Get Rid Grass Burrs & Stickers

How to Get Rid of Grass Burrs & Stickers in Your Texas Lawn

Whether you have grass burrs in your lawn (also sometimes called grass stickers) or you’re just worried about them, you might be looking for some more information on this frustrating weed. While all weeds are a nuisance, grass burrs are particularly problematic since they can actually be painful, too.

These spiky balls in the grass can actually stab you with their thorns or get stuck to clothing, skin, or pet fur. If you have children or pets who are running through the lawn barefoot, they can be a literal “pain” that prevents you from using your property to the fullest.

Unfortunately, when we encounter grass burrs and stickers in Texas lawns, it’s not like we see just one or two. We typically see dozens, if not hundreds. They can quickly spread and make a yard unusable.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to get rid of grass burrs so that you can get back to enjoying your lawn.

What are Those Spiky Balls in the Grass?

It’s not surprising that “spiky balls in grass” is a common search term on the Internet for people looking for information about grass burrs. After all, that’s exactly what they look like.

Grass burrs are an annual grassy weed that can thrive in drier climates, like ours in Texas. They tend to pop up in pastures or along roadsides, but they can sometimes show up in lawns thanks to how well they have learned to spread.

We’ve not only heard them called grass stickers but also “prickly thorns,” “sticker burrs,” or “sandbur.”

The latter is the name of the full weed (not just the single “sticker”). A sandbur weed looks like a tall grassy weed with a bunch of individual thorny stickers. These can break off and end up throughout the lawn or latch on to someone (or something) passing by.

In some ways, it’s quite genius (in an evil way!) as this is how the weed spreads.

The sharp spiky balls are actually seedpods. As they latch on and get moved to new locations, the weed spreads to new places. Couple that with the fact that the spiky thorns make this weed difficult to hand-pick, and you can see how it is difficult to control or get rid of.

Like other grassy weeds, it also happens to be an aggressive grower and can be slow to respond to weed control products.

Read The Ultimate Texas Lawn Care Guide

But if you’re dealing with this weed, you want to come up with an action plan so that you can get back to enjoying your lawn. That’s what we’ll talk about next.

How to Get Rid of Grass Burrs

While pre-emergent controls are effective in preventing some types of grassy weeds, they do not work for grass burrs. If you have a grass burr problem, we’ll have to use post-emergent herbicides.

It’s important to know that it could take multiple applications to start getting grass burrs under control.

Unfortunately, the products that can be purchased “over the counter” at big box stores are largely ineffective against grass burrs, so this is something you’ll want to invest in a professional for. They can apply commercial-grade products that can help start to get this weed under control.