How To Get Rid Of Stickers In Your Yard (10 Effective Ways)

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Are you tired of unsightly stickers invading your yard? These pesky invaders can be tough to get rid of, but with the right techniques, you can banish them for good.

In this blog post, we’ll show you some tried and true methods for getting rid of stickers in your yard, lawn or garden, so you can enjoy a clean and beautiful outdoor space.

From manual removal to chemical treatments, we’ll cover all the bases and help you find the solution that works best for you.

So, if you’re ready to say goodbye to stickers once and for all, keep reading and learn how to get rid of stickers in your yard!

Before looking into different ways of getting rid of stickers, let’s look at the different types of stickers.

Different Types of Stickers in Yard

Below are the different types of stickers you can find on your lawn.

  • Burweed stickers
  • Sandburs/ sand burrs
  • Sticker weeds
  • Pricking monsters
  • Lawn burrs
  • Tribulus Terrestris

10 Ways to Get Rid of Stickers in Your Yard

How to get rid of stickers in yard

 There are various effective ways of getting rid of stickers in your yard.

Here are some of them:

1.  By Hand Pulling

This method is cost-effective since it entails using your hands to remove stickers and keeps grass stickers from spreading. Also, it is a great method if you are dealing with a small-scale invasion or have a small yard.

Before pulling stickers, put on protective gloves and make sure you remove all the traces of the plants, whether they are young or already mature.

This includes seed heads, roots, leaves, and stems. Removing mature stickers is more challenging than young ones because they have sharper burs.

Furthermore, exercising caution when pulling established stickers helps prevent the spread of seeds.

2. Mowing Your Lawn With A Bag Attachment

Connect a mower bag to the lawnmower before mowing grass with stickers to catch the clippings. Ensure you cover every area with stickers to get rid of them.

Once you complete mowing, dispose of the lawn clippings far from your lawn to prevent the seeds from spreading.

3. Burn Small Patches of Stickers

Kill sticker burrs and prevent their regrowth by burning them using a propane hand torch. Before lighting them up, wet the grass surrounding burweed stickers to protect them, and put on work gloves and safety glasses.

Have a hose close by to extinguish the flame once you are finished. Also, besides a hand torch, you can use boiling water to kill stickers.

4. Through Solarization

This method is only applicable if you are okay with killing your grass permanently and stickers and then starting your lawn fresh. Cover your yard with a heavy, large, and opaque spare tarp or black plastic, and let nature take that course.

You can even use layered newspapers but not landscaping fabric because it has small holes that let in light and moisture.

5. Rake Your Lawn

Raking breaks off loose stickers, so find areas with spiky balls in grass, then drag your rake over them. Put on work gloves, then collect and put the burrs into a trash bag once you finish raking. All that is left is to dispose of them.

6. Crowding Out

Sticker burrs thrive in sunny, hot, sandy soil, so depriving them of these conditions will help rid your lawn of them. Do this by improving the conditions needed by grass to thrive, and grass will eventually crowd them out.

Help your lawn compete successfully with sand burrs by watering the lawn properly and applying fertilizer.

In addition, amend the soil to achieve the right PH and proper water retention. Combine cultural suppression with hand weeding, spot burning, and adding pre-emergent.

Mulching is an excellent environmentally friendly cultural solution. It reduces the amount of water and sunlight the stickers receive hence dying off.

7. Using Sticker Burr Roller

This is an easy-to-use, effective tool for removing sticker burrs. It is lightweight, environmentally friendly, and non-hazardous and makes eliminating sticker seeds and weeds effortless.

In addition, the burrs are collected in a catch basket, making their disposal easier.

A sticker burr roller has a firm foam roller that attaches to stickers. On the other hand, the glide screen transfers the sticker burrs into the catch basket.

Moreover, it comes with a soft grip handle. All these parts are made to be durable, and replacement parts are readily available.

8. Use Home Remedies to Get Rid of Stickers in Yard 

You can use readily available ingredients at your home to remove stickers from your yard. Below are some of the effective home remedies you can use:

a) Vinegar

 You can get rid of stickers in yard naturally using Vinegar. Vinegar effectively kills stickers but also nearby plants, including your grass, so be careful during application.

Put white vinegar in a garden sprayer or a big spray bottle, then thoroughly dowse the stickers with repeated rounds. Do this on a sunny day and continuously for a couple of days until the sand burrs die.

Uproot the dead stickers by hand, collect them in a bag, and discard them. Once all the stickers are out of your lawn, go back to regular grass maintenance but keep monitoring grass burrs.

b) Baking Soda

Baking soda kills stickers by pulling out the water of them, thus making them dry out. It is more effective before the stickers develop burrs or seeds. Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on the burweed stickers and around their roots.

Immediately after application, water your lawn, so the sticker roots absorb the baking soda. This household ingredient kills nearby plants, so apply only to the sand burrs.

9.  Use Herbicides

Using chemicals on your lawn may not appeal to many people since they can destroy the environment. However, they are effective in getting rid of stickers and weeds. You can apply commercial herbicides before and after the emergence of stickers.

Pre-Emergent Treatment

This prevents stickers from coming up the following season. Isoxaben pre-emergent treatment is highly effective. Spray this herbicide in late fall using a garden sprayer before the stickers germinate in spring or winter. Water the yard immediately after application to facilitate absorption.

Post-Emergent Treatment

If the stickers have already germinated, you will have to use post-emergent treatment to kill them before developing sharp burrs. For the best results, choose a herbicide with metsulfuron or atrazine. Spread the herbicide on your lawn in winter following the last frost and water immediately.

While applying this herbicide in spring may eliminate the stickers, the sharp burrs will have emerged already. Also, do not apply it when the temperatures are above 32°C (90°F) to avoid destroying your turfgrass.

10. Apply Nitrogen-Rich Fertilizer

Nitrogen is essential for the growth of green, lush, strong, and healthy grass. Therefore, apply nitrogen-rich fertilizer to give your lawn a better chance of competing with weeds. Fertilized lawns develop densely populated grass blades, leaving no space for weeds to pop up.

Final Remarks

To summarize everything on what’s the best approach on how to get rid of stickers in your yard.

Best Ways to get rid of stickers in your yard:

  • Hand pull small patches of stickers
  • Mowing The Lawn With A Bag Attachment
  • Burn small patches of stickers
  • Rake your lawn
  • Use a sticker burr roller
  • Use home remedies to get rid of stickers in yard
  • Solarization
  • Crowding out
  • Herbicides

Besides sticking to your skin and clothes and hurting your feet, stickers are a nuisance since they choke your grass and take their nutrients. For these reasons, the above strategies for how to get rid of stickers in yard are a must-know.

Reference

  1. Clemson University Cooperative Extension -Home and Garden Information Center –LAWN BURWEED
  2. University Of Florida IFAs Extension – Controlling Lawn Burweed

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