Will a Weed Burner Kill Bindii? Yes - But Not in Your Lawn
Bindii — jo-jo, prickle weed, whatever you call it when you stand on one barefoot — is one of those weeds where the honest answer has a big "but" in it.
Yes, a weed burner kills bindii. Easily. It's an annual broadleaf with everything above ground; it's exactly the sort of plant flame is best at.
But bindii mostly grows in lawn. And flame doesn't know the difference between bindii and buffalo.
The non-selective problem
This is the thing to understand before you spend money.
A weed burner is completely non-selective. It kills whatever it touches. That's a strength on a driveway, in gravel, along a fenceline or in a bare bed — there's nothing there you want to keep. It's a serious limitation in the middle of a lawn you've been babying for three years.
If your bindii is scattered through a couch, buffalo or kikuyu lawn, flaming it will leave you with dead bindii and a paddock of brown scorch marks. The turf will usually recover from the runners over a few weeks, because those grasses spread laterally, but you'll be looking at a patchy lawn in the meantime. Most people would rather have the bindii.
So the honest split:
- Bindii in gravel, pavers, paths, driveways, bare beds, along fences — a burner is ideal. Fast, no chemical, done.
- Bindii through an established lawn — wrong tool. Use a selective lawn herbicide, or hand-weed a small patch.
We'd rather say that plainly than sell you a burner for a job it's going to do badly.
If you are going to flame it, timing is everything
Bindii is a winter annual. It germinates in autumn, sits low and almost invisible through winter as a flat rosette of soft ferny leaves, then flowers and forms those hard spiky burrs in early to mid spring, sets seed and dies.
The trap is that you don't notice bindii until it hurts, and by then it has already seeded. That's the single biggest reason people fight the same battle every year.
So: get out in autumn and winter, while it's a soft green rosette and before any burrs form. In most of the country that means May through July is when the work should be happening, not October when you're pulling prickles out of a dog's paw.
Once the burrs have hardened, killing the plant does very little — the seed is already made, and the burrs stay sharp underfoot long after the plant is dead. At that point you're waiting for next autumn.
The long game
Bindii moves into thin, bare, compacted ground. A dense healthy lawn or a well-covered bed doesn't give it a landing spot. If you're getting a heavy bindii year, that's usually telling you something about how thin the ground cover got over summer.
Fix the cover and the bindii pressure drops on its own, whatever you're killing it with.
Short version
Kills it easily — but flame is non-selective, so it's the right tool for bindii in gravel, paths and bare ground, and the wrong tool for bindii scattered through a lawn you care about. Either way, do it in autumn or winter while it's a soft rosette. Once the burrs are hard you've missed the window.
For the straight verdict on other weeds — including the ones we tell people not to buy a burner for — see our weed-by-weed guide, or ring us on +61 449 268 131.