How to Get Rid of Little Pricker Bushes

Eliminate pricker bushes from the landscape with glyphosate herbicide.

Many nuisance weeds attempt to inhabit a lawn or landscape and compete with grass and landscape plants for nutrients. The name pricker bush is a generic name given to a variety of plants with small thorns or spines that includes thistle. Small to medium size nonpoisonous stickers are abundantly located along the leaves of thistle as a means of self-defense. Eliminate pricker bushes with the use of a glyphosate-based liquid herbicide.

Things You'll Need

• 1-gallon garden sprayer
• 3 oz. glyphosate herbicide
• 1 gallon water

Instructions

1. Fill a 1-gallon garden spray tank half full of water. Add 3 oz. of liquid glyphosate herbicide to the tank. Place the top on the tank and shake to mix.

2. Remove the top and fill the tank with water to the 1-gallon mark indicated on the side of the spray tank. Place the top back on the tank.

3. Adjust the nozzle on the end of the spray wand to a stream for direct control when spraying.

4. Apply the mixed glyphosate to the pricker plant. Wet the top and bottom of leaves as well as the stem. Apply the herbicide when the plant is actively growing and when there is no chance of rain for at least three hours.

5. Allow the glyphosate to work for between seven and 10 days. Monitor the pricker bush, or thistle, for die back. Make a second application of the glyphosate for complete control if necessary.

References

• Monsanto: Roundup Product Label