Weed of the Month- Creeping Charlie

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
This is not to be confused with a “creeper” named Charlie.  Creeping Charlie, or the official name “ground ivy”, seems to really be getting a foothold on the local area.  Have you seen it?  Do you know what it looks like?  It is a small purple flower with wide, scalloped leaves on it.  It will grow into a carpet and completely push out all other vegetation where it grows.  It has taken over parts of my lawn, and some of my garden, and just continues to spread.  I had a brother-in-law ask me about it the other day.  He and his son mow lawns as a business, and they were also seeing it everywhere.  He wondered what it was, and then (of course) how to get rid of it.  The first question had an easy answer- ground ivy.  The second question was a bit more difficult to answer, and I needed to do some research.  

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This is a very hard-to-control weed, based on anything I could find.  It is invasive.  It can re-root into the ground at every node on the stem of the plant.  This makes it difficult to just hand-weed it.  When you start trying to pull it out, you find runners on it.  You can pull them out too, but because it is rooted at those nodes along the stem, you are going to leave some of it in the ground.  Guess what happens then?  It just starts to regrow and form another dense carpet of it.  I saw a guy on YouTube (Ryan Knorr Lawn Care) that used a “thatching rake”.  That actually looked really good when he got done.  It was relatively easy to do, and it really pulled out the ivy and left the grass behind.  Now, I would suspect that there are still a ton of roots left in the ground that are just going to regrow very quickly, but it is an option you could try.  There was a mention of a boron application, but the application rate, and how to get it applied correctly needed to be very precise and very difficult to figure out.  And, if you over-applied it, the consequences would be way worse than even using a herbicide.  The only other option I have found is a herbicide. 

I know herbicides are a controversial subject.  However, they may be the only real answer for this one.  I scoured the labels for a couple of the most common herbicides that I know of, and I can tell you that where I looked, ground ivy was not on the glyphosate label or the dicamba label.  My memory is not that good, but it seems like I have actually tried both of these without much success.  Maybe that is why.  However, it is on the 2-4,D label, as well as the triclopyr label.  These active ingredients come with many different trade names so you will have to read the active ingredient label to see if the herbicide you are buying is the right one.  Also, follow label directions to the “T”.  I know of some people that think they know better than the label and if X is good, XXX should be a lot better.  It is not.  Trust me, the manufacturer of the herbicide wants you to get the results you desire so that you will use the product again.  They are giving you a plenty high enough rate to do what needs to be done.  You do not need to go off-label.

Do you have other weeds you have questions on?  Maybe we can help.  I know there are a bunch of them out there.  And, there are some that we should probably leave alone, like the really good pollinator ones (dandelion being the most significant one).
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The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.