Prickly Pear Cactus

Any tips or tricks in clearing Prickly Pear Cactus by hand. I have an area about the size of 5x5 that I need to knock down. It's close to the sendero where my feeder is and can possibly block a shot. Is there any type of spray or anything to apply to kill them?

Axe or machete to knock it down. You can then pile dead brush or wook on it and burn it if the area is not in a burn ban. I have used Remedy mixed with water to kill cactus on my place. It takes time.

I have killed it with roundup, remedy, and clear pasture. All 3 took more than one application for me.

Cut with ax move with pitchfork.

I cut with a pick and move with pitchfork also.

An area that small, machete and pitchfork. Be sure to get the roots too. Any spray you use will take too long unless you use a lot of diesel mixed with the poison.

Do not leave any of the pieces on the ground, they will root and start a new plant.

A 4-tined cultivator tool is also very good at ripping up cactus, roots and all.

This. You can just knock it down in place and not worry about hauling it off. If you have a front-end loader, just crush it with that.

12ga. plug removed

I run over it with the bush hog and then come back and scrape it up in a pile with the FEL. That will take a chunk out of it.

By hand, you need to accomplish the same thing, and it will be tough. When we were clearing the land for our house, I just kept a spray bottle of Round Up and another of Amdro on the lawn tractor and applied them where needed. Eventually the ants and cactus lost.

It takes time.

In a small 5x5 area, definitely just cut it with a machete or something, grub the roots up with a dirt rake or grubbing hoe, and stack it.

If for some reason you dont want to clear it by hand, spray it with 20% remedy, 80% diesel. Will kill it and start it withering in a couple of weeks.

Use a dye to be sure you get good coverage, and spray both sides of each leaf and it will die pretty fast.

Note that remedy is about $100 per gallon, so the 20/80 mix is too expensive to use on too big of an area. (And it kills pretty much everything it touches.)

Picloram at 1%, surfactant 1%, water 98% will kill prickly pear reliably at much lower cost per plant, but takes up to a year or more to fully kill the plant!

Put s chain around it and pull it with an atv or your truck, then move it somewhere off the ground, on an old pallet will do. Then go back and pick up what ever is left. Any green pieces on the ground will root.

The best way that i know of to kill cactus is to get Surmount. I sprayed cactus for the past 2 summers on my summer break to make a little extra money (i teach and coach). We would get on 4wheelers with a 25 gallon spray tank on the back and mix it up 32oz surmount 8 oz sticking agent and 4 ounce blue dye. Fill it 25 gallons water and get to spraying. i did it on our place around deer feeders and blinds this summer and the cactus is already yellow and falling down. it wont straight kill it immediately but it will kill it over time. Sprayed some last year around my moms house and it looks like somebody set it on fire. Its really good stuff and animal friendly!

We cleaned up many an acre with nothing but a pear burner and grubbing hoes. Burn it, grub it, and go back every few weeks to make sure nothing sprouted. Then after a while we would pile the "remains" up at each location and burn that. It is a labor intensive method, but with no out of pocket expense.

Prickly pear cactus is very easy to bend over and break. A straight hoe will chop it and a garden rake will move it with ease.

Get a pair burner and burn the thorns off it and the deer/hogs will feast on it later in the season. On more than one occasion I have seen deer late in the season carry a piece of cactus to a feeder, eat for a while then pick up their snack and head out. At certain times of the year they consume quite a bit of it.

You beat me to it! For a place that small just burn it and hunt over it. Some of y'all have hunted on my place and know about the cactus flat in the south pasture, my favorite place to hunt when the rut's on. For some reason the big buck's love that area, rattled up some nice one's back there.
Not sure what Conoco sprayed on their place two year's ago but they sprayed about 12 section's and took out all the cactus in about a year and a half. They sprayed in September and it knocked the leaves off the mesquites also.

I bought a propane torce kit to burn it with. If I leave it there it can posible block my field of view down to the feeder. You guys think I should still just burn it and leave it there to feast on or burn it and knock it down?

If it blocks your view, knock it down...

Wouldn't a little gasoline on the roots kill it?

X2 on this.

Spray the piss outta the area with some remedy when you clear it. Remedy with some surfactent will really clear it up and prevent regrowth. WE just finished 80 acres of cactus and mesquite by hand. Too much fun

pear tunas taste a lot like grape/kiwi and make for some good jelly/wine.. agarita's, too..
it's a SoTx thing...

Also makes a killer margarita

nuttin like a little purple in yer Marg!
but strain those dang seeds!

is remedy still available?