Prickley pear and mesquite wars

[oldandslow]

The only way to get rid of a prickley pear I know off is to dig it up including the root ball. I used to pile them up and burn them when they dried out but we can no longer burn anything without a permit and getting one is rather difficult. My solution is to sent them to the county land fill. I have devised a semi-mechanical method to get them that doesn't just kill my bum hip and back. I devised a method of attaching two 5 gallon buckets to my brush hog for containers. Having owned two Ford vehicles and dealing with two my son owned it was easy. The attachment devise is baling wire. I ride around on my tractor with an idiot stick, also know as a hoe, and a heavy duty pick-up tool and I can get most from the seat of the tractor. When I get into a fairly thick patch I get off and dig them up. The tool lets me put them in the buckets without having to bend over and also prevents me from getting all those little tiny stickers that you can't see in my gloves and into my fingers when using pliers to pick them up. Getting on and off the tractor multiple times has become a real chore too. When the buckets are tamped full of cactus I can stack a bunch on the back of the hog between the bracing. When I have a load I dump them in my trash container and tamp them down with the hoe and every Wednesday they go to the land fill.

Mesquites can be gotten rid of by grubbing them up and getting the tap root but I am certainly not capable of that anymore. I found several years ago that weed-be-gone mixed a little strong would kill the first year ones with one dose and most of the second year ones also. Late last year I stocked up on weed-be-gone in preparation for this year. This new stuff didn't even make them sick. I looked at the contents and found that bottle I was using only contained 1/2 as much 2-4-D as the previous stuff did and the other two bottles had only two thirds as as much as the old. I have worked up to three times as much of the new as the old gets the job done now. Combine the increased amount with the increased cost of a bottle and it has become rather expensive to use weed-be-gone. I have found some brush killer that uses an entirely different chemical that is comparative in cost and is supposed to do the job using much less and order a quart to see if it works. It's reviews were really good. My application is also semi-automated. I ride around on my tractor with a pump up sprayer and hose them down. I found a bunch of new one's on my latest prickly-pear gathering expedition. As dry as it is I am surprised they can come up.

If I didn't stay after both of these they would take over my place and it wouldn't take long for them to do it. I wish my lawn grass was as hardy as them. It's bermuda and is almost impossible to kill out but it doesn't stay green like the mesquite and cactus without a lot more water but get it wet and here it comes. The only effect way to kill bermuda grass I have found is to pour concrete over it.

[Dee]

Sounds like a lot of trouble. Why don't you go to Tractor Supply and buy a gallon of "Remedy Ultra", a pump sprayer, and mix as directed with diesel.
Then you can ride around squintin the base of ANY SIZE  mesquite and kill it the 1st time. Might even work on your cactus.

[mcbammer]

     I found out the hard way 2 ply lawn mower tires  wont stand up to P P  needles . Grassout Max works good on Bermuda . 

[wtxbadger]

We use Remedy for controlling mesquites here, ran across a product we are going to try this year it's called Triclopyr and is supposed be as effective as Remedy for less cost.

[ironglow]

Hey guys, I'm still looking for something to put in holes drilled in stubborn shrub roots, just ro kill them.

  Any suggestions? I drilled vertical holes down into the roots last year, and filled them with Epsom salts..it just seemed to eat it up and enjoy it.

[oldandslow]

We use Remedy for controlling mesquites here, ran across a product we are going to try this year it's called Triclopyr and is supposed be as effective as Remedy for less cost.

Thanks for the tip. Quite a few years ago I got on the Texas website to see what was being used and it was a combination of two chemicals, one of which was pretty reasonable in price and another that was well over $300 a gallon back then. I decided to experiment and arrived at my weed-be-gone solution which had done a good job on the small stuff until recently. I have already checked on the price of Remedy and will check out the other later today. From what I saw Remedy will kill larger mesquites and I have some of those that I would like to be gone but weed-be-gone only works on the small stuff. A track hoe would be the simple solution but that is entirely out of my price range.

As far as spraying  the cactus I want them gone. I am not positive they won't penetrate a tire on my small Kubota and don't want to find out the hard way. I KNOW they will get a large riding lawn mower tire.

[oldandslow]

Hey guys, I'm still looking for something to put in holes drilled in stubborn shrub roots, just ro kill them.

  Any suggestions? I drilled vertical holes down into t e roots last year, and filled them with Epsom salts..it just seemed to eat it up and enjoy it.

I have had pretty good luck with Roundup for that. I even killed a huge Siberian Elm stump after a high wind tore it all to pieces and also on some fair sized mesquites I cut out of a fence line. I will admit it took about three years to get them. Smaller elms and mesquites are gone with one dose. My daughter had a huge weeping willow removed a few years ago, did the Roundup treatment and one shot did it in.

[BUGEYE]

Hey guys, I'm still looking for something to put in holes drilled in stubborn shrub roots, just ro kill them.

  Any suggestions? I drilled vertical holes down into the roots last year, and filled them with Epsom salts..it just seemed to eat it up and enjoy it.

Epsom salts is just magnesium, it helps things grow.
Table salt would work, maybe.

[Dee]

We use Remedy for controlling mesquites here, ran across a product we are going to try this year it's called Triclopyr and is supposed be as effective as Remedy for less cost.

Thanks for the tip. Quite a few years ago I got on the Texas website to see what was being used and it was a combination of two chemicals, one of which was pretty reasonable in price and another that was well over $300 a gallon back then. I decided to experiment and arrived at my weed-be-gone solution which had done a good job on the small stuff until recently. I have already checked on the price of Remedy and will check out the other later today. From what I saw Remedy will kill larger mesquites and I have some of those that I would like to be gone but weed-be-gone only works on the small stuff. A track hoe would be the simple solution but that is entirely out of my price range.

As far as spraying  the cactus I want them gone. I am not positive they won't penetrate a tire on my small Kubota and don't want to find out the hard way. I KNOW they will get a large riding lawn mower tire.

With the Remedy you spray from the ground to 12 inches all the way around the tree or bush. It will kill ANY SIZE  tree. Got the tip from a Texas agricultural agent years ago, and it works. Kills roots and all.

Same for the smaller stuff. The one jug of Remedy will kill hundreds of trees mixed right with diesel.


This was a healthy tree with suckers coming up I sprayed 8 months ago.  Fixing to cut it down before it falls on my fence.

[DDZ]

I agree with Dee that spraying will work as well as anything, and better than most options.   Around here multiflora Rose bushes have taken over in places. Its native to south China, and Korea. Was bought here for fence rows and such. Its an invasive species. It can get 10-15 feet high, and about the same in width. That is one bush. You can't walk through the stuff because the stalks have very sharp thorns on them.  Something that works to kill it is spray it with  Crossbow and diesel mixed together.  Multiflora rose is the first plant to get green leaves on in the spring, which makes it easy to identify. As soon as you see the green leaves is the time to spray it.

[ironglow]

Thanks guys, I'll start looking for some of those products.

  Funny, but somebody on the web, can't remember who/when, told me to use Epsom salts.  I have used it as an acidifier on some plants..but thought perhaps in large doses it may work..no such luck..

[Ranger99]

Yeah, you have to use poison to
control things effectively

Remedy as mentioned ^ ^ works
pretty good,  or stop by the local
farm co-op to find out what to
use for the region

[Ranger99]

Forgot to say I bought a jug
of RM43 last time.
It worked pretty good. I hadn't
used it before, and that's all
they had.  Everybody was
skeerd of glyphosate and I
couldn't find any anywhere

[Lloyd Smale]

tell you what works the the trees around here. Ive got two ways of killing them. One is shoot the crap out of the with an ar15. the other is kind of a reverse maple sap tap. Stick a tap in a tree and put a quart of diesel oil in a bottle and let the tree suck it in. Stumps that keep sprouting. Drill a hole in it and put a 1/2 inch peice of pipe or pvc in the hole with a bottle of diesel or even a heavy salt water solution. Round up is basicaly salt. For brush round up makes a formula just for brush. but that said we dont have prickley pear or mesquite up here. Theyve got to be a bit hardier then our stuff because they live in low moisture areas.

[Dee]

Remedy mixed properly with diesel in a pump up garden sprayer will kill trees 1st time everytime. Its what it was invented for.

[oldandslow]

Ya'll seem to be missing one thing about my prickly pear problem. As I stated, I don't want just dead and laying there, I want them GONE. That is why I'm digging them up and sending them to the land fill. Those thorns will penetrate a HD lawn tractor tire easily, might even do the same on my small tractor, and will go through a leather boot slicker than a sewing needle.

[Ranger99]

Yeah
Pear burners have been in use
for years, mostly west of here
to burn the spines off for cattle
to eat