Lawn care

Wondering if anyone knew what kind of "stickers" these are. They have spread pretty good this year. Can't walk across parts of the yard without getting a shoe sole full of them. I'd like to know what they are...think it might be spurweed? I got some Ortho weed-b-gone and will see how that works.

Appears to be a lot of clover there.

Woah. I've never seen anything like that! But I'm in the northeast. Only the people get prickly here

Alejandro Salemandro said:

Woah. I've never seen anything like that! But I'm in the northeast. Only the people get prickly here

Click to expand...

"Watch yourself, sister! Everything in these woods'll either bite ya, stab ya or stick ya!"

-Rooster Cogburn-

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073636/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt

Can you get a close-up of one or two of the stickers by itself (themselves)? I have a theory, based on the appearance and your location, but I want to be sure. Also, what kind of soil do you have?

Soil is sandy/clay mix kinda sorta I think...red soil a couple or three inches or so under the top soil. Location is about 5 miles south of the Red River (as the crow flies) in far N.E. Texas and about 20-30 miles north of where it starts turning into black land.

Funny thing...I just went out and squeezed the grass, to see if I got a sticker in my finger, and nothing. Don't ask me to walk out there bare foot...I learned not to do that a few years ago. Even the cat is starting to soft foot it across the back yard now that it seems to be spreading.

I could go down to the county extension office, or ask the ranch manager next door, but this is easier and more fun.

Here's the best pic. I could get of one of the little monsters, that I pulled out of my shoe, with the sharp still attached.

The sticker, without getting a better look, looks and acts something like Tribulus terrestris (puncture vine or goathead). As a former cyclist I hate that stuff. But I don't see any flowers or foliage in your pictures that look like that. The foliage closeup looks something like bur clover.

Looks more like goat's head than my original guess, sand bur. Both do well in poor, sandy soil. Goat's head falls to oryzalin, benefin, or trifluralin applied as a pre-emergent; sand bur falls to MSMA, even after emergence. Both will fall to 2,4-D or glyphosate post-emergence (the latter will kill just about anything, so use it sparingly).

Thanks guys. It's definitely not a sand bur or bull nettle (I had many, many of them as a kid), and really doesn't look like a goat's head, but this little monster seems to have something in the back of my memory banks that I can't quite place yet.

Anyways...it's getting some 2,4-D from the Ortho when it stops raining enough to let the weed killer take. That may be Wednesday though...maybe.

It usually chokes out the grass, and I've tried fertilizing the grass to choke the stickers out, and applied granular weed killer, and that didn't work.

Fire maybe?

Nawww...it'd just grow back.

Here is what the devil-weed/goathead plant looks like.
This is the thorn: The tire is a car tire. They won't cause a flat in car tires but it does help spread them as they fall away. Bicycle tires are another story en-tire-ly. (Sorry, I love puns!)
I hope this isn't what it is!

Are you treat i ng with a premerg?? I use simazine religiously and have been able to twart the majority of my stickers... im in black clay though, not that east texas sand.

If I'm seeing the goat's head right, it looks like that one is kind of hard and has multiple sharp points on it. What I have is soft like a tiny flower or something and just has the one sharp point at the bottom.

Didn't do a pre-emergence Robert...been raining all the time again this spring. I'll try the post-emergence Ortho when it quits raining...hopefully tomorrow and see what that does. Next time I see the ranch manager I'll ask her what they use. She's been to the chemical certification class thingy for weed and insect control to take care of the ranch pastures.

Yeah the winter rains put me a month behind as well. I spray my premerg in Feb and Sept. These two treatments a year have almost eliminated all my sand burrs and spear grass. Now my dalis grass is another story!! I should buy stock in msma!!

simon1 said:

If I'm seeing the goat's head right, it looks like that one is kind of hard and has multiple sharp points on it. What I have is soft like a tiny flower or something and just has the one sharp point at the bottom.

Click to expand...

It's not goat's head then. Goat's head is hard, not soft. It has multiple points, but when it's stuck in a tire or shoe, often the other points get broken off and when you pull it out you see only the one point that was stuck in.

RSC said:

It's not goat's head then. Goat's head is hard, not soft. It has multiple points, but when it's stuck in a tire or shoe, often the other points get broken off and when you pull it out you see only the one point that was stuck in.

Click to expand...

Just coincidentally, another good picture of goat's head (and another name new to me - 3-corner jack) in the recent bike tire thread over in the Clubhouse: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/491333-Bike-tire-recommendations

i think hitting it with a good amount of 24d will take it out.