How to get rid of milkweed. Growing common milkweed in your yard attracts monarch butterflies, but it can also grow all over.
So if you’re tired of having this species growing in your yard and eating up a lot of room or just want to decrease how much there is from the initial start, we can help.
Now be sure to cover yourself up with clothing like long sleeves, pants, and gloves so that you don’t get any sap on your skin because it’s slightly toxic when eaten in excess and this will help prevent rashes from coming about which might otherwise happen if you didn’t have clothing over yourself.
How to get rid of milkweed
If there is Common Milkweed growing in a garden area that doesn’t have a lawn, you need to spray the plant with Glyphosate. But be careful not to let it touch other plants or they will die too like flowers and small shrubs.
This herbicide has no effect on animals, but butterflies will die if they are feeding on an affected plant.
A Guide to Getting Ready
The University of California recommends that one begin by putting on gloves to protect you from any problems with the milkweed plant.
Then head out to the offending milkweed planets with a pruning saw and trash bag in hand.
Grasp the first milkweed plant by its stem about a foot off the ground. Cut through the stem below where you’re holding it but don’t leave an excessive amount of remaining length sticking out of the
ground when you do this because where there’s an excess, there will also be an imbalance in terms of weight ratio which could ultimately lead to injury.
Cutting milkweed
Cut down all the clumps of milkweed within 100 feet of your property and dispose of them in trash bags.
Milkweed spreads through underground stems and tends to form clumps above the ground. The size of the clump you remove is often a good indicator of the size of its root system.
Remove Weeds from the Ground
Grasp anywhere between one and five stems either near the center or the edge of the clump depending on how much of the plant you want to keep and pull them away from the clump using steady pressure.
It’s okay if not all of them come up easily at this point, so don’t go crazy trying to get them all up at first. Just try to get as many as you can so that further work may be done later on.
Next, each remaining stem should be loosened with a hand trowel by digging around its roots prior to pulling it free of the ground completely.
Each root attached to each stem should then be removed from its spot in the ground and disposed of in one of your trash bags.
Herbicides Applied to Milkweed
Before you spray the milkweed plants with your herbicide, make sure to put on safety gear first.
The last thing you want is to accidentally breathe in or swallow any of the chemicals that will be present while mixing or handling it.
Next, take the bottles of your concentrated herbicide and water out to the barn and mix them together in the sprayer.
It is generally recommended that you have enough of a mixture to consider pouring at least several buckets worth onto each plant.
The best way to test this is by spraying just a small quantity into a larger bucket. If still not satisfied then add more water. Once done dispose of it properly.
Preparation of Herbicide
Depressurize the sprayer and add a herbicide that contains dicamba to the tank following the manufacturer’s instructions. Stir the mixture in the tank, close the lid and pressurize the sprayer.
Once finished, rinse down all surfaces that came in contact with chemicals, especially any surface you touched with bare hands.
Plants are sprayed
Coating the leaves of milkweed plants with herbicide is quite simple. The best way to do so is to spray them thoroughly without dripping.
It’s always best to stay away from the plant and not get too close when you are spraying it so as to avoid getting anything on your clothing or skin.
We recommend that you continue coating the plants until they’ve been thoroughly coated and there is no more chemical left in your sprayer tank.
The stems of a milkweed plant drip a white, sticky liquid when they are broken. To avoid getting this acid on your skin and clothes, it’s best to wear gloves during cleanup.
Give the soil a week before applying dicamba herbicide again to make sure that herbicide doesn’t end up in the groundwater.
How to get rid of milkweed
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