how to get rid of stinging nettle?

18 years ago

Hello,

Last year while wintersowing I had some come up in my pots and got rid of them. However realized that by touching it I was itching for 2-3 days.

This year along one side of our fence I have lots of Stinging nettle coming in from my neighbours side (they seem to be growing only weeds) How should I get rid of this so as to avoid a worse problem next year?

Thanks in advance.

Gwyn

Featured Answer

Cynthia Lemmon

17 years ago

while doing a search on stinging nettles (I also don't want them and would rather eat ramps from West Virginia over nettles any day -meaning I would choose a very bad smell over pain) I read that the plants' sting is being used for arthritic patients to alleviate pain.. like bee stings are used. I would gladly donate all my nettles for that cause!

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Comments (8)

Bob (Seattle, Zone 8a)
18 years ago
you can either dig them up, pull up the seedlings (with gloves) or if you do chemicals, use roundup on them, it should work.

Personally I'd let them get to about a foot and a half high next spring, put on my gloves, go pick all the tops (about the top 6 or so inches) and steam them, put olive oil and lemon juice on them, and chow down. They don't sting after they've been cooked, and are one of the tastiest spring greens around. (Then you can go out and annihilate them)

bob
Gwyn
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Bob!
Well this weekend I put the spade in and dug them all up (actually managed not to touch any).
However I know I will get more next year as it is coming under the fence from my neighbours yard and I only get it on that one side.
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Kitteh, Sorry, i've been busy.. I also been worried about you.. How you doing? When i was leaving my buddies house, jumping on the highway, the factory bordering the highway let off a big plum of pollution, my car was almost ate by it.. I didn't notice it during daytime, it's the dark sky that contrasts with the white smoke. My mother has artifical hips, knees, and shoulders. She was the first person to have a cement-less hip! The doctors kept her sedated on drugs, she also got sick on them(the new pills have harmful dyes in them, just like the carcinogenic food coloring they use now a days in every processed product).. Anyways, long story short, we were walking through a park, and found stinging nettle(this was when i first started foraging, didn't know too much). So i went and picked some nettle, instantly as soon as i touched it, it stung me, i jumped back like a pansy in shock.. My hand was tingling/numb the whole walk back, it was a strange feeling driving, almost like needles, fiberglass in the hands(it goes away in a few hours, you get used to it, the pain wont last long if you do it regularly). I got home and my hands felt so loose and, well, they just felt good. So the next walk, I took a few inches of top growth, cut that off, hold the stem, and rub softly on my moms neck/back(like Kalia said, you just need a few up and down motions, that will stong you a good dozen times). Ever since then, she swears by it, she says it does better than her pain pill. I was amazed, i thought it would do something(even just numb it temporarily like a bee sting), but the stinging nettle did much more. My mom would much rather take the stinging nettle than get sick on the harmful dyes in our "medicine", or the tylenol in it. Why the hell put fillers in medicine? That's a red flag right there.
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I think any fresh, green, leafy plant will help the decomposition process. The way to improve decomposition is the *correct* amounts of greens and browns. I've used blood meal to speed things up but it made the mix too heavy in nitrogen and it became smelly, I had to add more browns. Obviously I used too much. Nettles have attained a reputation over centuries for making good compost because they were a common herbal used for healing. So people grew them, drank the tea, and also made tea for their gardens and composted them. I'm sure they contain many valuable properties. If you are concerned with sprouting you could make nettle tea first and use the spent plant material in the compost and the tea as a foliar spray or soil drench. Have a look at the link posted for more info. Here is a link that might be useful: check out myth #10
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This is very odd. I have never ever seen nettles in an established lawn. The constant cutting and dense grass prevent them ever getting a hold. In this case I think the problem lies not with the nettles but with the lawn. If they are stinging your feet in sandals it sounds as if the lawn grass is too tall and too sparse. If you can improve the density and health of the grass the nettles should not be able to compete. I would cut the lawn, dig out the most obvious nettle plants or spot weed killer them, fill in the holes with good soil, scarify the lawn and over sow any bare patches with grass seed. Keep it properly cut and I can't see how nettles can survive in it. To eat them the growth needs to be young and about 6 inches to a foot high. That is way too tall for a lawn so I don't think eating them down is a realistic option, quite apart from the quantities you'd have to get through!
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I have two stinging nettle plants but they aren't growing hardly at all. I guess I made the mistake of planting the well rooted cuttings in 3 gallon pots instead of 1 gallons to start. The tea is very sweet. Such a joy to drink it. I made the mistake of trying to eat the leaves after I made the tea. Big mistake. Nothing like stinging tongue. Thank God it only lasted a few minutes. I hope I will have some to share next year. I don't know how to make it grow any faster in pots.
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User
18 years ago
You probably will get some plants from pieces of root left behind. Unless there is a problem with your neighbors why don't you ask them if you could remove the plants while they are home. Explain that you develop a long lived rash and would like to remove those near the fence on their side. Who knows maybe they want to get rid of the also. But the may be leaving them for certain butterflies, I can't remember which, whose larva eat nettles.
tavateve
18 years ago
hej Stinging nettles help tomatoes and other rootfruits to grow strong..and they are host of caterpillars..

If you absolutely donÂ´t want them , cut of tops before they bloom...You could eat them..(rinse them, throw into boiling water for some half minute, then chop them fine, put them back into water, simmer for about 5 minutes, then let a cube of vegetablebouillon in, and some garlic and some white wine..simmer low heat some more 5 minutes...taste with pepper, salt ...
and then eat with a hardboiled egg in the plate..--

You can also dry the leaves, and put it into the flour when you bake....
Very much iron and vitamins in it..more than spinach
midnight_jasmine
17 years ago
I have lots of Stinging Nettle and I can relate to how you feel about it. Make sure you pull it before it goes to seed and try to dig out the roots. It will come back but it will be weaker. Repeat the process. If you can mow that area, just keep mowing it and the roots will get tired and eventually give up.
Good luck
ininsight_aol_com
13 years ago
I had a couple of acres of stinging nettle behind my house. They are sun intolerant and cannot handle any disturbance, so I trimmed some of the trees to let in more sun, and then took a weed whacker to them. While they recovered from the whacking, other plants had a chance to establish themselves. It took a few years of doing this, but now they are gone. For the ones close to a walking path I poured boiling water on them. They couldn't take much of that.
mariannamaver
5 years ago
Hah! Convinced that nettles were "good for you" - they are - I ordered seeds years ago from the seed unit of Mountain Rose Herbs. They literally did go to seed, tho, and have encroached over about a third of my yard. I tried one spring to pull them up and got tendonitis in my arms. Then I found that if you pull them up, or chop up the roots, they form this armored network of roots to defend themselves. I now dry some, eat some in the spring (good soup recipes and pasta recipes are to be found) and then just have my lawn guy now the rest. This is the second year of cutting them down, so hopefully they'll weaken & become more sparse over time. Lesson learned! (as it was with the oregano in my front yard... but that's another story!)

how to get rid of stinging nettle?

Cynthia Lemmon

Comments (8)

Bob (Seattle, Zone 8a)

Gwyn
Original Author

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how to get rid of stinging nettle?

Cynthia Lemmon

Comments (8)

Bob (Seattle, Zone 8a)

GwynOriginal Author

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Gwyn
Original Author