A Lowndes County teenager may have the key to breaking kudzu’s decades-long stranglehold on Southern terrain.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob Schindler’s science-fair project has the makings of an entrepreneurial endeavor with his patent-pending apparatus to more effectively destroy the clinging vines.

“This is a very clean, environmentally safe way to efficiently destroy kudzu,” says Schindler, a rising Lowndes High School junior, who is the son of Eric and Dr. Julie Schindler.

Jacob Schindler uses helium to eradicate kudzu. He designed a device that allows him to drill into the ground, easily attach a small tank of helium, and more evenly distribute the helium on the kudzu, all without reportedly harming other plants.

This practical scientific method began with a youngster’s fertile imagination proposing a science-fiction concept.

As an elementary-school student, Jacob became interested in the idea of agriculturally reclaiming the Earth’s deserts and establishing plant-life on Mars.

Given its durability, he believed kudzu might be the plant for the job.

Kudzu is a plant indigenous to Japan. In the mid 20th century, kudzu was promoted to farmers throughout the American South as a measure to prevent soil erosion. Kudzu was planted throughout the South, but the region’s heat, humidity, rainfall and mild winters created conditions for kudzu to grow out of control.

By the early 1950s, kudzu went from being promoted as a preventive to soil erosion to being classified as a weed by the federal Department of Agriculture, and a bane to inhabitants of the South.

Learning that various gases would make it impossible to grow kudzu on Mars, Jacob shifted his focus. He began testing how gases found on Mars affected the plant here on Earth.

As a sixth-grader, he tried several gases. He administered carbon dioxide, helium, and nitrous oxide. The Schindlers gathered live kudzu stems and charted the effects of various gases on the plants.

Helium proved the most deadly gas to kudzu.

These efforts won Jacob second-place awards in both regional and state science fairs.

One year often ends a science-fair project, but Jacob continued his work as a seventh-grader. During the second year, he focused on helium. Using loblolly pines donated by Dasher Nursery, Jacob wanted to test helium’s effects on plants around kudzu. Helium killed the kudzu without harming the pines.

These findings sent Jacob to regional competition, winning first place, then the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair where he won first place on the state level as well as the American Meteorology Society award, and was named to the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

Soon, Jacob’s project won attention along with the awards. Scientists, park officials and others called the Schindlers seeking Jacob. For his eighth-grade project, he moved his experiment to real locations.

He applied helium to kudzu found on Baytree Road, Hill Avenue, and North Oak Street. Neighbor Raymond Dasher built an auger and other equipment to deliver the helium.

Applying the helium proved an exhausting process, but the experiment worked in the field. Kudzu died while other plants thrived.

He won an FFA Agri-science Fair award and scholarship for his third-year experiment.

Yet, by the end of middle school, Jacob had tired of his kudzu experiments.

“After three years, I had proven what gas worked best,” Jacob says. “I had become bored with it.”

After some time, he appreciated what he had accomplished. Jacob realized a new challenge: How could he apply helium more efficiently?

“Designing this apparatus invigorated me,” Jacob says. “It was something no one had developed before.”

He designed a one-piece apparatus to apply the helium. It can easily be drilled into an application site. A nozzle attaches to the tank of helium. Holes within the apparatus’ shaft more evenly release the helium.

Jacob used copper for his first attempt at building a prototype. Copper proved too fragile and ineffective.

Raymond Dasher helped Jacob realize the design through a steel prototype, which has worked in all of tests.

During Jacob’s original middle-school tests, it took him four hours to dig holes and another two hours to apply the helium to the kudzu. The process required numerous tubes and a large tank of helium.

The prototype apparatus has reduced the process to 20 minutes total to install and apply the helium. He installs the apparatus into the ground with a power drill; no digging. The apparatus requires less helium to cause more efficient damage to kudzu.

The prototype won Jacob first place in the FFA state convention.

The device may also win Jacob some business. He fields calls from some interested people willing to pay him to kill kudzu. With his patent pending, he hopes to become an entrepreneur with his eradication process.

Though only a rising junior, New York University and Duke are among the universities interested in him. Jacob is weighing the possibility of studying environmental engineering.

Until then, he’ll continue attending academic camps and learning to drive this summer, studying at Lowndes High School, and destroying kudzu in his spare time.

More information: Contact Jacob Schindler by e-mail kudzugenius@aol.com