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.
I sawed down the 6 big yucca plants I had that were at least 7 ft. tall but at least 50 more small ones came back up and I chop or pull them up every three weeks. I used Round-Up and got no where. But I was wondering about the liquid you get from using Damp Rid. I use it to kill red ants by taking a rod a putting it in the center of the fire ant hill as deep as it will go and then pour the liuid accumilated from using it in the house, and pour it in the hole and it sure kills them. I know several people that have used salt to kill trees they didn’t want in their yard but were not allowed to cut down otherwise. God, hot I hate these plants!
I don’t understand how you cut the tops and then put leaves in a cup of Round Up. The leaves are growing up, not downward.
The yuccas in my yard in Va. stay green in winter even when it’s below zero for a week. They stop the blades on the lawn mower. They stab you if you reach for them. The blooms suck in bees never to return. I even lost a cat in the thicket of them. They must be stopped.
We dug out our yucca plant today. It was about 5 feet tall and sharp as hell. I have been obsessed with killing the thing for months. Thanks for your help. We are gonna wait till one of the suckers rears its ugly head, and drown its amputated limbs in round-up. It. Must. Die. This is a gladiatorial fight and I’ll be screwed if that fucker’s gonna get one over on me.
Half a stick of dynamite???
Hi all,
can’t help but notice the tone of utter hatred toward yucca.I sympathize. My grandmother planted 5 yucca plants 40 years ago. since then she then she has died leaving me and my husband who inherited the house with tons of yucca to deal with. We’ve dug out countless areas (80 plants and shoots in one section) and three years later are basically back where we started. Have tried burning- they don’t burn as you all already know. Thanks for the tips, we”ll be sure to try some roundup. Goodluck all!
I have about 10 of these god forsaken plants in my back yard. They are all in one corner. I am on a mission to kill these bastards before the summer. I have a shed that I am going to put in their place so they don’t grow back. Thanks for the tips y’all!!! I will keep you posted.
I found on this site is because I was searching the web for a way to kill the Yucca in my garden I’ve been fighting with for several years.
I’m pretty sure the Yucca is winning the battle despite my valiant efforts. Over the last 6 years, my struggle kill this evil plant has proven fruitless.
Today was the first warm day in months and I decided to go outside and plant some spring bulbs that I didn’t get a chance to plant in the fall.
I went outside and looked in the garden that was full of overgrown, unkempt Yucca when I moved in. It was like a mini Jungle. There was no other detectable life in the garden other than those plants. I guess the previous owner just gave up. Some of this stuff was 4-5 feet tall with trunks. I spent more than a week sawing and hacking away until I finally got rid of it. Little did I know, it would only be temporary. I’ve been fighting with the evil plant from hell ever since.
When I went out today, I had a relatively large Yucca plant and several babies growing UNDER the leftover snow. We had over 45 inches of snow in the beginning of February in a period of about two weeks and freezing temperatures pretty much the entire month that kept the snow from melting and this plant grew! I know it wasn’t there in the fall because I cut the babies down to the ground and spray them with Round up every time I see them.
As far as I can tell, these plants are indestructable. I’m going out now to face the enemy and try the roundup in a cup trick. I’ll post again if it works. If I don’t post again, you’ll know I didn’t make it back, but, promise me you won’t give up the fight. Just because one battle was lost, doesn’t mean we can’t win the war!
Use a herbicide called “Remedy”, or “Tordon”. If you’re only killing a few plants, use a disposable syringe and put about 4cc of the herbicide directly in the center of the plant. It will be more effective if you can place the chemical as near to the heart of the plant as possible. You can also use agents like oil that will help the chemical stick to the plant. For household use vegetable oil is fine. Just make sure that your diluted mix contains 4 cc’s of herbicide. Time will take care of the rest. A lot of time infact. Yucca plants have tap roots that can reach something like 60 feet into the ground, so they’re well supplied with nutrients. And if it doesn’t do the job, then retreat the plants until they are dead.
I have a confession to make. I stumbled into this yucca-killing mob while I was online looking for…….ways to start a new yucca plant from an existing one.
Gasp! It’s true. Thirty years ago my mother became enamored with the plants and started some around her back patio. It was a family joke how much she liked the crazy things. The plants thrived (surprise) and they have never taken over the back yard area (bigger surprise). My mom died about a year and a half ago, and my dad is going to sell the house. So, I’m going to arm myself with a shovel, gloves and basic body armor and go out there and get me some yucca!! I figure I have 5-7 years before I start hating the thing- and I’m probably going to sell the house and move on around that time anyway!
*I do think that I will print out some of the “sure-fire” ways to kill yuccas though, in case it turns on me!
I tried to dig them up, but they keep returning…I even threw some of the cut up pieces into the woods behind my yard- and now they are growing there!
I hate these plants!
I dug mine up before reading here, I know there are roots still but got out as much as possible……I had a dozen of them and were mulched with gravel. I put a ton of left over rock salt in the holes, and soaked real good so it wouldn’t run off if it rains. If they come back, I will try the cup of roundup. Wish me luck .LOLOLOLOLOL ha ha ha ah
I guess I should go collect them from my woods.
I think it’s finally dead!! (See my May 13th, 2009 post) Used the “cut off leaves sunk in cups of Round-up” method described on this site. It’s been 1 year, and no new shoots!! Thank you, thank you!
Yucca plants DO NOT die. I will forever rue the day we planted one harmless Yucca plant. I have been trying and trying and trying and trying to kill the shoots for 5 consecutive years. I have dug down to China and back and painstakingly screened the soil before dousing it with a 55 gallon drum of Roundup while three days later dumping 12 cans of charcoal fluid lighter on the area and setting it ablaze.
Next step is to put the house up for sale.
napalm? or try to burn the surrounding ground till it is sterile, worked for me.
I am on my fourth week with the RoundUp in a cup. That plant looks pretty dead to me. I guess we just dig it up now, right? There is not a green leaf on that thing. I just hope the root is not huge when we remove it. But I can assure you that the RoundUp in a cup has killed the outer leaves. I will let you know about the root. We are going to tackle it tomorrow.
Nancy would really like to know if this method works – because I have some of these plants that keeps giving off more babies and its taking over the front of my home – it needs to go!!!! Please let me know if its dead! Thanks
Lisa:
We left the cups of RoundUp on the Yucca plant one month. This was a huge plant so we put six cups around it. We pulled it up two weeks ago and I difinitely believe the root is dead. No sprouts are coming back. Read my three posts. This definitely worked. We are doing the second and final plant now. This is a working plan to remove Yuccas. Takes a little work but is definitely worth it. Best wishes on removing your Yucca plant.
Week four, no sprouts. The root is definitely dead. This method works Lisa. I have just started on the second and last Yucca plant in our yard. DON’T EVER PLANT A YUCCA PLANT IN YOUR YARD.
To Lisa and to the person who posted this remedy for killing Yucca Plants. We begin week 5 of the RoundUp plan on the Yucca Plant in our yard. We removed it today. The leaves and roots were so rotten they smelled terrible but the plant just pulled right out of the ground, roots and all. We had four trash bags of dead, rotten limbs and roots. However, I can see some white parts of the root left. Does this mean that baby Yucca’s are going to start growing? Thanks so much for your response and yes, your recommendation does work. Thanks for sharing.
So far, no sprouts Lisa. I believe the root is dead.
Almost two weeks Lisa and still not sprouts. I think the RoundUp in a cup process finished that ugly plant off. Thanks to the woman on a mission.
I would like to thank all you, not only for the great ideas and stories, but you made me laugh so hard reading your replies that I almost forgot I came here looking to kill my damn yucca plant!!! That’s awesome! Good luck to all I will try the “cup” method, and may your yucca plants die!
Good luck Kris. One of ours is definitely dead from this method. It has been amost two months since we removed it and no sprouts have come up. I am working on the second one. We are on the second week in cups on it. Best wishes on killing your Yucca Plant.
I have been fighting the YUCK-a fight for about 10 years now. I rented my house for all of these years and have now decided to buy it. I have several YUCK-a plants that I have been fighting for the entire 10 years I have lived here.
I have cut them, dug them, put dirty motor oil 2 feet down the middle of them, burnt them, had a landscaper come try to get them out, gassed them, put transmission on them and they just come back with a vengence.
I have since given up to the almighty YUCK-a plant. They have gotten so large that they have built themselves up on a pedistal (literally).
Now that I have found this website, had some tears of laughter, and found people like me who are fighting the good fight, I have some renewed hope. I will be back in touch to let you all know how my fight is going.
Thanks for the laughs and the advise!
Angela in NJ
My back yard was cover with yucca plants,probably 50 or more.The were huge touching the electricity cables, we cut them all and use a machine to remove the stumps.A year later they are coming back, I spray round up, the roots are so deep and wet. I hate the stupid plants, I want them gone for ever. Good luck everybody!
Lupe in CA.
I haven’t tried the Round-Up in a cup idea but I have a flower bed in the front of my house that I Miracle Grow once a week (Sunday). After I water all my flowers I have a Round-Up sprayer, one of those that last a full five minutes of continuous spray. I use this sprayer on all my yucca shoots, about ten that have grown back after digging up just two plants multiple times. I pump up my sprayer and spray, and spray, and spray until the round up is just dripping out. This seems to be working even with the Ace brand concentrate that I have been refilling my Round-Up sprayer with. You just have to keep on top of it. I’ll probably be out there in the middle of winter in a snow storm spraying these damn things but am hopefull they won’t come back next year. If they do, I’m going to get the biggest damn plastic cups I can find and fill them all with the concentrate straight out of the bottle!!! To hell with these cursed plants
Two Yucca Plants gone and no sprouts. Thank you, thank you for this method and for all of the laughs while reading through the blogs.
Lisa
Or should I say the Yucca Assasin. I have 7 Plants on the side of my house that I hate and have tried to kill in the past with gasoline but did nothing I also poured a half gallon of round up on it. I might as well have given it a popsicle to eat. I will keep you all posted in my quest for Yucca Death.
I had someone with a backhoe take mine away. That worked for about a year, then new shoots began to appear. I tried concentrated round-up (did not add water); they kept returning. Today I’ve spent the day digging and…OMG some roots are over 8 inches in diameter! I quit digging because I’m exhausted. I have a trash sack full of roots. I am now pouring concentrated round-up directly on the exposed roots. They are so fibrous and moist, seems like that will dilute the effect; but I’m not digging to China!
I too have YUCCAS!!!! I have tried digging to china, damaging the root balls,cutting them down with a saw and drowning them with gallons of bleach. I swear it was like giving them plant booster,they came back with a vengence. It seems they are going to be like roaches and survive the atomic bomb! HELP!!!!!
I am at the “new sprouts” stage. I’ll give this a try and report back
Hello fellow Yucca haters! Wish I had found this before I hired a guy to dig them out. Paid a fortune, he dug them up twice and each time they returned, more plants than before. I read the fool proof method and to be honest, I can’t imagine how you did that with the leaves. If anyone has a picture of how they did or are doing the cup method, please let me know. I really want these suckers gone and if it takes a few months fine, as long as I know they will be gone in the end!
Been looking for ways to kill them off. I’ve gone after them with the bobcat and digging them up, and tried lighting them on fire with diesel fuel. I just had the seed pods explode so I’m going to be in a mess. Going to give this a try.
The cup method sounds like it works, but I cannot picture how to actually do it. Is there anyway to get a picture of this method?
Thanks for the advice Nancy
Unfortunately I did not find this site until I’d dug up Yucca number 1, but have now applied Roundup to the leaves of No2 and have fingers crossed.
Hope this photo comes out
Best wishes Alan. I checked yesterday and still no new sprouts. I have won the battle over two ugly Yucca Plants. Thank you for this site.
Nancy… you have inspired me. I had a friend use Huggies diapers as mulch for tomatoes – they hold water after all. I wonder if the diaper trick would work on poisoning the Yucca. I had a Yucca that was at least 8 feet tall, and then it grew several 8 foot stalks. Then many of the blasted swords it calls leaves were dying from some kind of fungus or disease and it was looking ragged. I don’t know how to water it. I can not saw the stalks down on my own without becoming a bloody mess. It’s insane and it’s just a monstrosity every year. Well, I had it sawed to the dirt – and surprise surprise – there are 4 new shoots. Obviously I just cheered it on when cutting it to the dirt. Most normal plants are supposed to die when you refuse to water them, saw them to the earth, light them on fire and paint them with tar. Stupid plant.
I’m not sure if this is the forum to post to, lol. I’m planting Yucca plants, he-he. Oh, Lord, hmm.
My boyfriend and I had a fight a while ago, because I planted five of them, to surround my 25-40 foot garden landscape. It will be a rock garden, enclosed with cement walls behind the Yucca, painted Brick color. I’m intrigued by them because they are native to arid climates, they are striking as a border flower, and they are resistant to deer.
Since I’m a gardener, I must experiment with different variety of plants. However, I’m growing concerned that my newly planted friends may land me back here in a few years, ranting and raving with all of you, hehehehe.
They are beautiful I think.
Rose bushes hurt also when fallen into them. I just don’t get the hate of the flower “yet.” Course I don’t have the bad experience yet.
Time will tell.
Thanks for the website. It may save my planting them. I can pull them up now; they are in newly tilled dirt.
I just don’t know yet.
Thanks!
KC
Remember the cup deal KC. After you have had them for a few years and they begin to spread, you will need a lot of cups and several bottles of Round Up. Best Wishes.
Hi Nancy and fellow yucca plant killers! Just thought I would update you on the status of my project. The Round-up-in-a-cup method is the best I’ve found. But be prepared for it to take quite a while. To update my prvious postings on this site:
May 13, 2009: 1st treatment.
May 4, 2010: I posted that it was definitely dead! No shoots in 1 yr.
Early July 2010: It has returned!
Sept 2010: Treated again. This time I used Ortho Ground Clear (formerly Triox). This product is supposedly a total kill of all vegetation, guaranteed to last 1 year. I have covered it with thick plastic.
For all of you who say you can’t visualize how it’s done, here’s another explanation: You must dig a hole in the ground next to the yucca shoot. Place your cup in the hole. (so, the cup is now down in the ground and the top edge of the cup is level with the ground.) Tie up the leaves of that one shoot with twine. Cut off the tops – make sure you leave enoung length for them to reach down into the cup. Now, BEND the leaves of that shoot and direct them into the cup. Fill the cup with the weed killer so that the cut ends of the yucca are submerged in the liquid. Take a heavy rock, brick, or whatever, and place it on the bent leaves to keep them in the cup. Do this with each shoot. (If several shoots are close together, you can put several into the same cup. Just make sure the cut edges of all of them stay submerged.) Now, cover the entire treatment area with thick plastic, and plan on not touching it for a year or more!
I’ll be checking mine around August 2011 and will post again. I will not rest until this menace is COMPLETELY DESTROYED!! MHUUU HAAA HAAAAAAAAA!!!
Triffids have nothing on Yuccas.
These have the hallmarks of a bad horror movie. First, the innocous invasion. The homeowner brings in the innocent looking organism into their yard or a homeowner buys a house in which the invasion has already begun. Then the suspicous activity as they begin to wonder about this creature. Then the attack where they hack and slash and burn and poison until they believe that at last the creature is slain. Then they sigh a relief and turn their backs for a second and whammo the slain creature arises to strike again. I can see many sequals.
I have just started my war against the invaders. I have committed a tactical blunder already. I have chopped out the main portion of a root base. I know that sector will incur heavy casualties over the next few months. I have two other enemy controlled sectors in the yard but I have only cut them back to the base. I am going to start the chemical warfare technique described using the roundup and the cup. I also want to experiment with a couple of other techniques.
After reading through this I do believe I am throughly screwed! I have a two acre plot of land that I am trying to clear that is infested with at LEAST 100 of the horrid plants.
I’m gonna go cry now.
Thanks to all of the fellow Yucca haters in this forum, I have regained the inspiration to not give up on killing the horrid plant in my yard that I have nicknamed “DEVIL ROOT”! OMG! I have complained and obsessed over killing these torturous plants for several years now since moving into my husbands childhood home. Last year, I even had new ones sprouting up all over my well kept flower beds!! The whole summer and fall of last year, I had to remove new sprout twice a week from my flower beds before they could get beyond controlling. There is one whole section in our yard devoted to these bastard creatures that I had given up on. I have dug holes, chopped the enormous roots into a million pieces and thrown them away sealed in gallon buckets, pulled the tiny new sprouts from the ground root deep,and I have seriously considered injecting some sort of toxic fuel into the holes to penetrate the roots but feared it would kill all of my other beautiful innocent plants in the surrounding area since the stupid yucca sprouts up right in the middle of everythiing!
I am now motivated and I am back on a mission to kill these evil devil plants!!! Thank you Nancy for the inspiration! I am starting this week and I will update with results. Wooohooooo!!!
Well hell!!! I have an entire FIELD of the mother fucking yuccas. I have goats and want them GONE! Yucca’s can put an eye out and cause serious damage. From reading all your comments, I’m screwed. Ideas?
I cut the leaves and stem off at ground level, took power drill with large bit and drilled holes into the stem and poured pure strength brush killer into the holes. Yes, they died and the roots became soft and could be dug up. That was two years ago I think. Sure enough, they’re back.As to selling them?? I wouldn’t give them to my worst enemy. Couldn’t sleep at night if I did. Guess I’ll have to learn to like them. lol
Wow,I’ve found the essential co-conspirator community that is necessary to eradicate this hideous plant. A former tenant succeeded in ridding one section of the garden of this plant “horrible”, she tried to eliminate them on the other side but failed.. Alas, tenant is gone and the yuccas persist. As one person said, they will outlive nuclear disaster and return with the cockroaches! I will try the “round-up” sippy cup and also would love to try the injection method but I’m afraid of needles. My new next door neighbor and I emerged from our winter hibernation recently and dicscussed the curse of the yucca. He succeeded in eliminating them through some noxious brew of plant killing liquids. If i get a formuala I will post it. Perhaps I will put it in the “sippy” cup. Good luck in accomplishing yuccacide. MT
Growing up in Albuquerque in the 60′s, there were lots of kids in the neighborhood. We used to play softball, football, soccer in the street after school, and basketball in the driveway. The jerk across the street had a Down’s syndrome son and a daughter who was very anti-social. He hated us kids who laughed and played in the street, he planted yuccas, cholla and prickly pear cactus so we had a guaranteed flat if a ball went in his yard. I feel your yucca pain. I have had good success wetting the leaves of yuccas really good with the stronger round-up mix recommended on the bottle. Spray ‘em every couple of days for a month or so and I have yet to see one survive. Maybe it’s just my persistence? Maybe I sprayed ‘em for 2 months, anyway, It’s worked for me. Now to figure out how to kill cholla cactus…
girls, you’ve scared me. I too googled, erradicate yaccas and although i appreciate the information, I’m almost afraid to to attack now!?
Oh man… this is the funniest post I’ve read in quite some time. Bittersweet though, since I begin my conquest of the dreaded yucca (make that three yuccas) tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. It’s worth a shot!
I to was google searching how to kill yucca and stumbled onto this most comical site. After reading so many post I was laughing so hard at the post because there were doing all the same things I had tried. Me and my wife also pulled them up by the roots and threw them in the woods behind our house and the wife said after the babies started growing back she say that the pulled ones were growing to. I would not give one of these to Muammar Gaddafi for his bithday I lothe these so much. I will be trying the cup trick or injection.
Yukka’s Sucka! Spent 2+ hours last night digging one out from around our small decorative pond. It’s hard to imagine that my wife and I actually liked these hideous organisms. I could almost hear it last night when I was sleeping…”Feed me Seymore…feed me now” I’m certainly willing to make up this poisonous cocktail in a cup and try to kill the remaining siblings of this plant that won’t die. I really had to laugh last night when I asked my wife if wee should invite over our friends to see the roots I had dug out. We gave them 3 a few years ago to plant in their rock garden. She insisted that we not call as we really value their freindship and are afraid they will disown us. This blog is a hoot. I’ll stay tuned in and let you all know how the battle goes! Hope all you Mutha-Yukkas die a quick and painfull death
I stumbled onto this site and I am wishing I had seen it earlier. We have a decorative flower bed in the front of our property, was full of Yucca plants and decided that we needed to redo the overgrown jungle. I think we took out over 13 Yuccas and a ton of other plants. We had no idea what we were in for, since we have never had a Yucca until we moved into this place. My husband actually had to take an axe to the stupid things to get the out of the flower bed. We put in new plants, with weedblock, and some nice mulch…and now there is freakin’ Yucca shoots coming up. They must die. Ha and the other day I was at Home Depot and they were selling a Yucca plant for $30. Who in their right mind would pay that for a plant that would survive a nuclear Holocaust. Thank you sharing how to kill the stupid things.
Found this site by googling ‘How to kill a yucca’!
We have a ‘Mutha-Yucca’ that we’ve tried to get rid of by chopping it down and now have a least 10 new shoots coming up!!
After reading all the coments on here (and crying with laughter) we’ve been inspired by all our fellow yucca haters and are now even more determined to kill the thing!! We’re going to try the Round-Up in a cup method – wish us luck!!
If all else fails, we’ll use the napalm!!!!!!
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