Go ahead and spray your lawn now or you might be sorry when it warms up. Lawn burweed is an awful weed to have in your lawn around the end of April. These are the ones that make thousands of little stickers that are very painful. By making a herbicide application now you can save yourself some grief down the road. It is best if the herbicide can be applied before the second week of March because the burweed begins to make seed heads around this time.
Soliva sessilis commonly know as lawn burweed or spurweed, is one of nine species of the Burweed genus in the Asteraceae (daisy) family. It is a small, low, fast-growing, herbaceous, broadleaf annual, typically seen in winter, growing in lawns. It is listed as a noxious weed in several southern states from OR south to CA to FL and north to VA. (NC State , Lawn-Burweed 2020)
Lawn burweed is easy to control, but if you already have the stickers it is too late. You can kill the burweed in the Spring, but the stickers have already formed and will still be an issue after the plant is dead. The best way to control burweed is to treat your lawn for the weed in December, January or February. This allows you to kill the burweed before it has a chance to form the spiny seeds. A preemergent herbicide like Atrazine applied to your lawn in January or February is a very effective way to control burweed and lots of other winter weeds. For this time of year it is probably best to mix in a post emergent with the Atrazine to take care of weeds that are already growing. Some good postemergence products to use are 24-D, Trimec, or Mansion to kill the large plants before they develop seeds.
There are a few tips to keep in mind when applying any herbicide. Don’t get to close to flower beds or the root zone of azaleas, boxwoods, camelias, or other ornamental plants when applying herbicides or serious damage could occur. Centipede grass can be sensitive to auxins like 24-D and Trimec so please use the labeled rates to avoid damage. Do not use Mansion (metsulfuron) on your lawn if you have a bahia grass lawn because it will kill the bahia grass along with the weeds.
Cited Sources
Lawn-Burweed. LSU AgCenter. (2020, January 28). Retrieved from https://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/lawn_garden/commercial_horticulture/turfgrass/turfgrass-weeds/broadleaf-weeds/lawn-burweed
Lawn Burweed Plant Profile Louisiana State University
Soliva sessilis. Soliva sessilis (Bindi Weed, Field Burweed, Lawn Burweed, Spurweed) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/soliva-sessilis/
