I'm almost scared to walk to the pasture gate. I have been very happy to see other weeds and not goatsheads there, its one spot I put out goathshead weevils for control last year (I have also done quite a bit of mechanical removal in this spot the last 2 years) I don't want my horses walking in goatsheads burrs. Its rather sad to look at a paddock full of weeds and go YAY, these aren't nasty goatshead burr weeds but such is life on a sandhill.
I hate the way those things pack tight in a hoof, well hell I just hate those vile burrs with a mild? ok its probably not that mild, obsession. Last year I could NOT keep up and didn't want to just disk endlessly and create extra sand so I bought some weevils (2 units) I didn't order until July and it was nearly the end of the month when I got them. I think I am seeing some fewer goatsheads sprouting where I had the weevils but still plenty. Soo I ordered 3 units this year yesterday so they should arrive as soon as the place starts shipping. So either june 30 or July 7 as they ship to arrive on a thursday.
In the meantime the last couple of days I am scuffing out goatsheads that are sprouting in abundance after our wet may (heh I think its under 6 inches of rain) But that is quite wet for here. Before the end of the month one of the local tv channels had a blurb about how 5.x inches of rain so far in May had wiped out our precipitation deficit from having hardly any snow all winter.
Scuffing out goatsheads ---scuffing with my feet to uproot the teeny little seedlings. Don't have to remember to grab a hoe, and doesn't disturb the soil as deeply either; also don't get fingers pricked with burrs that hadn't sprouted yet. They are thick in some spots I had put out weevils last year but I didn't have enough weevils starting early enough so hopefully this year with geting one more unit + getting an extra 25 day life cycle the weevils will help me keep the damn burrs in check without crowding out all the other things I want to do.
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What are Goatsheads?
http://www.goatheads.com/
They are a very noxious weed that set burrs that look a bit like a goats head. The first year we had them I thought the ferny plant with yellow leaves was pretty. Now I walk around and when I see that leaf shape sprouting I stop and pull the weed. Our farmyard area only got a few last year --but I'd like to not have the paddock areas always on the verge of becoming a solid mat of burrs from Aug-Nov unless they are disked regularly. I dislike the sand blowing in everything when we have to disk, + any burrs picked up from riding out just LOVE loose sand.
so they are not like burrdocks then? We have a lot of problems with burrdocks growing everywhere because we had a longhair dog that kept getting into burrdock patches and bringing them home with her.
I think the goatsheads come into the house mainly on shoe soles, although the dogs bring a few in on their paws. But they are ground hugging. If they didn't set nasty burrs they would be the perfect groundcover plant for arid sandy soil but the burrs totally tip them into the nasty category. We get a few burdocks around here where its moist but its too arid for them to become a big nuisance, they only survive near irrigation ditches or ponds.
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