Need Bamboo?

I adore our neighborhood. It's quiet, safe, woodsy and sunny, sociable and private, a great place to rear kids. I love our yard. In fact, I like our yard better that I like our house. We've got a big, grassy front yard and a private, decent-sized back yard. We also have a bamboo grove that charmed me before we moved in but now just plain haunts and annoys me. Wikipedia's bamboo entry says that,

If neglected, [bamboo]can be invasive over time and can cause problems by moving into adjacent areas. The reputation of bamboo as being highly invasive is often exaggerated, and situations where it has taken over large areas is often the result of years of untended or neglected plantings.

The invasiveness of our bamboo is not at all exaggerated which only means we have totally neglected our bamboo grove over the six years that we've lived here. Our neighbors continually have to deal with the root runners that spread like wildfire to disrupt their yards and gardens. For at least two years our closest (in proximity) neighbor has been telling us of ways to corral and control the spread of the bamboo. David and I keep talking about doing something but then something more pressing, like rearing kids, always seems to come up. The time is now.

I wish we were both a little more handy at making furniture, or curtain rods, or serving trays with babmoo, because we totally have this amazing renewable resource literally growing in our backyard. We have put the bamboo to some use, though. David has made primitive flutes, way cool tee pees for the kids, a rose trellis, and most used yet, light sabers and swords.

Seriously, does anyone know anything about getting rid of bamboo? Does anyone around here want any?? Because we really do need to do something. The neighbor I mentioned above? She teaches in the School of Social Work.