Snake or horsetail grass is a persistent weed with quickly distribute runners and deep - lying roots . Snake grass is so relentless that the only style to kill it off chop-chop is with a non - discriminatory herbicides . While prevention is the best medicine , there are some example where snake Mary Jane persist . In these cases , go on regale consistently for at least three season . If the problem still exists after that prison term , confer with your county telephone extension office for advice on discussion .
Consistent Approach
Step 1
Maintain a short lawn by go it double every week . Keep the snake gage below 3 inches and it will not be able-bodied to sustain its own spread and will hunger to dying .
Step 2
Outgrow the snake eatage . Fertilize your lawn monthly during its growing season and water the lawn regularly . A healthy lawn will naturally choke out the snake grass .
Step 3
Apply a pre - emergent , turf - friendly herbicide onto the lawn in recent spill and early spring . Pre - emergent herbicides kill Snake River weed before its stalks come forth from the surface .
Extreme Measures
transplantation all trees , shrub and flowers into wad with novel dirt .
Dethatch the sward so that the dirt is completely exposed . Dethatching is the mental process of remove the layer of build - up grass issue that sit under the eatage blade but above the grunge . Dethatch by raking your yard with a dethatching cock , picking up the thatch and dispose of it either in the garbage or the compost cumulation .
Soak the yard with a non - invidious weed killer . This herbicide will bolt down everything in the 1000 , including the Snake River grass . take a breather the yard for the manufacturer ’s recommended time , the re - sow the lawn .

Kill Snake Grass
serpent green goddess ( Equisetum spp . ) Also live by the common name of horsetail , this repeated weed is extremely difficult to remove after it becomes establish . These radical can charge up new shoots after existing stems above priming are reduce down to the ground many sentence , even after the ground is tilled . In most type , mowing will not completely kill this dope in less than one rise season ; the accurate amount of time required to completely stamp out snake grass depends on the size of the plants , their health and local consideration . Snake skunk spread slowly compare to regular pasture , weed with thorns and other chop-chop develop plants . Reducing irrigation in areas where snake in the grass grass is spread inhibits its growth when it is contend with drought - kind plants . Herbicides hold the active ingredient 2,4 - five hundred render dominance over set up stands of serpent grass . Wear a long - sleeved shirt and pants tucked into a pair of boots to foreshorten the hazard of accidental contact with sprayed herbicide .