treated trees can be left standing. If money is short, the same guide recommends treating the seed-bearing female trees first. The sap causes a rash like poison ivy in sensitive people, so crews need gloves and long sleeves. Air potato. The vine spreads mainly from bulbils, the potato-like growths that form along the stem, and from tubers in the top few inches of soil. UF/IFAS advises cutting vines before bulbils form in late summer, collecting bulbils in winter when the ground is easier to see, and sending them to the landfill or an incinerator. Foliar herbicide works best from August to October, and UF/IFAS says repeated annual treatment over 4 to 5 years is needed to kill every propagule. Cogongrass. Mowing before herbicide treatment helps remove thatch, but do not mow while seed heads are up. UF/IFAS says to clean equipment and limit soil movement, because people moving rhizomes and soil spread it. Late-season foliar treatment with glyphosate, imazapyr or both works best, followed by 2 to 3 years of monitoring and retreatment. Old World climbing fern. Its spores ride on clothing and equipment, so crews working in a stand during spore season should not go on to another site that day. UF/IFAS research found that treating every six months for two years cut cover by more than 96 percent.

Hire a licensed crew and write the scope

Florida's pest control law counts any undesirable living plant as a pest (section 482.021), and section 482.071(1) makes it unlawful to run a pest control business without an FDACS license. Some landscape crews hold only the limited certification for commercial landscape maintenance in section 482.156. That lets an individual spray herbicide on weeds in plant beds, driveways, sidewalks and patios with handheld or backpack equipment. It does not cover turf, and it does not let that person supervise uncertified helpers who spray. A buffer full of 20-foot pepper trees calls for a fully licensed company. Ask for the license number and check it with FDACS. Put these items in the request for proposal so bids can be compared line by line: - A site map with each stand and its species. - Method and product by species, with label names, and aquatic-labeled products for any work near ponds, canals or wetlands. - How cut material leaves the site, and a statement that seed, bulbils and fern fronds go to the landfill. - Native trees and shrubs to protect, flagged before work starts. - Two to four follow-up visits per year for at least two years, priced separately. - Before and after photos with each invoice, plus the date and product of every application. Our guide on hiring an HOA landscaping contractor covers bid comparison and insurance certificates.

A sample first year

September: walk the property, map stands, pull the easement and permit, and send the RFP. October: award the contract at an open board meeting. Start Brazilian pepper basal bark and cut-stump work while trees flower and before fruit sets, and treat air potato foliage. November to February: leave fruiting pepper trees standing rather than cutting and dragging fruit across the site, and have volunteers or the contractor collect air potato bulbils. March: replant the cleared edges with natives. Spring and summer: first follow-up visit to catch pepper resprouts and seedlings. August to October: second follow-up for air potato and cogongrass. Year 2 repeats the follow-ups and shrinks the map. For air potato, the state also distributes beetles that eat the vine. A UF/IFAS extension office says residents can report a patch and request beetles through an FDACS online form, that the vine should grow at least six weeks first, and that FDACS ranks sites by need. Beetles slow the vine; they do not replace bulbil cleanup.

Tell owners before the chainsaws start

A cleared buffer looks like destruction to someone who has looked at green wall for ten years. Post notice of the work, the reason and the replanting plan. A paragraph the board can adapt: "Starting [date], a licensed contractor will remove Brazilian pepper and air potato from the [location] buffer. Both are on Florida's noxious weed list and crowd out native trees. Crews will cut and treat the plants, haul the debris to a landfill, and return for follow-up treatments over the next two years. The board will replant the open edges with native shrubs in [month]. Please keep pets and children away from the work area on treatment days." Owners control their own lots. If a backyard pepper tree reseeds your buffer every winter, ask the owner to remove it and offer the contractor's per-tree price. Section 720.3075(4)(b) bars HOA documents from prohibiting Florida-friendly landscaping on an owner's land, so a native-plant replacement is easy to approve.

Mistakes boards make

- Budgeting one cleanup and no follow-up. The second-year resprouts are what undo the first year's spending. - Cutting pepper trees in December while they are loaded with fruit, then chipping them on site. - Mowing cogongrass in seed, or tracking its rhizomes to clean ground on dirty equipment. - Letting the low bidder with only a limited certification work in turf or in a wooded preserve. - Clearing native plants inside a conservation easement along with the exotics. - Giving away plants or mulch made from noxious weeds. - Skipping the replant, so the next invasive fills the gap.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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