I hate this stuff. Sure, it may look all sweet and innocent in the photo, but this weed is a tenacious lawn-destroyer. It likes wet areas and started growing next to my birdbath a few years ago. Not realizing how evil it was, I did nothing until last year. By then, it had spread out over several feet and even came up in a completely separate section of my yard.
I used Bayer’s Weed Control spray last summer, which destroyed everything above ground level but didn’t kill the roots. The buttonweed is back this year and I’ve been trying to remove it by hand, which I read is the preferred method of control.
Read more about Virginia Buttonweed here. If anyone has successfully dealt with this weed, please share your experience.
Use Confront by Dow to kill it..
i also have virginia buttonweed, i called roundup and they said to use “weed be gone”
it works very well although it doesn’t kill it for good
i use a 2 gallon sprayer for spots spraying
good luck
I have tried roundup and 24D, I got a slow kill or though I thought, it killed the heck out of my san augustine grass. A few months later, the virgina buttonweed was back. I talked to a PHD at Texas A&M in College Station and he told me there was no research of which he had knowledge that was being done to eradict virgina buttonweed. I am at the point of pulling my hair out. I do know one thing-if you mulch when you mow you will spread the heck out of it.
@ Billy: I’ve used Roundup over the entire area several times. Last summer was really hot and dry here, and Roundup killed everything in the area. As the buttonweed tried to fill back in, I sprayed it again and it died. In the fall, I planted grass and it filled in quickly. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t see buttonweed coming back up when warmer weather arrives, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
I also have had an outbreak of buttonweed over the past 3 years. The one and only thing I have found that makes any difference is to spray with the Roundup Extended Control, and let it die, spray again (even though it is dead)and give it a week in the sun. And then, this is the kicker, I took and dug 12″ inches of soil down and in each direction from the center of the growth, and I hauled the dirt away, put new dirt in, and put new sod down. I have St. Augustine grass, as many people do in the south. I did that year one, and now two years later, nothing has yet to come back in that same spot. The second year, did it in another growth spot, and once again, nothing as of yet. So last year I did it in the remaining areas that I had the buttonweed, and so far this spring I haven’t seen the DEVIL rear its ugly head yet. It is very labor intensive, due the digging and excavation involved, but it really works, without coming back. The root system in buttonweed is what makes it an impossible weed to kill. It grows up to 10 inches deep, thus why I dug 12 inches down. Anyway, good luck, if you take my advice, it has worked without fail for me.
Go with the first commenter and use Confront. You’ll probably have to order it online and it is very expensive, but it should last you many years due to its concentration.
I should add that my use of Confront *controls* the buttonweed–I have not eradicated it. So instead of having vast areas of the evil weed, I see small plants dotted about my lawn every weekend when I spray. I’m OK with this, as the buttonweed is now just one more target during my weekly spot treatment.
How often do you use weed b gone? Is this the spray on concentrate. The button weed has taken over. I just sodded last year. I wonder if it came with the sod? Just noticed this year. I have pulled the weed and the more I pull the more I see.I live in Georgia and called the Georgia extension service for advice.They said no product would kill the weed without killing my St. Augustine..Must be something to kill this stuff!!
We never had buttonweed here until after Hurricane Katrina – it must have blown it in from somewhere. It’s everywhere now and my only consolation is that it is green – oh well – interesting idea of digging down 12 inches, but my lawn is too far gone at this point. I do check back on this site periodically to see if there’s some new idea out there to kill the stuff.
Weed be Gone won’t touch it.and it spreads over the entire yard by fall.the Arg extension agent said to use confront twice.It will come closer to working better than abything else.
ihad luck with a spray called Mansion
ohmigosh! i have been digging a virginia buttonweed root system that must have been established in my flowerbed for years. for the past several years, i’ve pulled it, but when i get to too large a root, i figured it was coming from the holly bush next to my flower bed, so i would quit & tuck it in. well, this year, i took EVERYTHING out of that bed & began to pull at those roots, while being careful not to break them…so i could get to the root of all this evil… it breaks very easily near the surface of the soil, and leading up to the big fat woody roots. i pulled one that was 1/2″ wide and about 6′ long before it finally broke off! my husband thinks i’ve lost my mind. i’ve been after these roots for 2 months. i’ve gotten to one so fat, i had to cut it, it’s over an inch in diameter!!! but i’m keeping segments of the roots and planting them to prove to him that it is that damn weed! i soaked a cloth with roundup and put it over the cut section of root, put a plastic over it & rubber-banded it…. that killed a portion of it, but there’s more. hundreds & hundreds of tiny sprouts will start up after about a week of digging- from the root AND from zillions of tiny seeds in the ground. i think the roots are why it keeps coming back & i think they are almost impossible to follow. when you pull off the top part of the plant, it just grows stronger underground. and it’s very hard to get all the broken root segments out- they make new weeds, too. i’m obsessed.
You all have me terribly discouraged! Has anyone tried Trimec? Read online that works with repeated applications but have not been able to find it in local stores.
I’ll have to check into Mansion and Confront – thanks! We had our yard professionally sprayed about a month ago (two applications, about 10 days apart). It cost me $150 for the treatments and the devil weed is back. I wasn’t able to get anything at Lowes or Home Depot that would touch it without killing the lawn, too.
Why someone who has this plant would be bothered by it is the question. And a second question is why anyone would use a herbicide to kill a native plant. Enormous waste of resources and a threat to other plants and the ecosystem. We discovered it today in our yard and photographed it and I am considering transplanting it. Mowing is a another huge waste of resources and causes a lot of pollution. Mowing should be allowed only by permit, except for making hay two or three times a year. The manufacture and sale of pesticides should be outlawed. Reading this thread makes me wonder whether all the posters simply work for major chemical companies. Learning more about the value of sustainable yards might make some of you change your mindset and make you a lot happier.
I am a small time business owner in the lawn care business. I treat a variety of invasive species, but Virginia buttonweed is in the top 2. Virginia buttonweed is a problem primarily because it grows in the finer lawn turfs of the south and many of us who care about the appearance of our lawns become distressed when we are attacked by this species. It may be present in other areas. I have tried a variety of treatments ( I have splotches in my own yard) pulling it out,digging, treating with a variety of lawn chemicals. The key is preventing photosynthesis in this plant. You could nuke it out with round up (or other glyphosate products)but you would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. If it is a small area put a blackout over the area (a board, a peice of plastic or something of this nature). A metsulfuron product can be very good if you are persistent such as spraying the affected area on a regular basis for a period of 6 weeks. It can be initially expensive but if you have a small pump up sprayer you may focus the spray specifically on the affected area and make a 2 ounce container last a very long time. In all the strategies I use I try to stop the photosynthetic process. As for you Aubrey, why don’t you try smoking it. You are a very rude disgusting communistic pig of a person who has no consideration for the fine people who post and seem to care about others.
I am a self employed lawn care professional spraying lawns in coastal Ga. for 14 years. Try ronstar in Feb. as a preemergent then image @ so. trimec at the lower rates after greenup. This will help control it in st. aug. @ centipede with out injury. Be careful!
I haven’t tried it yet, but I have been told and read reports that Wipe-Out Tough Weed works well although it may take several applications.
I am also having a big problem with Virginia Buttonweed. I live in coastal Georgia. Where can I find ronstar or/and trimec in our area? I have seen image in Home Depot.
It looks like many products treat Virginia Buttonweed;but MARE SURE your St. Augustine is Not “Floratam St. Augustine”. I used Bayer product. It killed Virginia buttonweed for sure…my lawn also. Please read product information first.
Careful, C. Sam. You too could be called “a very rude disgusting communistic pig of a person who has no consideration for the fine people who post and seem to care about others,” by some peddler of environmental poison, as I was a few months ago.
I sincerely do not understand why some people want a monoculture lawn rather than a FREE native-plant yard. Is using herbicides necessary to satisfy some anti-natural desire? On the other hand, the diversity of human beings is as important and interesting as the diversity of plants and other animals on our planet.
Weird when someone MAKING MONEY off his poison sales calls a purist a name that some may consider derogatory. Sounded like someone from the Cold War Era who doesn’t know it is over.
grass is a natural part of the enviroment a free turf as you say can be made up of poison ivy poison oak would we all like that in our lawn or how about burr’s though a free lawn may be envormentally freindly round up is only poisonious till it drys then its no more it evaporates and only infecting the area it has touched you must do research before you say its all about the money when in fact i HAVE YET TO MEET VERY MANY RICH GROUNDSKEEPERS and if you do meet a rich grounds keeper tell him to get in touch with me so i can work for him :)
I googled my way to this website trying to find a permanent solution for my V.B. problem. My neighbors have been hit harder by this pest that I have, and I’ve had some success with a product called “Weed Free Zone”. It will definitely damage your turf grass if you get to aggressive. So be careful. Aubrey, relax. Humans are part of nature too. Try to think of it this way. We are just trying to take care of our nests like birds and fish and snakes. Have you ever seen what beavers or muskrats do to their environment. If you had a job with an evil corporation, and earned obsene salaries enabling us to rape and pillage the planet by caring for our unfairly obtained large, evironmentally unfriendly “nests”, as most of us posters do, you might understand. Forget Virginia Buttonweed. Does anyone have product or method that will work on Aubrey???
i haver bermuda and was told a mixture of 2 4 d and msma will work does any one have comments on this
Well I have read all of the above comments and recomandations and have come to the conclusion that it is here to stay and there4 is nothjing that can be done to eleminate it, only to control it. I am a 69 year old and retired and hsve found it very relaxing to go out in the cool of the late afternoons here in Alabama and pull the virginia buttonweed that grows im my zoyza lawn. I guess is about as good as anything I have read thus far. As for Aubrey, he seems to be some kind of a weird dude who has alot to say about something he knows nothing about, is probably one of these very liberal pot smoking democrats and graduated from Al Gore university.
I am also going to turn 70 years of age before the end of this year. I am a Methodist, a Democrat and have a master’s degree from a university in the deep south.
I became a conservationist and accept being called an environmental conservationist after growing up fishing and hunting and witnessing the damage done to the cypress swamps and pristine bayous of north Louisiana in the 1940s and fifties.
I notice that Christianity is a subject of some threads on this site. Any of you guys ever read up on a group called Caring for Creation? Its site is worthy of a visit, regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof.
Would the creator want human beings to destroy His work. I think not.
Those little native plants are so persistent because in a natural woodland or prairie, they would be fighting many other native species to survive. They don’t require watering or mowing. Just enjoy them.
And consider learning about native U.S. species and learning the many reasons to admire them ann allow them to occupy a part of your “nesting space.”
And please consider actually planting some native wildflowers and watch the annual succession of flowers that rise from their roots each year and others that seed themselves naturally.
Please consider learning about the interdependence of native insects and other animals and the native plants.
The life cycle of the monarch butterfly is one of the most widely publicized. But all the benefiicial insects depend on native plants for their existence.
A patch of ground without native plants such as turf grass or any kind of popular yard grass creates a monoculture where only a few native species, plant or animal, exist.
The Walmart doesn’t pollinate the plants on which we depend for food. Historically, the native pollinators did the job quite well. American agriculturists imported the honeybee from Europe to supplement the work. Now the honeybees are dying off and areas such as your carefully tended lawns don’t support enough native bees and related pollinators to support agriculture.
So please consider allowing the dandelions and the clover to grown and all the native plants you like enough to add. Reduce your mowing (which wastes fuel and pollutes the air), reduce your watering, reduce your expenses.
Don’t fight nature, learn to look at a tallgrass prairie and appreciate it. Learn to be at peace with nature. You are a part of it. Accept that reality and relax!
Mal…don’t mix MSMA with anything, you will most likely turn it into a chemical torch. MSMA is good for one thing, torching dallasgrass it will brown the bermuda and kill centipede, augustine and zoiysa upon contact. MSMA is extreme and contains trace arsenic and will pulled from the marketplace in 2010.
So far after talking with my father whos lived on the Gulf Coast for years and has dealt with nothing but ST Augustine grass, mansion seems to be the best bet for controlling buttonweed.
Aubrey, Hayfever (the pollen that comes with weeds), the native insects that live in the native plants, and I love the smell of freshly cut grass, and having a nice non natural species lawn to relax in keeps me in this business.
“Love ye not the things of the world, for they shall let you down”
Oh and the reason we got so many oil wells in the middle of the ocean that cant be fixed a mile down, is guys like Aubrey voted to have areas like anwar shut down.
The polar bear you just saved may be the one that just ate you…..
has anone tried this product?
CRABGRASS KILLER By Garden Weasel AG – One 2 lb Powder
it is supposed to control this little menace. i haven’t tried anthing yet, but i need to do something.
Please read “Bringing Nature Home: How you can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.”
I will bet it changes you thinking about your monoculture lawn if you dare read it. It was written by Douglas W. Tallamy, a professor of entomology.
On this site, I read nothing that indicates the posters or the landscape “professionals” who post here have ever thought for a moment about our world’s beneficial insects or any of the value of native species of plants and wildlife.
I read about your herbicides and pesticides and, in fairness, would hope that you all would consider alternative ideas.
Indiana lists the buttonweed as threatened and New Jersey lists the “larger buttonweed” as endangered.
The solution to the “problem” you guys describe may be planting native species of tallgrass and native forbs and vines and enjoying what your ancestors found when they came to this continent. The buttonweed won’t even compete well with a wide variety of native species and you will learn to appreciate it with all the butterflies and other native pollinators that will soon appear in your yard. Please consider the wonder reality if you stop living in a mono-cultural desert.
Just curious about how to eliminate buttonweed, but, of course, became interested in the drama between Aubrey and… just about everyone else. I am loathe to spread poison on my lawn and planted areas (no matter how quickly it “evaporates”) and it fascinates me how quick people are to rationalize the act of contributing to the destruction of the environment. Why so threatened by Aubrey’s position? He seems quite educated about maintaining the natural world and we should all be so open-minded about what can be considered a beautiful yard. We homeowners have truly been brainwashed to think that only perfect, green rectangles and contained plant beds are acceptable. I am guilty of this, too, and feel that Aubrey has given me a bit of an education.
On buttonweed I’ve tried Round-up (lovely but temporary kill) and I’ve tried digging it up after it reappeared. Had no IDEA I neede to excavate down a foot! Scott’s lawn service can’t eradicate it, even though I’ve identified it for them. (Wonder if I should fire them?) I don’t want this INVASIVE weed. (I don’t want KUDZU either, Aubrey!) Va Tech has a study on 4 different products that can be used on it & found Confront (used at least twice) had the best results (76% eradication). For those of us who live in towns or cities, we can’t GO with a lawn of long grasses[Aubrey] because the city or town will fine you, if it isn’t kept CUT short.
My aunt tried to let her lawn go natural & they threatened if she didn’t cut it within so many days, they’d HIRE a company & she would get the bill. And she didn’t even have a homeowner’s assoc. to deal with – unlike many of us.
Please read up on the benefits of planting native and then lobby your city council to create a natural-lawn ordinance. You really don’t need to put all that time and money into trying to create an unnatural monoculture.
Lobbying my town or city will take a lot longer than “hit” I am going to take out on the buttonweed in my lawn (which I happen to HATE). And the homeowner’s associations for sub-divisions have their OWN rules & can fine you daily or put a LIEN on your proterty if you don’t follow them, including keeping your grass cut & what type you can have – in some cases. (Talk about silly!)
BTW, the VA buttonweed is NOT on any endangered list. It is rampant thru the south & as this list proves…hard to kill. But I will take it on, as a new MISSION in life. BTW, for those of you who do want to eradicate yours, vs turning the other cheek: while it is flowering, is an excellent time to use herbicide, according to another article I just read. Vinegar & orange oil don’t work as “natural” solutions on this weed. You can try up to 20% stength on the vinegar & Buttonweed (key word WEED) will laugh at you.
Unlike Virginia Buttonweed, maybe if everyone ignores it, (the IT being Aubrey)it will die off.
Mrs. Owens, with all due respect, where exactly do you see this “destruction”. My yard and all my neighbor’s yards seem to be very healthy. Nowhere around me can I find evidence that my environment has been destroyed. The water in my neighbor’s pond has never looked as clean, the air around me has never appeared as clear, and my pet, according to the vet, is as healthy as ever. However, I have read recently that mosquito borne illnesses are on the rise and millions suffer needlessly as a result of the overzealous regulation of certain pesticides. I think that some of us forget that humans are part of nature, too. (Top of the food chain, luckily.)
As far as feeling threatened by Aubrey, are you kidding? Please don’t confuse the formulation of a rational rebuttal with a reaction bred from a perceived threat. I’ve learned that fear is most often actually born of ignorance.
I assure and you that none of us wants to destroy the environment. But, I did like my environment more before Buttonweed invaded it. I’m also not a big fan of dollar weed and crabgrass. Luckily, humans have at least some control over their immediate environment (at least in the U.S. and at least for now). I like to walk barefoot (naturally) through my nice, cool, green, PURE centipede.
Back to V.B. “Weed Free Zone” WILL kill your turf grass if sprayed broadcast style BEFORE temps cool down for good in the late fall. But this product will affectively inhibit the re emergence of V.B. the next season. An effective warm weather alternative (but will still stunt the turfgrass a bit) is a product called “Clear Pasture”. Must be diluted heavily, however. Something like 1/8 teaspoon per gal.
NO EASY WAY..PULL IT OUT BY,THEN SPRAY,I SPRAYED WEED MASTER MIXED WITH CLEAR PASTURE.1 QUART WEED MASTER ,1/2 OZ CLEAR PASTURE TO 10 GALLONS WATER.IN THIS HOT WEATHER IT WILL BURN GRASS.IT TAKES 3 TO 4 TREATMENTS.IT LOOKS UGLY THIS YEAR,BUT NEXT YEAR WILL LOOK GOOD.SPOT TREAT.
Born on a north Louisiana farm in 1912, my father enjoyed good health until he gained weight in retirement and discovered a swelling on this right leg in his 70s. He showed the ugly growth to his doctor, who asked. Mr. Shepherd, when you were working the cotton field on your family’s farm, where did you carry your pesticide bag?
“It always hung from my belt loop on the right side.”
The doctor said, “so it slapped against your leg every step you took?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Dad said to the doctor.
You get the idea, I hope. It took decades to see the damage done by the pesticides and herbicides of the first half of the 20th century;. You may not know the damage the much-discussed “safe chemicals” some of the posters on this site are using until you are 70 years old and go to your doctor with a problem. Is destroying a tiny wildflower really worth the risk?
Aubrey, can you just shut up a minute. Treehuggers and Greenpeace all have a place in the world as far as I’m concerned………but…2nd try…has anyone tried this product on Buttonweed
CRABGRASS KILLER By Garden Weasel AG – One 2 lb Powder
apparantly some other bloggers say it kills buttonweed.
Wayne, my neighbor and I both had the same type experience. After a slow start last this spring due to last year’s late summer chemical warfare on V. B., our lawns are now finally blossoming into the proud “monoculture” of turfgrass we once had. spot treatments seam to be keeping the weed at bay. Not so lucky for several other neighbors. For most people in opur community, this year is worse than last. Btw, NO ONE I know locally had this problem until it showed up about 5 years ago. The greenskeeper at a nearby golf course (sharp dude)said it blew in with Katrina.
Aubrey, I hope your father enjoyed a long fulfilling life. But your dad’s Dr. had a %50 percent chance at his brilliant diagnoses. Luckily, he didn’t carry his pesticide sack around his neck.
Two questions for ya.
1. Does it bother you when Buttonweeed (or any other weed) chokes out other weeds, or do you only have a problem with turfgrasses and plants people actually enjoy?
2. How consistent are you with this chemical free, “native species only”, ala naturale mentality. Forgive me for crudeness, but I’m sure you brush your teeth. But does it bother you when you tamper with your body’s natural flora by “destroying the germs that cause gingavitis”?
Any botanists or zoologists on this blog? I imagine some PR folk who work for chemical companies are on here. In the natural prairie areas that haven’t been converted to fescue and other invasive species in Northwest Arkansas, I rarely find enough buttonweed to be significant. In a natural mix, it doesn’t dominate. Kudzu and Japanese honeysuckle may not dominate in the places from which they were imported.
Thank you Aubrey for you persistence in fighting the people’s unfounded prejudices against Virginia buttonweed. I love this plant. I think it is beautiful, and don’t understand why people are trying to eradicate it. A lawn made up entirely of buttonweed would be much more attractive than bermuda grass, in my opinion. This plant is doing really well, even in full sun and very hot and dry weather (August in Houston,TX) without supplemental watering. It started showing up in my lawn on its own, but I hope it actually takes over the lawn, because it is thick and luscious, and has attractive small white flowers. It also attracts bees/pollinators and other wildlife. It sprawls on the ground, and therefore does not require mowing. why has no one thought about using this plant in the lawn, instead of your typical bermuda grass?
I read your stuff. Read mine if you dare. Converting lawns to tiny bits of native prairie plants is an important part of the effort to bring peace to the earth, reduce the effect of manmade global-climate change and cause me to be a silent ghost when I die. And apparently a lot of you guys are hoping for the final item if not the first two.
“Converting lawns to tiny bits of native prairie plants is an important part of the effort to bring peace to the earth”
…”reduce the effect of manmade global-climate change”
…”and cause me to be a silent ghost when I die. And apparently a lot of you guys are hoping for the final item.”
Oh honey, I’ve already sprayed you (mentally) with 2-4-D. (I’m just waiting for it to work.)
Surely you guys can discuss a weed without resorting to wishing one another dead! ;)
Lulu,
I understand that some of these people fear nature and want to conquer it. And I was in four years of ARMY ROTC and 8 years of Coast Guard Reserve and understand how the urge to make everyone look and act alike can dominate the thinking of anyone who has tried to manage a platoon or keep a ship on course.
I find the Virginia buttonweed a peaceful resident in the remnants of tallgrass prairie on the Ozark Plateau and season sunken wetland near my home but am intrigued by the possibiility of actually encouraging some to replace vinca and other nonnative groundcover in my own yard.
We don’t have to mow but we do want to get as close to purely native as possible. Mostly, we just enjoy whatever nature provides. Or God provides. Some people on this blog may not want to accept what God or nature provide.
I am amazed at the anger they express against PLANTS of any species. If the grass doesn’t grow so they can mow they feel like frustrated drill sergeants with only bald guys in their companies who can’t be intimidated into submission by a weekly head-shaving or crewcut.
Aubrey said: “Some people on this blog may not want to accept what God or nature provide.”
I’ve always had a problem with that argument. What about a child born with a hair lip, or a person with a huge, unsightly mole? Are we supposed to accept both things and blame God?
Aubrey, you make a good point every once in a while, but you are guilty of the exact thing that you are railing against. If you want a natural yard, then have one, but you should stop trying to force your beliefs and views on everyone else. You talk about us wanting to conform to one another’s expectations of what a lawn should look like, while you tell us our lawns should look like yours.
It’s just a freaking weed! Do some research on it and you’ll find that it is listed as one of the most invasive and hard-to-control weeds around. Not to mention that it’s rather ugly when it gets a virus that turns it yellow.