Sticky Weed
A few plants are commonly known as ‘Sticky Weed’ the one we are dealing with is Galium aparine (see picture right)
If you have this in the garden you will know why it is called ‘Sticky weed’. The whole plant becomes sticky and it attaches itself to other plants, fences and just about anything else. Even as you touch it it likes to attach itself to your skin or gloves. It will smother other plants if left and will spread all over the yard in time..
It mainly spreads from seed, however the flowers themselves are fairly small and you may not notice them. As it is an annual you can control it with a little effort over a few years.
How to Control Sticky Weed
- Weeding
The best way control sticky weed is to act quickly at the end of spring to beginning of summer. As soon as appears, pull it out, and certainly before it seeds. Preventing this sticky plant from seeding is the key to eradication. We have found this to be successful, just wear some long gloves, bag the weed and dispose of.
- Weed Killer
In the garden, using Glyphosate weed killers is not usually recommended in most situations. Sticky weed usually grows amongst other plants, so the risk of overspray can cause other plants to die back.
It has been suggested that using a weed wand to directly apply weed killer to each plant will work. However this again is difficult and laborious, it is a lot quicker to pull Sticky Weed out by hand, or with a rake before it flowers.