I don’t know what is worse, fire ants, stickers, or nutsedge.  I think that it is probably nutsedge.  Some tell me that the best way to get rid of nutsedge is to let the pigs have it.  I imagine turkeys would do the same.  

You can plant or spread mulch or pinestraw in a afternoon and the nutsedge will show it’s ugly face 2 days later.  Digging it up doesn’t help much, in fact I think it just spreads it.  There are several products that are really good that help to rid of it.  Image is one of the good ones.  One 24 oz bottle will treat 6000 square feet.  You can spot treat with 2.5 (5 Tbl) per gallon of water.  Image is also labeled for dollarweed, virginia buttonweed, henbit, several other weeds.  Two more chemicals for nutsedge are Certainty, and Halo 75WDG Select.  Certainty is Sulflsulfuron.  The mixing rate is 1.25oz per 2 gallons of water plus surfactant.  Certainty is also labeled for Poa Annua, Dallasgrass , and Virginia Buttonweed.  It’s good to use a product that has several different uses.  This saves you money and clutter in your storage.  Halo 75WDG Select is the third on my list.  It is Halosulfuron-methyl.  Mix .03 oz per gallon of spray.  There are a few more chemicals that will do the trick.

The main thing is to get your sprayer ready and the measuring cups that you are going to use.  Always read the label before spraying.  

With all of the rain that we have had in the last 2 weeks ought to jumpstart the fireants also.  Be use to have all of the insecticides on hand to get rid of them.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal. Email Mitzi questions at  mitzithomas40@yahoo.com.)