Video: Tumbleweed invades Australian town

[yuiyoshida]

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. They're lucky....

Some of the ones here in Vegas are filled with what the locals call "bullhorns" AKA "goatheads".





They puncture bike tires.

[Warpy]

2. Same in NM

A bunch blew in a few years ago, covering the back yard in those things. For months, I'd come indoors after doing something out there and have to pick the damned things out of my shoes with forceps. They hurt like the dickens if they hit bare skin.

Tumbleweeds in Oz aren't quite the same as the ones here, they are very poisonous to sheep when they're green. I imagine the dry ones make for interesting flash fires, the way they do here.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. I had to clear a bunch of them and found an electric hedge clipper works great....

You pick it up carefully from the bottom and sweep the clipper over the tumbleweed while holding it over a trash can lined with a garbage bag. I got through a few hundred in less than an hour.

Those things go right trough leather work gloves like they aren't even there so I ditched the gloves and went barehanded and didn't get poked once.

I used a small shop vac on the visible seeds.

[passiveporcupine]

5. I had those in Aurora, Colorado.

I hate those things. For five years I rode my bike to work (five miles each way) in an area that was overrun with goatheads. Lots of problems with flats.

I had them in my yard too. A friend once helping me paint my house tried to pull one weed by hand, without gloves, and got a thorn tip buried in her finger. It got infected and the doctor told her she might lose her finger over it. It finally healed, but that was damned scary.

[1monster]

6. Those sure look like sand spurs to me. They are super ouchy and

the barbs stick to the skin like glue...

[passiveporcupine]

4. This is NOT considered a fire risk?

That's hard to understand.

yuiyoshida, haven't seen you posting much. Hope all is well. It's good to see your post here.

[yuiyoshida]

7. I was gonna say....

gather those things together and burn it.. but than again its so dry there, more then the tumbleweeds might burn up! Oh, and thanks, I been around, but I haven't found much to post, and been staying out of GD: P .. or trying to.

[Unknown Beatle]

8. The GD:P gets really nasty sometimes.

[yuiyoshida]

9. Heh!

Sometimes??