Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on June 09, 2018, 08:39:48 PM
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Here in the Pacific NW, we have a nuisance plant called Devil's Club: 2-3 meters high with woody stalks and amply covered with thorns on the stems, leaves and stalks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club). The thorns like to break off flush with the skin, so you have to wait for the thorn to fester and protrude a bit before you can remove them.
The back 50 feet or so of my acre lot is covered with second-growth evergreen forest and Devil's Club as the underbrush. I am eradicating the Devil's Club to make that portion of my property usable. The best way to eliminate the plant is to pull it out of the ground. It reproduces by sending runners underground, and the long thick roots make it a tussle to pull it out. You have to grab it by the stem(s) and give it a hearty yank until it comes free. My heavy-duty leather work gloves help a bit with the padded palm, but the single-thickness fingers are not very thorn-resistant.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a more puncture-proof set up? I have read about thorn-proof gloves on Amazon, and they don't seem to be very thorn-proof. The steel mesh gloves as cut protection work well against slices, but not so much for punctures, as with a thorn. I thought of beekeeping and welding gloves, and a lot of the reviews there say they are not very puncture-proof in the fingers.
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Have you thought about spot-treating with herbicides? This one in particular: https://www.amazon.com/Triclopyr-Compare-Garlon-Remedy-Gallon/dp/B0073M8UHI It's what they use to kill buckthorn around here, and I've used it on all kinds of fresh small tree stumps to prevent regrowth.
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Have you tried boiling water? It kills dandelions and several other weeds pretty well, with no effect on anything it doesn't hit directly.
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Welding gloves have many layers. The modern Tig/mig gloves are lighter but I find the old school SMAW gloves w gauntlet are great for campfire cooking, fireplace loading, vaccinating half wild barn cats, oh and welding.
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I would also suggest good old fashioned welding gloves.
As to eliminating nuisance vegetation, a mix of glyphosate, 2-4-D and a little dish soap has killed anything green I've needed dead.
Has worked on Similax, AKA green briar and thistle and knocks down poison ivy and poison oak reliably.
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Wrap chain, rope, or webbing around the stalk a couple of times and pull on that instead?
I was also thinking of a fence post puller, but not sure that would work. Description indicates a straight, tough stalk. so...
"Devil's club is very sensitive to human impact and does not reproduce quickly. The plants are slow growing and take many years to reach seed bearing maturity, and predominately exist in dense, moist, old growth conifer forests in the Pacific Northwest.[2]"
That's good news. I had a similar problem with Canada Thistle and mowed it down with my lawn tractor, which kept the area clear for a couple of years.
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Harbor Freight sells welding gloves for really cheap if you wanna give it a go Millcreek. They also have longer gauntlets than gardening gloves, so better coverage up the forearm. They even sell full leather welding sleeves for cheap if you want better coverage up your arms.
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I am looking at the Harbor Freight website: which style of welding glove is thicker/more protective, TIG or MIG? I know nothing about welding.
https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?dir=asc&order=EAScore%2Cf%2CEAFeatured+Weight%2Cf%2CSale+Rank%2Cf&q=welding+gloves
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For your needs I would skip the mig gloves and just try out the cheaper gloves. The mig gloves are pretty thin. When I'm back at my computer I'll check their site and send you a link if someone else doesn't first. For just tugging out plants I don't think you need a lot of dexterity and the cheaper arc gloves are thicker.
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Millcreek, I would try these first:
https://www.harborfreight.com/welding-gloves-39664.html
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Cut them down and salt the area. Unless you want something else to grow there.
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MiG/stick. Tig gloves are thin and supple because you are carefully manipulating a torch and manually feeding thin filler rod.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LH462I/ref=asc_df_B002LH462I5506170/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B002LH462I&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198070022856&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14792497805814656230&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026492&hvtargid=pla-350699527143 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LH462I/ref=asc_df_B002LH462I5506170/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B002LH462I&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198070022856&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14792497805814656230&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026492&hvtargid=pla-350699527143)
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MiG/stick. Tig gloves are thin and supple because you are carefully manipulating a torch and manually feeding thin filler rod.
Just an FYI if he gets the Harbor Freight ones, from what I remember when trying them on there. Their MIG gloves were a similar thickness (or more appropriately thinness) to their TIG gloves.
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Tordon RTU is pretty effective at killing stuff. I had a bamboo grove (50+ canes) I cut down leaving an inch or two and squirted tordon into each cane. Only a couple of new sprouts in the last 3 weeks.
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What about chopping off the plants near the ground and then dragging the area with a grappling hook to pull out the roots?
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What about chopping off the plants near the ground and then dragging the area with a grappling hook to pull out the roots?
The Tordon that grandpa mentioned, or the triclopyr (mixed 3:1 with diesel or kerosene) that I did will kill the roots. Just apply it to the fresh-cut stumps.
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(https://www.militarygloves.com/images/product_images/bwh-pair-lrg.png)
Anyone else remembers these guys?
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(https://www.militarygloves.com/images/product_images/bwh-pair-lrg.png)
Anyone else remembers these guys?
Yep, and remember DX'ing a set of ripped up BDU's after AT at Ft. McCoy when I was an E-4...
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Millcreek, I would try these first:
https://www.harborfreight.com/welding-gloves-39664.html
So the new Harbor Freight local to me opened yesterday, and I picked up a pair of these gloves this morning. I just came back inside from a couple of hours of yanking up the Devil's Club, and these gloves were perfect. I did not get stuck once by thorns through these gloves. Thanks so much, Ben.
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Prickly ash?
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I would use something like this: https://www.pullerbear.com/compare.html (https://www.pullerbear.com/compare.html). I have the WeedWrench which is really nice but the guy that made them shut down and went on about some anti-government screed.
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^
I would use something like this: https://www.pullerbear.com/compare.html (https://www.pullerbear.com/compare.html). I have the WeedWrench which is really nice but the guy that made them shut down and went on about some anti-government screed.
From the dark, dim past:
Wrap chain, rope, or webbing around the stalk a couple of times and pull on that instead?
I was also thinking of a fence post puller, but not sure that would work. Description indicates a straight, tough stalk. so...
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So, I guess something like a post puller would have worked after all. I'm sure I saw a fence post puller at the rental place hereabouts a couple of years ago.
Terry
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^
From the dark, dim past:
So, I guess something like a post puller would have worked after all. I'm sure I saw a fence post puller at the rental place hereabouts a couple of years ago.
Terry
Saw that...but if a fence post puller is so good why would the tree/root pullers have been invented? Upon reading the entire thread I see it is a moot point as Millcreek found that the Harbor Freight welding gloves suits his need.
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There were a range of possibilites suggested, including boiling water.
Fence post puller was one of them. But it turned out that someone had refined that principle for specifically that purpose. (But for a rather high price, as opposed to renting something similar which I had supposed might work.)
OP decided gloves were best, given his specifics.
That's OK with me.
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(https://www.militarygloves.com/images/product_images/bwh-pair-lrg.png)
Anyone else remembers these guys?
Worthless! The staples were always catching on the concertina. Plain old work gloves worked better, you just needed fast hands.
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Tordon RTU is pretty effective at killing stuff. I had a bamboo grove (50+ canes) I cut down leaving an inch or two and squirted tordon into each cane. Only a couple of new sprouts in the last 3 weeks.
Tordon RTU will also kill all the evergreens as it leaches through the soil.
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I am very very cautious in using lawn/plant chemicals due to our water well. I don't want to run the risk of contaminating our aquifer. Most of the neighbors are the same way.
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I am very very cautious in using lawn/plant chemicals due to our water well. I don't want to run the risk of contaminating our aquifer. Most of the neighbors are the same way.
There are quite a few you can use that won't leech into your aquifer. I'm a big fan of using Round up concentrate and painting it onto fresh cut woody stems with a brush That is right on the label.
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Search for something ANSI/ISEA Punture Level 5 (be advised, cut resistance and puncture resistance are independent ratings). Probably spendy, but maybe worth it in your situation.
Brad
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Tordon RTU will also kill all the evergreens as it leaches through the soil.
Hence the scalding suggestion; I know I've seen something out there that was basically designed to spray ~200F water for some other industrial purpose, and I've used just-under-boiling water to wilt weeds, then seen them turning brown the next day. Of course, as it cools, it's just watering the desirable plants six inches away.
I would assume the reason there's not some sort of hot water weed sprayer on the consumer market is because some idiot would manage to severely scald himself or his kids with it through sheer stupidity and sue the crap out of the manufacturer no matter how many safeties and warnings it came with. OTOH, if you're bright enough to keep pressures low, fittings tight, the spray area clear of people and pets, inspect hoses regularly and use a spray wand too long to accidentally hit your own body, it should be a viable solution.