Anyone have a good approach to getting rid of cactus? If I bulldoze a bunch and just scrape it out, will it stay dead or will it re-grow from the roots in the ground? Or is there a spray I can hit the big plants with to kill it before removing?

I have a few thorn less *****ly pears around the house and the paddles that get knocked off will pretty much sprout new roots where ever they fall on the ground. Assuming the thorned version is similar, I'm going to guess you'll have to spray first.

Bulldozing it will only spread it. Every little piece will sprout new plants. Spray with Surmount. Works fairly fast and was formulated for control of *****ly pear. NRCS recommends it for that use.
It works faster and better than anything. After spraying the plants will turn yellow then totally dissolve.... you won't even know they were there.
We did 600 acres with it and some of that was really dense growth. Now we can't even find a single plant.
It is pricey but is the best chemical out their for PP.

MezaVue is some good stuff, supposedly going to eventually replace Surmount. Roasts algerita and tasajillo as well. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked over the pear we had in our north pasture. Nothing but the netting left after just 60 days.

We sprayed some cedars and algerita with the Surmount and it did a number on them as well. Our NRCS guy said the MV was new but that it had a lot more risk around oaks than Surmount did.
We sprayed some PP right next to some live oaks and it did hurt them. He said we would have killed them if we had used MV.
Did you spray close to any trees? Would be interested on its effects on them for future spraying. Thx.

Water it until it rots.

Is MV safer than Surmount? Surmount says lots of precautions.

https://www.ranchwholesale.com/mezavue-herbicide-corteva

I used Tordon 22K and Remedy, but it's been a while back. Slow but effective. There may be better approaches today.

Don't know about close to trees, but MezaVue should be better than Tordon 22K and Surmount.

What happened to Picloram?

I don't need to use it but it was rec'd in the past

All three (MV, Surmount, Tordon) products mentioned contain picloram, just at different concentrations. Pic is what does most of the heavy lifting in priclky pear control. Tordon 22K = picloram, Surmount = flurox + pic, Mezavue = Surmount + Milestone. All are RUP. Gotta have pic to control pears.

It may not be practical but I remember growing up hitting them with a propane torch and the cows would fight to gobble them down to the ground.

Gunny456 said:

---

We sprayed some cedars and algerita with the Surmount and it did a number on them as well. Our NRCS guy said the MV was new but that it had a lot more risk around oaks than Surmount did.
We sprayed some PP right next to some live oaks and it did hurt them. He said we would have killed them if we had used MV.
Did you spray close to any trees? Would be interested on its effects on them for future spraying. Thx.

---

We are out in the mesquite flats East of San Angelo. No trees we cared to save, only mesquites where we are at. We are just north and west of the live oak country. Sorry I'm of no help to your question. On a side note, the sendero we have applied has also been absolutely smoking the mesquite on our place.

Be sure to spray both sides of the pads for an effective kill.

Where did everyone get their Surmount? Just a local feed store or do you have to have some kind of license to buy it?

Surmount & MezaVue have picloram in them. That's what you need to kill *****ly pear. Both Surmount & MezaVue are Restricted Use Pesticides, and require an applicator's license for purchase.

or you can wait for a disease to take hold. This stuff cleared a neighbors 2 sections that were heavily infested in about 3-4 years. Our place has got a pretty good infection going now and we are doing our best to encourage it.

Get some javelina or some Cactoblastus cactorum moths

Pear burner and a herd of mutton goats.

MezaVue

I buy Surmount at Helena Chemical for 62.50 per gallon, so a 2.5 gallon jug is 156.25 which is a lot cheaper than most herbicides.

By comparison, a gallon of Sendero is $161.00 or higher.

I spend most of my time on mesquites spraying Sendero, but the *****ly pear eradication has done as much on my place to drastically change the way it looks. What I like is that in places where cactus was thick, the cattle can now graze right on through the area. My unofficial process is to kill every cactus that I can see from any pasture road.

BTW... don't get in to burning pear.... it is nasty, dirty, hard work and it teaches animals to try to eat cactus. I guess it had its purpose for some people during drought years. My place used to have tons of cactus where previous family generations purposely dropped cactus to germinate just so they could go to it in case of another drought. Well times have changed I guess and hopefully nobody is forced to burn pear any more.

With Surmount, I have reclaimed several acres that were held by *****ly pear.

Allen76 said:

---

BTW... don't get in to burning pear.... it is nasty, dirty, hard work and it teaches animals to try to eat cactus. I guess it had its purpose for some people during drought years. My place used to have tons of cactus where previous family generations purposely dropped cactus to germinate just so they could go to it in case of another drought. Well times have changed I guess and hopefully nobody is forced to burn pear any more.

With Surmount, I have reclaimed several acres that were held by *****ly pear.

---

Poor folks have poor ways!

Touch high $

This yes this! Good post. Unless you intend to burn all the PP on your ground this is so true. It teaches animals to eat it then they eat the ones not burned and injest the spines.
Was a practice used during bad droughts.

I have burned tons of pear in my 65 years. Nice work when it's 105 degrees. At least you have lots of pressure on your propane tank. Burning pear on a cold morning is pretty frustrating...not enough pressure. Takes longer to do the work.

Still have lots of pear and mesquite. That is why our deer are small.

Haven't had to burn for several years now....improved pasture and grasses with good rotation has taken the place of that work !

Does anyone know where I can buy Surmount in the Houston or Austin area without being a licensed applicator?

Brads90 said:

---

Does anyone know where I can buy Surmount in the Houston or Austin area without being a licensed applicator?

---

Not legally. You might visit with your County Agent..he/she might have some ideas.