12/22/2020
I LOVE walking around the yard barefoot...but these little stickers steal my joy! Maybe if I post it enough Leland Hill will spray our yard🤷🏼♀️😘
Just a reminder for people with a spurw**d problem. Now is the time of year to treat your yard with a post-emergent herbicide.
Spurw**d, aka stickers or burw**d, is a winter annual w**d that germinates in the fall and winter months, particularly in areas where turf is thin or patchy. During the winter, spurw**d remains small and low-growing where it usually goes unnoticed until the plant matures.
In late winter, spurw**d blooms are tiny white flowers. In the spring when temperatures rise, the pollinated flowers begin to set fruit. The fruiting structures appear as small rosette buttons and develop in the leaf axils. As the fruit matures in mid to late spring, the seed in the fruiting structures develop spines, and when the fruit becomes dry, the spines become very sharp. These sharp spines are what make the lawn spurw**d so undesirable.
For homeowners, the best option to control spurw**d is a post-emergence application of one of the various two and three-way mixes of 2,4-D, dicamba and MCPP. Trimec is one of the most common trade names in this category. These products can be used on tall fescue, fall over seeded bermudagrass in which the over seeded cool-season grass has been mowed four to five times and non-over seeded bermudagrass.
Always read the label before purchasing any herbicide to make sure the specific formulation and percentage of chemical that you choose is appropriate for your lawn. Follow mixing and sprayer instructions to ensure effective control and proper use of the herbicide.
For more information about spurw**d identification and control visit our webpage, https://www.uaex.edu/yard-garden/lawns/spurw**d-control.aspx or contact your county office https://www.uaex.edu/counties/default.aspx
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research & Extension does not endorse specific herbicide brands.