Stickers in Your Yard? How to Stop Lawn Burweed in St. Augustine
Lawn burweed (stickers) sprouts in fall and grows spiny burs by spring. Here's how to prevent it with fall pre-emergent and kill it in winter before the stickers form.
The short version
- The "stickers" that poke bare feet and paws in spring are usually lawn burweed, a winter weed.
- It sprouts in fall, hides small all winter, then grows its spiny burs in early spring.
- Prevent it with pre-emergent in late September to early October.
- Kill it in December through February, while it's small and before the spines harden.
Why everyone fights stickers at the wrong time
Most people notice stickers in March or April, when kids and dogs start stepping on them. By then the burs have already formed. Spraying kills the plant, but the dead burs stay in the lawn and keep poking until they break down. The plant also dies on its own once it gets hot, which is why it seems to "go away" in late spring and come back worse the next year.
The real window is fall and winter. That's when the weed is young, small, and easy to kill.
How to identify lawn burweed
- Low, flat, ground-hugging plant, often in thin spots of the lawn.
- Small leaves divided into narrow, finger-like lobes, a little like parsley or a carrot top.
- In spring, small spiny burs form where the leaves meet the stem.
Step 1: Prevent it in fall
Burweed seeds sprout as the weather cools. A pre-emergent herbicide applied in late September to early October stops most of them from ever coming up. Water it in as the label says. This is the same fall pre-emergent application on the Turf Method calendar, so if you're following the program, you're already doing it. See pre-emergent for St. Augustine.
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Step 2: Kill what got through, in winter
Walk the lawn in December and January and look for the small, lacy plants in thin areas. Spot-treat them with a weed killer labeled for St. Augustine that lists burweed on the label. Options include:
- Atrazine, which works well on winter weeds in St. Augustine. The atrazine I use is Southern Ag Atrazine. Check that the label lists burweed.
- Three-way broadleaf products (2,4-D, dicamba, and mecoprop) whose label lists St. Augustine. Texas A&M AgriLife names several of these for burweed.
Treat on a mild day and follow the label rate for St. Augustine. Winter applications are easier on the grass than spring ones, since spring treatments often take more than one round and raise the risk of injuring the lawn.
Step 3: Thicken the lawn
Burweed moves into thin, weak turf. A thick lawn mowed at the right height leaves it no room. Fix bare spots in spring with plugs, and follow the feeding and mowing schedule through summer.
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