Remember the past two summers when I was obsessed with killing the damn yucca plant in my front yard?
I actually managed to kill it. Since it got warm this spring, I have been anxiously checking and rechecking the area where it grew before to make sure no rogue sprouts are coming back. Since it is August, I think I am actually safe.
I keep getting search engine hits for “How to Kill a Yucca Plant” so I am posting this as a public service message.
Things that did NOT kill the yucca plant:
- Squirting it with Round Up.
- Chopping off all the leaves, spraying it with bee killer (there was a beehive in its roots), then painting the leaf stumps with Round Up.
- Mixing Round Up with oil then spraying it on the leaves.
- Digging out a 10 foot by 5 foot area 2 feet deep, throwing out hundreds of gallons of roots and dirt, then filling the hole with an entire bottle of total vegetation kill. (While this didn’t kill the yucca, two years later we still can’t get grass to grow in the area of the yard near the former hole. Weeds yes, grass no.)
- Digging a bigger hole and using more random plant killing chemicals.
- Filling the hole with water, then covering it with a tarp for a month in an attempt to drown the yucca and periodically re-filling the nasty moldy hole with more water.
- Setting the hole on fire.
How did I finally kill the yucca?
1.) I let one of the sprouts grow until the leaves were about as long as my forearm.
2.) I gathered them up into a bunch and held them together with a rubber band.
3.) I cut the tops off the leaves with scissors.
4.) Filled a large plastic cup with Round UP (possibly the long-term plant killing kind, I can’t remember)
5.) Submerged the leaf-tops several inches deep in Round UP.
6) Weighed them down with a big rock so they would stay in the cup.
7.) Covered the cup with plastic so rain wouldn’t dilute the RoundUp. (Make sure that some of the leaves are exposed to sunlight because photosynthesis is how RoundUP works, I think).
8.) Waited about a month.
Then the MOTHER FUCKER died.
And that, my friends, is how you kill a yucca plant.
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PS. Would you believe how much money we spend on organic groceries and on my organic garden and still I unloaded a huge toxic payload of chemicals in the front yard to kill that plant? I was a woman obsessed.
Yes, I too was lulled by its jungle like aperance and planted one in 2005. I was trying deal with the messy leaves when a kind neighbor informed me I will have to dig a 10 foot hole and remove the root which could be as deep as 6 feet. Then I read this blog. OH no.. I have just cut down all the stalks. will up date if I make it back alive.
Oh, this is tooooo funny!! I bought my circa 1993 house in 2004. The previous owner’s wife had agoraphobia, and the yard was a total disaster. I had a landscaping crew tear out every single leftover “builder’s plant” around the house, including a nasty, leggy wild rose bush with huge thorns and a dense covering of mold and blackspot that lived in the shady area next to the chimney. For three years it stayed gone – then it sprouted and was 6 feet tall before I even noticed it in 2007. I hacked it down, but it came back in 2009 and 2010. This year a strange plant appeared on the other side of the chimney from where the here-again-gone-again rose bush sometimes is. I kept thinking: interesting plant, kinda spikey leaves… maybe this is some sort of iris, or is it a daylily? So I let it be. Next thing I knew, it had grown three enormous flower spikes – all at least 7 feet high. I still didn’t twig to what it was… until it finally bloomed last month. A YUCCA!! How the dickens did a yucca get in my yard in Maryland?? And where did it come from? The dang thing is thriving in full afternoon sun and bone dry soil. And now I read on your blog that it’s even harder to get rid of than a scraggy rose bush?? AaackkkKK!!!
That’s some funny shit. I wouldn’t have read it if I wasn’t trying to do the same thing. They are tough. I’m gonna try what you said. I hope I have the same results. I have been trying to kill one for about a year now. I want a dead mother fucker. Your story was awesome. I needed that laugh.
Since the shovel didnt work.. i managed to take a hatchet to the roots and hack away at it. Then a few weeks later.. They’reeee baaacccckkk… finally i made a small incision in the roots and poured some bleach on them… DEAD AS A DOORNAIL.. 2 Weeks later.
We can’t stop laughing. This Yucca species is also called God’s Candle…needless to say we we leary of killing it. Ha! We dug 4 feet into the ground, cleaned all traces of this plant, so we thought. I can’t even remember all of what we did to try to get rid of this. All the plants dug out were put into our extra lot, just tossed into it. We are up north Michigan and lo and behold, we now have a Yucca Plantation!!! My neighbor took some of the plant and forgot to plant them, let them sit the whole winter, and wha la, there they were all green and healthy for summer planting!! We have dug and dug, poured various concoctions into the hole, burned it, used an axe to chop and chop, it survived! I am going to try your method, they multiply like crazy. This is so funny.
The yucca plant I’m trying to kill comes through a newly paved black top driveway. Sorta shoots a hole in the cover-up theory. Roundup( applied on chopped roots) has limited success. It seems to die then comes back again. I’m going to try the hack roots and bleech next.
I dug up “a” yucca and laid paving stones down to make a small patio in my yard…pretty soon, the stones were coming up, i looked underneath, and lo and behold, NEW YUCCAS!!! about 20 or so, I poured bleach on them and the next day, another 2 sprouts appearde. So I dug about 5 feet under, and 3 feet across, and the damn things are so deep rooted, i didn’t know what to do, the roots (about 8-10) and as thick as my arm! I just read an article to boil vinegar,salt and dish detergent and dump it on them…now it’s just a waiting game…(the smell of vinegar was near unbearable) but if it doesn’t work, I’m going to try your method. Thanks!!!
LOL. Oh, the horror stories. Several years ago, we purchased 2 lots adjoining our house. The previous owner had planted several yuccas in strategic locations. A couple of years ago (2006)a tornado went through and destroyed quite a few beautiful oak trees. While removing the dead trunks the excavator cut through some of the yuccas. We now, 6 years later, have baby yuccas poking (lol) up across the entire piece of property. Evidently, pieces of the yucca root were throughly distributed during the regrading of the lots. I think I’ll try the lethal injection method 1st–then bleach–then…….
Yesterday, I cut 5 large Yucca out of the yard with a kitchen knife. Sure, they will grow back, but I’ll be able to pick them out like new-born weeds. While yucca may be “hard to kill” they are not “hard to mange”.
Yesterday, I cut 5 large Yucca out of the yard with a kitchen knife. Sure, they will grow back, but I’ll be able to pick them out like new-born weeds. I also dug out about 30 baby yucca with a shovel. While yucca may be “hard to kill” they are not “hard to mange”. I also dug
Yesterday, I cut 5 large Yucca out of the yard with a kitchen knife… Sure, they will grow back, but I’ll be able to pick them out like new-born weeds. I also dug out about 30 baby yucca with a shovel. While yucca may be “hard to kill” they are not “hard to mange”.
this is to funny! im glad to see thta im not the only one with a yucca problem. i went to lowes today to purchase some root killer,no such thing exists. so im going to try the bleach method.thanks for all the helpful ideas!
I too am a fellow Yucca hater. We had one in our yard growing up and it took my father dismantling the flower bed it was in and consistantly mowing it down with the mower for about ten years before it finally gave up and died; although it may have eventually come back if he ever quit mowing. I think the ultimate victory goes to the developer who bought the land and built condos over the spot.
Unfortunately, my husband and I bought our home fourteen years ago with these cursed plants in the front flower beds. I had forgotten how impossible these stupid things are to get rid of. Over all these years we have tried almost every method everyone else has to get rid of them. I had accually gone throught the seven stages of grief and had reached acceptance, believing I would never be rid of the monsters in my yard when my daughter found this site. We have already cut them back for the winter, but come spring I fully intend to try this method to finally rid my front flower beds of this menace; their roots are actually damaging our foundation. I can’t wait, and a million shame on you’s to whoever originally thought yuccas should be transplanted from their native habitat.
Thank you for all the information on this site. I have 2 large Yucca’s in my front yard by the road near my mailbox and they seem to have doubled in size in the past 2 years! They seem to be growing out insead of up. Inside the yucca’s, is poison ivy that I’m allergic to, so I fear that killing the bastards is going to be quite a challange! I plan suit up with heavy armor such as strong gloves and big boots & cut back the leaves first. Then, I will round up the inside so the poison will die. I will return in a week to unleash my wrath on heart of the pesky, thorny bush. I will then cut the root like a vein and fill it with bleach as suggested above. Perhaps I will drill holes in several of the other roots and fill them with bleach as well; maybe even mix it with some powerful round up and/or vinegar. I truly hope this will kill this evil devil plant!!!!
Thank you for all the information on this site. I have 2 large Yucca’s in my front yard by the road near my mailbox and they seem to have doubled in size in the past 2 years! They seem to be growing out insead of up. Inside the yucca’s, is poison ivy that I’m allergic to, so I fear that killing the bastards is going to be quite a challange! I plan to suit up with heavy armor such as strong gloves and big boots & cut back the leaves first. Then, I will round up the inside so the poison will die. I will return in a week to unleash my wrath on the heart of the pesky, thorny bush. I will then cut the root like a vein and fill it with bleach as suggested above. Perhaps I will drill holes in several of the other roots and fill them with bleach as well; maybe even mix it with some powerful round up and/or vinegar. I truly hope this will kill this evil devil plant!!!!
Thank you for all the information on this site. I have 2 large Yucca’s in my front yard by the road near my mailbox and they seem to have doubled in size in the past 2 years! They seem to be growing out insead of up. Inside the yucca’s, is poison ivy that I’m allergic to, so I fear that killing the bastards is going to be quite a challenge! I plan to suit up with heavy armor such as strong gloves and big boots & cut back the leaves first. Then, I will round up the inside so the poison will die. I will return in a week to unleash my wrath on the heart of the pesky, thorny bush. I will then cut the root like a vein and fill it with bleach as suggested above. Perhaps I will drill holes in several of the other roots and fill them with bleach as well; maybe even mix it with some powerful round up and/or vinegar. I truly hope this will kill this evil devil plant!!!!
Ah the plight of the Yuccas! It is so nice to see I am not alone!
Between the yuccas and the Japanese Knotweed I have been fighting, I am beginning to think there is no hope.
I am planning to give the cup method a try as soon as the weather warms up. One of the areas where I have yuccas is around the bottom of a tree. By treating the yuccas with this method, will I harm the tree?
Well after reading all of these posts I dying to see how my method works. I moved to SW Florida in 2001 and like all yankees decided to buy me a Yucca. I bought it from Home Depot in a 2 gallon bucket and it sure was a purdy little thing.
It’s funny how we as humans don’t notice little things until it’s too late. This damned Yucca was the “Mother of all Yuccas” it grew and grew and grew and grew. One day I walked out in my backyard and I see this sweet little plant that was planted close to the corner of my home now about 10′tall with more sprouts that you can think of.
So I run in the garage, grab my little electric chainsaw, and began cutting. I cut, I cut, and I cut…..chainsaw got all gunked up…..had to pull the friggen thing apart twice because of the straw like consistency of the trunk. Well four hours later…..I was done, however the trunk was about 20″ in diameter with multiple little trunks surrounding it.
Well folks I’m almost certain that this thing has seen it’s demise. I bought a 1″ in diameter keyhole saw with an 18″ shaft and I “drilled baby drilled” 15 holes later there was so much water coming out of it I coulda filled a 5 gallon bucket. I then filled each hole with multiple chemicals. The first few holes I filled with muriatic acid, the the others I filled with a foam type roundup. So now it’s wait and see time.
If nothing else works I’ll use diesel fuel to fill the holes. One thing I can assure anyone who reads this is I am a plant lover and respect all life but this thing was way too big, grew way too fast for my liking. I’m X-ing my fingers hoping it will die and forever be gone from my backyard.
***Update*** This yucca death process went faster than I thought it would. I used a pick/axe on what was left of the trunk and it turned out that the roots were really as bad as I thought. Many little roots, but no main taproot. Ended up yanking what was left of it out of the ground and pour gas on the ground the burn off the remaining roots. No regrowth as of this date and I’m happy.
Hi, I have been at war with yucca myself, i have found somthing that kills them dead with one application, its call Tordon. Its a tree killer, all I did was cut off the top and poored some on the freshly cut stalk. The leaves started turning brown and dropping at 2 weeks. This stuff is great! I live in a rural area and got it from my local farmers co-op. You can probably get it at any place that specializes in pesticides and poisions. Not gonna find it at your local True Value or Lowes. Hopes this helps someone. My war is finally at the end and I won!!! By the way I found this page to be very fun to read, this is a great group of people posting on here.
Thank you all for the great advise, I will try them all till the damn thing is dead!!!!!
Hilarious! I too have been trying to kill a yucca for a year now. The things were huge; over ten feet tall and at least six stalks. They had been there for 10 years or more. Full of posion ivy, weeds and probaly home to a few snakes. We used our tractor to rip them off at the base. Turned out there were only actully two main roots. The stinking thing has been shooting up several new ones. I’ll have to try some of these methods. I’m tired of cutting the things down.