I am interested in an answer to your question as would like to find an alternative to picking up all those helicopters. Fortunately the neighborhood kids like to "help" me.

Oh man do I feel your pain. . . my perennial bed is adjacent to my drive way, on the other side of the driveway lives the evil trees that drop the helicopters. . . because our driveway has a curb on it, that's where the rest, waiting for the slightest breeze to set them free. . . all in my flowerbed. Then in the front is the maple seeds. . . at least I can just rake/blow them away. But this spring I decided I am not going to pluck a gazillion seedlings out like I have in the past. . . I tried the baking soda method. . . put it down before the first sign of a weed, waited a week or so then mulched. I have read the BS can/will lower the PH so I was careful to keep it away from the plant bases, I just spread it in the vacant/bare areas where the perennials haven't filled up yet with their growth. . . so far the pers. seem happy and there hasn't been a weed one. . . I plan on adding my SBM to it in few weeks to re-nourish the soil. . . stay tuned. .

~Debi

I mulch heavily, with the sole purpose of radicating the tree seeds. . . it is like steroids for them. I think I may have moved the mulch at certain points bringing the seeds closer to the surface, I say that because the seed tiny roots are long but not in the soil, just sprouting in the mulch.

I never thought of the salt issue. Oops. . .the only bed I did it in is a very established perennial bed and I didn't get it close to the plants. And the amount I used was less than a cup in a 6' area. I hope I didn't mess up big time.

~Debi

If they're in still in cotyledon stage, I just muss up the much to disturb the tiny root - can't get any easier than that. I'll use a rake if I have a patch of them. If they've grown any leaves, I just pull them - doesn't take much time or effort, they're easy to pull. If they're in the lawn, just run the mower over them, they can't photosynthesize without leaves and will die off. Don't take something super-easy and quick and make it labor-intensive!

if you think males are a pain you should try cottonwoods, I found them growing in my house plants

We have this problem and recently bought some sort of cyclone vacuum cleaner for leaves, helicopters, etc., and it's saved us hours of work. It has a long hose or can also be attached to a tractor or utv. Hope that helps.

Thanks for that idea tiffew. I was wondering if just a shop vacuum would work for a smaller area, but had decided that it was a crazy idea. Perhaps not!

A hoe would do the job on a warm dry day. For tree seedlings disturbance at the cotyledon or infant stages is sufficient, as mxk3 said.

We tried our shop vac in the corners of our patios where swirling leaves collect. They were too large to fit into the mouth of the shop vac, hence the purchase of the cyclone rake. It's large, but folds up, and has been an enormous help.

I took out my shop vac and got a dead branch from a tree with a nice ”Y” in it. I drilled a small hole in each of the ”Y” branches and then tied to the end of my vacuum hose to use as a nice handle. Now I could stand and carry my shop vac in right hand while with my left hand could direct the nozzle end to suck up those seeds. I found it was particularly a good way to get up those seeds that already broke loose and came off the pods. Looks like I need to do it again as more fell! But it worked!

Bob can you please post a photo of your shop vac contraption?