Guidance Please!
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Last year, we found a patch of Stinging Nettle on the property. By the time we found it, it was in full-bloom horror! Luckily, where it was located was not out in the open, so we decided to let it die out and deal with it this season. (I know--soooo proactive of us, but have you ever seen this plant in full-bloom?? Think 'mini-daggers'.)
"Stinging nettle is a dioecious herbaceous perennial, 1 to 2 m (3 to 7 ft) tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter. It has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow as are the roots. The soft green leaves are 3 to 15 cm (1 to 6 in) long and are borne oppositely on an erect wiry green stem. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. It bears small greenish or brownish 4-merous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences. The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs and also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that will inject several chemicals: acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT or serotonin, and possibly formic acid. This mixture of chemical compounds cause a sting or paresthesia from which the species derives its common name, as well as the colloquial names burn nettle, burn weed, burn hazel. The pain and itching from a nettle sting can last from only a few minutes to as long as a week ." (Wikipedia)
This season is here and the nettles are back. We need to do something about it and this is where i'd like your opinions. Especially if you have had to eradicate this nettle before.
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At the moment, the Stinging Nettles are small and few in number. I do not normally kill my weeds with chemicals, but i am considering using 'Round Up' or a similar NON-SPECIFIC weed killer. Unfortunately, using a product like that will kill everything in the area... but i am afraid that if i ONLY dig them out, i'll miss some and have to deal with this again!
What would you do?
Comments
Good luck!
We don't have those, but it worked on alot of our weeds last year.