This is the first half of a two-part series on the do’s and don’ts of how to get ride of sandbur stickers. Below I’ll go into 6 of the most misleading sandbur DIY home remedies to avoid. In the next post, I’ll share a sandbur strategy that actually works.
Table of Contents
The Problem with Home Remedies for Sandbur Stickers
Sandburs – often referred to simply as “stickers” usually following a swear word – are weeds that terrorize adults, children, and pets whenever they’re trying to enjoy some time outside. Getting one in the foot is bad enough, never mind the ongoing annoyance of injured dog paws, kids tracking them all over the house, or your lawnmower tires spreading them all over the yard.
Sandburs are vicious and aggressive to your skin and, even worse, to your lawn. They’re so hardy and persistent that, without proper education, once they’re in your yard, they’re there to stay. I’ve seen so many blogs, online articles, and Facebook groups with unsuccessful “home remedies.” These remedies are at least one and usually all of the following:
- Extremely labor intensive
- Tragically short lived
- Completely ineffective
If you’ve had the same experience when searching the web for ways to get rid of sandburs, I have fantastic news! This post and its sequel will tell you everything you need to expect and know before you start your war on sandbur stickers.
How do stickers start and why are they so persistent?
What makes a happy home for a sandbur?
Sandbur stickers thrive in low quality, low nutrient, sandy soil. Ironically, this is exactly the type of ground that attractive lawn-type grasses thrive in as well. Even more frustrating, sandburs also thrive in low-maintenance environments. Unfortunately, sandburs are so hardy that, once they’ve made their way in, no amount of disturbance seems to chase them out.
I have a vivid childhood memory of a specific playground at Lake Eufaula – tall, dry grass planted in sandy soil. Thanks to this perfect arid habitat, I always had stickers in my feet. I’m sure every Oklahoman can relate.
It’s common to see sandburs in new neighborhoods where lawn care and maintenance have been low priorities. But even established neighborhoods in sandy, low-nutrient areas like Eastern Oklahoma County (Choctaw, Harrah, Newalla, Jones, and Northeast Edmond, for instance) aren’t safe. Similarly, Canadian County is another notorious den of stickers, so even if you’re in Mustang, Yukon, and Piedmont, you’re not safe.
As you can imagine, if the ideal habitat for a lawn is also the ideal habitat for an aggressive, invasive, and painful weed, you’re in for a fight. Not to mention stickers are a seed of a plant. They can stay active and able to grow for years. Which means that, even if you’re making progress, there are still sandbur seeds lurking, ready to bloom for years to come, undoing all your hard work.
So your goal is creating an environment that’s less welcoming for sandbur stickers without sacrificing your grass in the process.
Ineffective Internet Advice
I have less hair on my head than I did 10 years ago, and some of that hair loss is due to reading blog posts and forums on the “ideal way to get rid of stickers” that were dead wrong. I’m going to cover 6 of the most popular bad ideas and explain why they’re inferior at best and totally ineffective at worst.
1. Dragging Carpet Across Your Lawn
One suggestion is to find a large piece of old, scrap carpet, flip it upside down, and drag it across your lawn. In theory, the sandbur stickers will hook to the carpet and you’ll remove them from your lawn.
While this is a surefire way to grab some of the stickers infesting your lawn, it’s terribly labor intensive and actually spreads the seeds even more thoroughly across your entire lawn, including areas that hadn’t been infected yet.
Dragging carpet around may feel good when you see thousands of stickers stuck to it after hours of back-breaking labor, but that feeling is the only good you’re going to get from this method of sandbur control. You have absolutely knocked thousands of seeds off the individual plants and down into the soil where they can now germinate and create exponentially more weeds.
In short, it looks like you’re doing a great job when, in fact, you’re making more trouble for yourself.
2. Burning Your Lawn
Believe it or not, burning your entire lawn isn’t the worst idea for reducing stickers. The problem is, it isn’t completely effective, especially not long term. Turning every sticker plant to ash is attractive and seems easy, especially since sandburs are already in dry areas. But remember, the plants themselves are only half of the problem. The seeds that are already planted and beginning to germinate would also have to be turned to ash, and this is way harder than you’d expect.
Sandburs have tough little seeds with a hard shell that nestle down into the ground easily. Unless you can create blast furnace temperatures over long periods of time and across every square inch of your lawn, you’re not going to get the seeds.
Even worse, lighting your lawn on fire will also burn up most of the actively growing plants… you know, like grass. And then you’ve treated yourself to the sight of new sandburs growing out of the ashes well before grass begins to grow back.
3. Mowing Short & Collecting Clippings
While sandburs are typically tall plants, they can still go to seed even when mowed extremely short. They can seed at an inch or even less! Consistently mowing your lawn short and collecting the clippings can certainly help prevent them, but it won’t eradicate them. The plants are still there, growing back week after week.
4. Pulling them
I understand why people suggest this, but I can’t believe people actually do it. Doesn’t this just sound miserable? Sure, it can be an effective way to get rid of the plants that are producing the stickers, but it’s impossible to pick every sticker in the lawn. And because the stickers are the seed, as soon as it hits the soil and germinates, the problem is back again. And all you’ve got to show for it are sore fingers.
5. Roto-Tilling
Roto-tilling is the process of breaking up the ground and tilling any anything on the surface down into the soil. It’s also probably the worst suggestion I’ve ever seen for eradicating sandbur stickers. For one thing, you should generally never roto-till your lawn because that is not the same as aerifying or dethatching.
Stickers are seeds, and seeds do best when they’re buried in the soil. Keeping that in mind, you should only roto-till stickers into your yard if you’re trying to win an award for “Most Sticker-Covered Lawn,” because that is what you’re sure to get!
6. Installing New Sod
The idea behind this is “just get a new lawn,” which is a sentiment I can completely understand. The problem is, just rolling out new sod on top of a crappy old lawn full of stickers is a sure way to have a crappy new lawn full of stickers. The stickers must be totally eradicated before installing new sod. Otherwise you’re just planting stickers under a fresh roll of soil.
So What’s the Ideal Solution?
Imagine if you took every one of those pieces of advice and, after all that money and work, you still had a sticker problem. Now that you know more about sandburs, you probably don’t have to imagine very hard. Even if you did all of these things, you still wouldn’t solve the problem for good!
In the next post — titled “Lawn Sandbur Stickers: The Ultimate Way to Deal with Sandburs” — I’ll share the ideal solution with you.
In the meantime, if you’ve decided you’d rather someone else fight the war against stickers, Willis Lawn Services can help! Just schedule a conversation with one of our knowledgeable and friendly technicians, and we’ve got a plan that will get you that lush, green grass you desire without the pain of sandburs hiding in plain sight.
