If you have walked across your lawn bare-foot and had a nasty spike that made you jump, chances are it was bindi weed. Also known as bindi, jo-jo, bindi-eye or common soliva , they can be a painful problem in your lawns as Spring kicks into gear.
Unfortunately, by the time you have the spikey seed heads in you lawn, the most effective way to get rid of them is a weeding fork and a bucket. There are a number of herbicide sprays that will kill this weed in buffalo and couch lawns. We use Kamba-M for couch lawns, and there is an alternative by Yates for buffalo lawns. Do make sure you get the right one for your lawn, or you will kill your grass as well. However, if you just spray, and leave the dead weed and its seed in your lawn, you will have an even bigger crop sitting dormant until next Winter. To effectively break the cycle of bindi weeds in your lawn, you will need to be a bit more diligent than with most other lawn pests.
Firstly, do try and weeding fork out as much of the bindi weed as you can. As weeds go, they do pull out fairly easily, but you really need a tool, or you will get pricked a lot by the sharp spikes. Make sure you dispose of the weeds, you don't want seeds from these pests in your compost and finding their way back into your garden.
Secondly, you need to spray your lawn in the cooler Winter period, when the seeds have started to grow - and most importantly, before they are big enough to put out seed heads. Unfortunately, you may miss a few, so the cycle goes around again and you will need to repeat this weed and spray routine again, but hopefully with a much smaller number. Sorry, there is no shortcut with this weed.
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