# How do you get rid of tumbleweeds?



## alicenfred (Nov 3, 2006)

I have a huge amount of tumbleweeds against my barb fence. Whats the best way to get rid of them? I also have temp. electric fence and the tumble weeds are pushing this fence down.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

If you catch them before they mature you can kill them with vinegar. After they grow and start moving, about the only way to win the war is with fire.


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

Y'know, if you live near enough to a large farmer's market, I'd bet you could selll the things. People will buy anything!


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## rio002 (Jul 30, 2002)

I second the fire aspect, if you have grazing livestock then poisoning isn't an option, I imagine there's more fence line to cover so hand pulling them might not be an option either. We've always used a propane weed burner, works well, and is fairly controllable, however we do it in the spring when everything else is wet down well.


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## frogmammy (Dec 8, 2004)

Spray them with either white or green paint, sprinkle with sparkles, tie a few coordinating bows on the ends of the branches...and sell them for $5 each at the farmer's market or craft mall.

 
Mon


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

You will need gloves and long sleeves. They are prickly. You have to pull them out by hand.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

wait untill the wind is blowing the dominate way and go out throwing them over an let them go, either by hand or some times with a pitchfork, 

I have about another 2 to 3 miles of fence to clean out,

the other day here they had snow plows out keeping the under passes open of tumble weeds, if you can burn them that will work but if your grass is dry about the only thing you can do is catch and release, LOL,


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## prairiecomforts (May 28, 2006)

Just get some goats!! They love them!! This past spring when we were "cleaning out" the garden fence - we just brought the goats over and they had it all cleaned for us in a matter of two days. It was plum full!!


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

fire?


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

If you burn them in a fence you will take the tensile out and galvanizing off the wire and it will rust, and you may set the posts on fire if there wood,

and for the most part talking about getting rid of them in the growing season is a mute discussion as now there dried and broke off and have blown in to his fence, and they may be for miles away out of his control, 
the problem is not a problem of improper weed management, but one nature of the tumble weed, some can be 4 to 5 foot across, and blow for literally miles I have seen tumble weeds in fences that are 7 miles from where there any growing, so suggesting goats or spaying will not solve the problem of hundreds or thousands of weeds in fences, is not the problem or the soulution.

my guess is his problem is more like these pictures,
http://www.hardingcounty.org/Photos/On_Web/Scenic/Tumbleweeds_11-04.jpg

http://blogidaho.biz/tumbleweeds.jpg


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

looks like they make good fencing.... lol


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

When living in AZ. I worked for a few months on a Andalusian horse farm and I was cleaning the tumbling weeds out just by digging them and pulling them out and putting them in a ditch so they could not just blow up and roll away.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I vote for pitch fork and windy day sending them on down the road (I've done this & it works). You have to get them out of your fences before it snows or the weight of the snow/tumble weeds will take the fences down. When we lived in WY the state road department had a machine that ground them up so I suppose you could feed them into a haybuster. I used to decide how windy it was by the tumble weeds - tumbling nice day, bouncing - fairly windy, flying - better to stay inside.


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## alicenfred (Nov 3, 2006)

prairiecomforts said:


> Just get some goats!! They love them!! This past spring when we were "cleaning out" the garden fence - we just brought the goats over and they had it all cleaned for us in a matter of two days. It was plum full!!


Do goats like them when their dried out?


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## dezeeuwgoats (Jan 12, 2006)

My goats like 'em green, but not dry, but maybe they are spoiled. 

Downtown Chandler, Arizona has a thirty+ foot 'Christmas tree' made out of tumbleweeds. They are spray painted white, stacked somehow into an upside down, cone shape, with lights and bows.

We burned ours - raked 'em away from the fence a few at a time, and burned them until they were all done. Sounds tedious, but my three boys thought it was great fun!

Niki


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## deathvalleyalex (Jan 24, 2021)

prairiecomforts said:


> Just get some goats!! They love them!! This past spring when we were "cleaning out" the garden fence - we just brought the goats over and they had it all cleaned for us in a matter of two days. It was plum full!!


Are you talking about the goats eating tender green young plants or the dried out mature nuisances ?


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

alicenfred said:


> I have a huge amount of tumbleweeds against my barb fence. Whats the best way to get rid of them? I also have temp. electric fence and the tumble weeds are pushing this fence down.


My goats eat them up as fast as they grow, or get blown on to the property.


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

The problem is not just the dried out tumbleweeds, but the new plants that leave thousands of seeds. I used a hand held garden torch to burn off the green growing plants and went over the ground with it to burn the seeds. It took a few years of burning but got rid of most of the tumbleweeds. Just had to do yearly maintenance.
Pull the tumbleweeds off the fence with a rake. Put in a burn pile. Watch out - they will burn up in a flash.


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