The How to Get Rid of Things Blog

Crabgrass. If you have a lawn or garden, chances are you’re familiar with it. You may even have figured out by now that it’s among the most tenacious of weeds. It quickly claims any open spaces in your lawn (even small ones), and if left unchecked, crabgrass can outcompete desirable turf grass for resources, spreading into its personal space as it dies. And because crabgrass is an annual plant, meaning it dies every year after the first frost, large patches of crabgrass in your yard can turn into large patches of nothing the following spring. So of course you want to get rid of crabgrass, but once it’s established itself, it’s tricky to eliminate. In fact, getting rid of crabgrass is largely a matter of preventing it in the first place. And even if it’s too late for your lawn this year, it’s never too early to start preparing for next year’s crabgrass invasion. My latest article is a great place to begin.

I never gave slugs much thought until I was 15 and my dad moved from Minnesota to Oregon, where slugs are practically part of the culture. They’re hard to ignore, anyway, since they’re roughly the size of chipmunks and often leopard-spotted and/or bright yellow. But even in Minnesota, where slugs are usually only an inch or two long and boring brown or gray, the gooey little creatures cause all kinds of discomfort to gardeners who have to contend with their destructive eating habits. If you grow anything, whether it’s hostas or tomatoes, you’re probably interested in getting rid of slugs. And, lucky for you, there are lots of ways to do it. My latest article goes over several tried-and-true ways to get rid of slugs, and should help get you through the upcoming growing season.

I consider myself verrrry lucky to have never had a poison ivy rash. This may be because I’m woefully inadequate at identifying plants while I tromp around in the great Northwoods and manage to avoid the poison ivy by sheer dumb luck, or . . . I may just not be tromping around the woods enough. Poison ivy doesn’t just grow in the woods, though, and for those of you with poison ivy in your yards or gardens, it’s probably important that you get rid of the plants before you, your children, your friends, or your pets (wait, are animals allergic to poison ivy?) develop a rash. Getting rid of poison ivy requires a bit of work (you have to kill all parts of plant and remove all of the roots) and a lot of protection (cover your skin, your face, your mouth, etc.) but something tells me you’ll be glad you did it once all the poison ivy is gone for good.

As spring approaches and the snow melts and the little green things start to come out, those lucky people with yards and and gardens can start thinking about things like seeds and planting and watering and . . . getting rid of weeds. Whether or not you want to get rid of weeds depends a lot on your aesthetic landscaping perspective (like dandelions! I think they’re beautiful!), but weeds take a lot of forms and sometimes it’s just necessary to eliminate invasive grasses or poisonous plants to protect the rest of your yard or garden. For more information, check out the new page all about getting rid of weeds.

So I went ahead and finished up the series on how to get rid of mites with this stunning article about getting rid of spider mites, a very common and very harmful garden pest. You’ll find the article in our new gardening section, previously christened by Eric and his article on aphids. I think you’ll find some similarities between the two articles, but if you know you need to get rid of spider mites (and two-spotted mites), then this is the article for you. I expect to have plenty more garden pest articles up by the end of May, so watch out for those.

Aphids, or “them little suckers” as my grandpa refers to them, are the silent killers of your garden plants and flowers. And aside from being ishy and destructive, they have spikey butts. Who wants that on their plants? Them little suckers are often the cause of yellowing and curling leaves, unattractive sooty black fungus coating the leaves and all too often the death of your plants. They even have the tendency of gathering a hungry following of ants that will protect them and the tasty “honeydew” that they secrete as a byproduct of sucking the life juices from your plants. While it is kind of a cool mutualistic symbiotic relationship, it’s also a pain in the spikey butt. So, do your plants a favor and read the article How to Get Rid of Aphids for a few tips and suggestions for avoiding, repelling and killing aphids.