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How to Kill Pampas Grass: 5 Methods to Stop the Invasion

Have you ever faced difficulty while trying to remove the pampas grass from your backyard? Have you ever been bombarded with an invasion of this grass around your abode?

How much ever you try, it’s just not easy to uproot them completely. How about going through this guide on how to kill pampas grass in the most effective way possible?

You will undoubtedly gain enlightenment on the eradication of this by the end of the article. So keep reading to know how to get rid of this troublemaker.

How to Kill Pampas Grass

What Is Pampas Grass?

Cortaderia selloana, pampas grass, or a growing menace (as I like to call it) is a beautiful flowering grass that is native to South America. It grows in the wild in any place that gets full sunlight and adequate water.

Pampas is super easy to grow. It has beautiful white feathery flowers, which makes it look attractive and lures your heart to growing it in your own space.

That is precisely what makes people add them to their landscaping projects. There is a wide variety of pampas grass, and they have multiple uses too.

To name a few, they are Aureolineata or Gold Band Pamper Grass, Andes Silver, Silver Comet, Albolineata, Dwarf Pampas, Rendatleri, etc. But beware!!! Beauty can be deceptive.

Pampas grass is a very invasive species. It may easily take over your other plants or your essential space. Hence, you should grow it only when you want to cover up any place with a hedge or if you have enough area for them to spread around.

Moreover, it has sharp-edged blades, which can cause injury to animals and humans. These are toxic to dogs and can cause sickness and death. It can take over the grazing land of the animals or kill the native plant species by using up the soil nutrition and land.

So what would you do if you accidentally grew it in your garden but regret it now? You remove them. But again, it’s not so easy to remove them.

Their roots are quite deep-seated, and their seeds also travel to short distances by flying in the air. The seeds can live in the soil for years in a dormant condition. So let’s see how to kill pampas grass and deal with the issues.

Things You Would Need

Cortaderia selloana, pampas grass, or a growing menace (as I like to call it) is a beautiful flowering grass that is native to South America. It grows in the wild in any place that gets full sunlight and adequate water.

Pampas is super easy to grow. It has beautiful white feathery flowers, which makes it look attractive and lures your heart to growing it in your own space.

Gloves- Gloves are essential for any kind of garden-related work. I always use gloves while handling garden chemicals and tools. It helps me prevent any type of health hazard. Gloves are the first thing you should invest in if you want to work in your backyard or garden.

Scissors or pruners- I never do any type of cutting or pruning with my hands. Using scissors or pruners keeps my hands safe and keeps the cuts sharp. It will also help you reach places that are otherwise difficult to achieve. And when it comes to pampas grass, it is not the one to be touched with hands.

Mask- Mask is essential when working with plants and trees. I am personally allergic to pollens and dust. Mask prevents inhalation of these. It will also prevent you from inhaling the chemicals in herbicide.

Chemicals- An important chemical needed to kill the grass is a herbicide. You get different kinds of herbicides in the market. We will talk about the usage of Glyphosate and Haloxyfop herbicides, which are widely used for this job.

Right kind of clothes- Whenever I work in my garden, I make sure I am wearing the right type of clothes suitable for gardening. Full pants and full sleeves shirt is a must for me.

Itching and rashes are the last things I would want on my skin. The blades of grass can cause itching and sores on your body, so keep it covered. Garden boots are also essential.

Gardening tools- Gardening tools like shovel, spade, rake, and mattock can help you dig out the deep-seated roots in case you plan to go for the old-fashioned way of removing the pampas grass. You would also need a pump spray bottle.

Salt- This is a fundamental thing but one of the best solutions when I don’t wish to use chemicals in my garden.

Thick tarp- This thick tarp needs to be opaque.

How to Kill Pampas Grass

Manual removal of pampas grass

1. To remove pampas grass manually, you have to tighten your laces and get to the job. It is a challenging task to uproot pampas grass due to its deep-set roots. The manual method should generally be used in the early stage of its growth.

Manual removal of pampas grass - How to Kill Pampas Grass

2. For this, you need to wear your gloves and protect your hands first of all. The blades of this grass are very sharp, and it can slice your hands too.

3. You should be dressed up in your full coverage suit so that the grass would not cause any kind of itching.

4. Then with the scissors or pruners, just cut off the grass till its base, just above the ground.

5. Next, using a rake, remove all the cut stems and leaf blades to clear up the area. This will give you clear visibility of the base.

6. Then dig up a trough around the pampas grass. This will provide you with space to insert the spade to pick up the plant.

7. Mattock will be useful for deep digging the soil and cutting the roots. After cutting the entire bunch of this grass, just cover it up with soil again.

Though this method is entirely foolproof, it takes a lot of time, energy, and hard work for execution. For a visual tutorial, check out this video.

1. Using chemicals

The chemicals used for killing grass are called Herbicides.

The herbicides used for pampas grass are Glyphosate and Haloxyfop. Both these have different mechanisms for action.

1. Glyphosate is used for the roundup method. In this method, the grass is cut up to the base, just above the ground. The freshly cut grass is then sprayed with the herbicide mix.

This herbicide enters the vascular system of the plant by absorption through the leaf surface and kills it. Around 100ml of the glyphosate, the mix is diluted with 10 ltr of water and sprayed with pump spray.

This is enough to kill a large area of pampas grass. This mix consists of glyphosate and diquat.

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Both are herbicides used for killing the weeds. But they are very potent and by no means should they be consumed even in the smallest quantity.

So you should always wear gloves and mask while working with these. Though roundup is a very effective method for killing pampas grass, it needs to be carried out 3-4 times at an interval of 4-5 days for complete eradication.

You can get more details about this by clicking the following link: https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/invasive-species/weeds/weeds-index/declared-weeds-index/pampas/pampas-herbicides-for-control

2. Haloxyfop is another herbicide used for pampas grass killing. This is used directly on the roots by adding to the soil. It affects the roots and thus kills the whole plant.

2. Using salt

Salt is an essential component of everyday life. But it is also instrumental in weed killing. Just sprinkling the salt on freshly cut pampas grass would kill it slowly. But seeing the invasive and strong nature of this variety of grass, you would certainly need to use a lot of it.

3. Using a thick tarp

In this method, you use a thick tarp, which is opaque. First of all, you cut the pampas grass till the base and then cover it up with a thick tarp.

Also, stop watering the grass. This tarp would prevent the sunlight from reaching the grass, and no water would further lead to its drying out. This method may take very long for the grass to die.

4. Burning

Dried Grass on Fire - How to Kill Pampas Grass

The pampas grass can also be burned. This can be a risky option because the fire can spread and burn the other nearby plants and trees too. It would also add up to air pollution and increased carbon dioxide levels in the air.


​Conclusion

​While you can kill pampas grass with any of the above-written methods, it is essential to take care of yourself and use all kinds of precautions mentioned above.

​I hope all the information I provided would be useful to you and you enjoyed going through all the methods. These methods would help you kill the self-growing menace, i.e., pampas grass. You can choose the best way suitable for you.

​If you enjoyed reading this article and if it was useful to you, please share it with your near and dear ones. In case of any questions and suggestions, please comment in the comment section and let us know what do you think about this information.

Chris

Monday 17th of May 2021

I moved into my new home a little over a year ago and planted up the driveway in front of the house was a pretty pleasing plant with big white feathery plumes that was perfect for privacy. I had never seen it before. In early fall I noticed all the dried leaves on the underbrush of the plant and decided to clean them up. The next thing I know my feet and legs and hands and arms are all bloody and I was baffled. I got my hose and rinsed myself off and revealed little razor like cuts everywhere! This year I see about 8 starters in my yard and they all need to go. I call this plant, The Devils Grass and will be out there tomorrow to try the chemical method on the "Newbies" The adults are at least 12' tall and who knows how big around so am unsure about their eradication but will repost as it unfolds. Thank-you for all this information.

Sophia

Saturday 6th of February 2021

It was very helpful. Thanks.