Nettle looks harmless, but actually the rash it causes can cause severe itching, blistering, and even skin poisoning. Nettles thrive in neglected areas, along hiking trails, groves, and even on Christmas tree plantations. If you have nettle growing near your home or workplace, you can remove it by hand, use herbicides, or use natural methods. Check out the steps below to learn how.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Manual Erase
Step 1. Get to know the nettle plant
Nettles have shiny green leaves that turn red in the fall and die in the winter. Nettle leaves are thick and wrinkled. Nettle leaves have a shape similar to oak leaves and each group consists of 3 leaves. In areas exposed to direct sunlight, nettle grows in the form of thick shrubs. In shady areas, nettles can grow and propagate long, climbing trunks and trees.
- You can find nettles along roads, on forest edges, and in neglected areas.
- If left unchecked, the nettle plant can grow to be quite large, you may also see nettle buds growing out of the ground. Look at its classic leaves to identify it for sure.
- Even if all the leaves on the nettle have fallen, the remaining stems are still poisonous, so don't leave the poisonous plant alone even if it has no leaves.
Step 2. Cover your entire body
Manually removing nettle requires you to touch the plant directly, so you should make sure you cover your skin to protect your skin from urushiol, a toxic oil produced by the plant that can be harmful to humans. Use thick gloves, several layers of long-sleeved shirts, long pants, socks, and boots. You should cover your face too, as some people become contaminated with its poison just from breathing air near nettle plants. This is the most effective way of extermination, but also the most dangerous.
- This method is not recommended for people with severe allergies to nettle plants - and of course you are not recommended to do this method either. Find someone who is immune to nettles to help you, or use other methods to get rid of them.
- Be aware that even if you have had a less severe rash from nettle venom, it is possible that further contamination will have a worse effect than the previous one.
- Be careful when you take off your clothes after you are done with netting. Toxic oil from the nettle plant will remain on gloves, shoes, and other parts of clothing. You should wash all parts of the clothes on a hot cycle in your washing machine so that the residual toxic oil can be cleaned properly.
Step 3. Dig down to the roots of the plant and pull it out
You may be able to pull out the smaller nettles by hand, but to remove the larger ones, you'll need a shovel. It is very important to remove the entire plant, including the roots, when you want to root it. If you don't pull out the roots, the plant will grow back.
Spring is the time when nettle removal is easiest to do, when the plants are still green and the soil is soft. It will be difficult for you to get deep into the roots if the soil starts to dry and cool, most of it will break at the stem when you try to pull it out
Step 4. Remove any nettle plants you have uprooted
When you have collected all the plants and their roots, stack them in an area where they will not harm people or put them in a garbage bag for later disposal. Dead nettles are still poisonous, so don't leave them in areas where people can reach them, as this can be dangerous.
- Do not use the plant to fertilize the plant. The risk is very high, as the remaining toxic oil will cause a serious rash.
- Don't burn it. Inhaling the toxic fumes from burning these plants is very dangerous!
Method 2 of 3: Chemical Extermination
Step 1. Use a chemical to poison the stems of the nettle plant
You can use glyphosphate, triclopyr, or a mixture of these chemicals to kill poisonous nettles. Do this early in the growing season, when the plants are still green. The plant will absorb the chemical to the roots. When the nettle is dead, you have to go back to dig it out.
- Start by covering yourself with safety equipment from head to toe. Do not let your skin come into direct contact with plants.
- Use specially made long-handled shears to trim the plant so that all that's left is the stem just above the ground.
- After you cut the stem of the plant, immediately spray the chemical with a spray bottle.
- Make sure you spray the chemical thoroughly on each stem of the plant. You'll need to spray again if the plant is still growing from stems that have been sprayed with chemicals.
- When the stems have browned a few days later, dig out the dead roots with a shovel.
- Do not use dead plants as fertilizer or burn them; throw them away, because even if they're dead, they can still cause a rash.
Step 2. Spray early in the season
Choose an herbicide that contains triclopyr. This chemical is very effective to use early in the growing season, you can do it from early spring to mid dry season, when plants grow quickly and flower.
- Do not spray on days where the day blows hard. The chemicals carried by the wind will kill the plants around the nettle plant, or it will even blow into your face.
- Do not spray the trees.
- Spray when it is dry, not when it is wet (when it rains or after it rains). Herbicides will work effectively after being sprayed for more than 24 hours.
Step 3. Spray at the end of the season
Use herbicides that contain glyphosphate at the end of the nettle plant's life cycle. You can use glyphosphate when the nettle has flowered, but the leaves are still green. Apply a herbicide containing 2% glyphosphate to nettle plants by spraying it directly on the leaves. Glyphosphate will also damage plants around nettles, so be careful when you spray it.
- Do not spray on days where the day blows hard. The chemicals carried by the wind will kill the plants around the nettle plant, or it will even blow into your face.
- Do not spray the trees.
- Spray when it is dry, not when it is wet (when it rains or after it rains). Herbicides will work effectively after working for at least 24 hours.
Step 4. Consider getting expert help
If you don't want to come into direct contact with the nettle plant, then the best way you can choose is to hire someone to eradicate it. A licensed expert will use a strong pesticide such as Imazapyr to kill nettles. This method is most effective if done in the spring or early fall.
Method 3 of 3: Natural Techniques
Step 1. Cover the nettle plant
Use the "plastic sheeting" technique to cover the nettle plant with plastic in the area where the nettle grows. This method will work more effectively when you cut the tree to a few inches above the ground. The dead roots must be uprooted and disposed of properly, otherwise they will grow back.
Step 2. Use hot water
Prepare a pot of boiling water, then water the nettle around the root area. Boiling water is supposed to kill nettle plants, and you should remember to pull out the roots after they die. This method is best used for killing smaller nettle plants. Larger nettles probably won't die if you get rid of them this way.
If you use this method, make sure you don't inhale the vapors produced by the watered plant
Step 3. Use the goat to eradicate it
Goats are very fond of nettle plants – goats will not be poisoned by the poisonous oil produced by nettles – and because goats eat large portions, they can kill nettles in no time. This is an excellent natural way to get rid of nettles. Check if there are goat farms near your area. These days, renting goats to clean the surrounding area is quite popular.
- If you use this method, you will still have to pull out and remove the roots to prevent the nettle from growing back. Otherwise, you can still hire a goat to help you eradicate the nettles whenever the nettles grow back.
- Interesting fact: Goats that eat poisonous nettle produce milk that is not poisonous at all.
Step 4. Try using a vinegar spray
This method is worth trying, especially for smaller plants. Fill a spray bottle with undiluted white vinegar and spray the leaves and stems of the nettle plant in your area. Supposedly, the plants will die in a few days. Uproot and remove the roots if you don't want the plant to grow back.
Step 5. Fill your land with useful plants
Nettles tend to grow in empty areas that are not being used. You can prevent this by planting other plants so that the land is not empty and not overgrown with nettles.
Tips
You can prevent the spread of nettle by allowing sheep or goats to eat it. Deer and horses can also eat it, but only the young nettle (before it blooms)
Warning
- You'll still get a rash if you touch a nettle plant even if it's been dead for years. Urushiol endured for a very long time.
- Urushiol can penetrate latex gloves and survive on unwashed clothing and equipment for a year or more!
- Bulldozers and rakes don't kill nettle effectively because most of the time, the nettle roots will stay in the soil and grow again. Weeding and plowing areas where nettle is present also does not work well for nettle removal, in fact the process of weeding and plowing helps spread the plant.
- Extermination with herbicides can be dangerous. Make sure you read the instructions for use for proper use, storage and disposal.
- Never burn nettles. Smoke containing urushiol (a poisonous oil produced by nettles) poses a serious threat to the life of the person who inhales it. Burning nettle causes a more severe impact than the impact caused when you touch it.
