By Bill Kleiman, Nachusa Grasslands Project Director, TNC
If you visit an invasive weed occurrence only once a year to treat it the weed may increase.
If you visit the occurrence twice you will break even and maybe gain.
If you visit three or more times you will make great progress.
The photo below shows a nail pouch that clips to my belt. Those are king devil flower heads in there. I pluck the heads and spray the basal rosettes. This is easy and I call it fun.
Year round I have a quart sprayer of some herbicide in my vehicle sitting in a five gallon pail to keep it upright. In winter it is a basal bark herbicide solution since it won’t freeze. In summer I still have the basal bark spray bottle, but I also carry a bottle of water based broadleaf herbicide. Lately it has been a solution of 2% Garlon 3A with a bit of blue dye. It is very pleasant to hop out of the truck, grab a squirt bottle, and treat an autumn olive or a birdsfoot trefoil, without having to put my backpack on, or make a note to return to it.
Below is a jug of broadleaf herbicide. It is marked RTU which stands for Ready To Use, meaning it is not concentrate but diluted, with a surfactant and colorant added. I carry about a gallon in the jug as it is easier to fill the bottles that way. I have a funnel with me. Or you can fill the squirt bottles from your backpack sprayer.
Below are five squirt bottle brands. I am not sold on any of them. Elsewhere in this blogsite I review squirt bottles. Some of these bottles cost very little. The Zep bottle purchased in hardware stores in the cleaning section are pretty reliable. We tend to keep the solution in these bottles for months so it is no surprise that they stop spraying sometimes.
Below is a repurposed Chlorox cleaning solution bottle. On the other side I used a label maker to mark it as “Broadleaf herbicide”. This model will spray every drop as that pickup tube comes from the very bottom front, so you don’t pump air when the bottle is tilted down. I liked it but then it quit spraying after a few weeks.
Here is a comparison of a Stihl and Birchmeier squirt bottles: https://grasslandrestorationnetwork.org/2020/11/05/hand-held-herbicide-sprayer-comparison/
Below you are looking down at one big invasive birdsfoot trefoil with the yellow flowers. Carrying a hand sprayer means it is easy to bend down and gather up that sprawling plant as I did here and then squirt the middle of the “braid” with a dose. The prairie dock should survive.
I have found that if I use basal bark herbicide I can just spray a bit where the BFT plants emerge and the plant will die with very little off target impacts.
Below is a repurposed class A foam container to hold water for a simple hand washing station. I drilled a hole in the edge. Just lay it over and it trickles out water. Sometimes I carry soap but just the water is very nice to have around. Don’t fill it all the way, a gallon or two last a few days.
Below is a plastic hinged box to hold items useful in weed work. Disposable rubber gloves, blue tree marking paint, sun screen, ear plugs, paper towels, safety glasses, a little bottle of eye saline, MSDS sheets.
Of course a backpack is a common item to carry in my truck. The Chapin below we tried. I like its folding handle. The clip seems to hold the nozzle wand. The wand is metal. It has a padded shoulder straps and back pad. The fill lid is deep and wide which means less splashing on fill up. We had issues with the pressure being too low and the shut off of the spray was not crisp and so it dripped a bit. So we did not continue with these.
We have used the Solo brand for a long time and some of them go for years.
Below a partially clogged screen that Solo has in some of their tips. I find these clog frequently and usually I pitch the screen. It needs cleaning every day or two of use.
Below, a cable tie acts to hold up the folding pump handle of the Solo.
Below, the Stihl sprayers are nice. We have been buying these as they are easy to buy at our local Ace, they spray well, and so far are holding up to our abuses. Mike Saxton reports they work well too. You can see that we assign packs to individuals, with the duct tape noting the herbicide in the tank. The Stihl does not have a good system to hold the nozzle wand when in storage.
I encourage our crew to just put in 1.5 gallons of mix to keep the weight low. This pack full would feel like you were backpacking the A.T.. Hopefully we walk more than we spray. Carry a 2 gallon jug of RTU mix in the truck.
Weed work is a marathon.
Carry the tools you need and be happy.
grassland restoration network 
Excellent attitude. Great summary at the end!
Good approach! Keep up the great work you weed managing Hero!
Some great tips here Bill! When I worked with private landowners as a private lands biologist, I often found landowners would make themselves miserable thinking about “all the work” they needed to do – – on land they bought as a place for enjoyment and relaxation!! The saw or tractor is running so much there is no time to hear the birds sing – if the birds can even stand all the disturbance!
Low tech methodology for getting the work done with the slow and steady pace, and making it as fun as possible are great tips! I need to do more of that myself!
Some great tips here Bill! When I worked with private landowners as a private lands biologist, I often found landowners would make themselves miserable thinking about “all the work” they needed to do – – on land they bought as a place for enjoyment and relaxation!! The saw or tractor
Getting the work done with the slow and steady pace and making it as fun as possible are great tips. I need to do more of that myself!
I like the point that you have to visit the same area multiple times a year to make progress.
Great tips. For your box of useful items, I would add an eyewash bottle that is rinsed & refilled monthly. Also plastic grocery bags for paper towel/glove disposal after cleaning up leaks & spills.
Here are a few of mine:
1) It can take 4 to 20 consecutive years of control to get a handle on an invasion, depending on the species & amount of native competition. If you miss one year & the plants set seed, it can set you back several years. So be conservative in deciding how much acreage to control & the amount of resources you predict will be available every year.
2) To prevent backpack sprayer fill cap leaks, examine the gasket to verify it wasn’t twisted at the factory. Buy gasket grease from the manufacturer & apply often to keep the gasket soft. Cut a few inches wide section from a white cotton sock & stretch it over the fill cap so it rests below the bottom edge of the cap. This will absorb leaks & sock discoloration will alert you that a leak has started.
3) Twist tie a baggie over the sprayer nozzle at the end of the day to prevent it from contacting anything else & to contain drips.
4) If you will be backpack spraying far from your vehicle, there are many ways to carry your cell, wallet, GPS, food, water, spill/leak cleanup kit, etc. The choices are a gear vest, chest pack, sling bag worn in front, travel neck pouch or a fanny pack worn in front over the shoulder.
5) A backpack sprayer harness with a hip belt transfers the weight from your shoulders to your hips & makes a big difference in comfort, allowing me to carry 3 gallons over long distances. However, I had to modify mine to get it to fit. https://us.solo.global/product/shoulder-saver-harness-deluxe/
6) If you hand pull weeds, bring a pocket knife with a locking saw blade, carried in a belt holster. This can be used to cut plants that don’t pull easily.
7) Always GPS isolated weed patches so you can revisit every year until they are gone.