I just moved to Florida and we have TONS of sandburs in our yard. How do I get rid of them?????

Question

I have read that pulling them up would help but I have NO idea what the weed looks like to pull it up. Our yard was obviously not very well maintained by the people who lived here last. We only rent so I am not putting the $ into having the yard redone. Is there anything I can maybe mix with a grass seed and lay grass and "it" down together?

Any help would be appriciated. We have to put shoes on to walk to the hose!!!

Thanks all!

Answer 1

I won't repeat the other good advice here, but we also had alot of success from hanging an old sack behind the mower and dragging it as we cut the grass. It picks up alot of the sand spurs and helps give a little relief while the sprays and mowing are doing their work. Good Luck with it:)

Answer 2

Allow them to begin to go to seed. It's the females you want to target, the base of their stems are slightly purple. They grow radially out from the mother plant. When you can see the seeds, gently pull the runners up toward the center of the plant, from seed head toward stem - they break easily, and root along the ground, a preservation of species thing. When you have all the runners up and locate the main root mass, pull out. Takes time, but because of their radial growth habit you'll find there are less to pull than you first thought.

Mowing is NoT the solution, they're perennials and will continue to come back. Weed killer will only cause them to produce an overabundance of seeds in order to procreate the species. Pulling is the best way. I can walk barefoot in my front yard now, took 2 seasons, but it can be done.

Here's a visual, not the greatest, but you'll get the idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenchrus

Answer 3

Pulling plants out by hand will work but is too tedious for most people. Stripping off or rototilling under heavily infested areas and replacing them with fresh sod is another way to take care of the problem. But the new sod will have to be maintained well to prevent burs from coming in again.

Answer 4

Most broad leaf sprays or grannuals will do the trick used a couple times a year.The burs your walking on now are last years crop..that tells you how long it's going to take to totally get rid of them.
luck

Answer 5

1. in February or march out out a pre-emergence treatment, this will help keep seeds from germinating.
2. Treat with MSMA when you see sand burs coming up
3. Keep mowed short don't let them go to seed
4. Build up your soil with good compost, sand burs like soils that are in poor condition.