It has been too hot and dry to do much, so today I thinned out a few Opuntia ellisiana plants. 

I took 17 sets of pads today and placed them on top of my compost bin to dry. I have 5 more plants to thin in the coming days and I plan to create a living fence of about 300ft in length.

Sounds like a fun project...I had to look that species up, didn't realise there was a spineless prickly pear.

The spiny species has been bad news in some parts of Australia in the past unfortunately, although not so bad since they introduced Cactoblastis moth to control it a few decades ago.

On 9/15/2025 at 6:13 AM, Jonathan said:

Sounds like a fun project...I had to look that species up, didn't realise there was a spineless prickly pear.

The spiny species has been bad news in some parts of Australia in the past unfortunately, although not so bad since they introduced Cactoblastis moth to control it a few decades ago.

O. ellisiana is much easier to handle than the traditional prickly pears and it is very cold hardy, unlike O. ficus-indica.

Unfortunately, Cactoblastis cactorum has arrived in Texas, which is not good news for our ecosystem. 

On 9/18/2025 at 8:18 PM, amh said:

 

Unfortunately, Cactoblastis cactorum has arrived in Texas, which is not good news for our ecosystem. 

Since the following two native Moth sps. already use Opuntia ..and some other Cacti genera as a larval stage host, negative ecosystem effects created by Cactoblastus might not be as bad here compared to areas in the S.E. / Eastern states where native " cactus munchers " typically aren't common... 













As for Cactoblastus itself?   C. cactorum  ( ..or another sp in the genus )  may already be present in / or very close to   both AZ and CA. 

3 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Since the following two native Moth sps. already use Opuntia ..and some other Cacti genera as a larval stage host, negative ecosystem effects created by Cactoblastus might not be as bad here compared to areas in the S.E. / Eastern states where native " cactus munchers " typically aren't common... 













As for Cactoblastus itself?   C. cactorum  ( ..or another sp in the genus )  may already be present in / or very close to   both AZ and CA. 

Good lord. Is there any plant that exists that doesn't have a moth that specifically targets it? 

 

Oh yeah. 

 

Bermuda grass. 

On 9/15/2025 at 1:54 AM, amh said:

It has been too hot and dry to do much, so today I thinned out a few Opuntia ellisiana plants. 

I took 17 sets of pads today and placed them on top of my compost bin to dry. I have 5 more plants to thin in the coming days and I plan to create a living fence of about 300ft in length.

@amhi love the “spineless” version. I keep these in pots outside in winter because they are so common and if they die they die. But, I’ve never had them die in the winter in pots.

On 9/20/2025 at 3:57 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Good lord. Is there any plant that exists that doesn't have a moth that specifically targets it? 

 

Oh yeah. 

 

Bermuda grass. 

I'm sure there is something out there.

On 9/20/2025 at 12:08 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

Since the following two native Moth sps. already use Opuntia ..and some other Cacti genera as a larval stage host, negative ecosystem effects created by Cactoblastus might not be as bad here compared to areas in the S.E. / Eastern states where native " cactus munchers " typically aren't common... 













As for Cactoblastus itself?   C. cactorum  ( ..or another sp in the genus )  may already be present in / or very close to   both AZ and CA. 

I hope so, I've seen evidence of the native borers in the past, but it was not an infestation.

17 minutes ago, amh said:

I'm sure there is something out there.

Actually,  for every plant that exists, there is something (  Critter you can see w/ your eyes, or much smaller ) that evolved to challenge it's existence..

Earth ain't no imagined Disneyland fairy tale.  

..That illusion is an exclusively human made hangup. 

26 minutes ago, amh said:

I'm sure there is something out there.

So far, all I'm aware of is my cultivator fork and it's probably doing more to help it than kill it (by splitting and spreading rhizomes) 

3 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

So far, all I'm aware of is my cultivator fork and it's probably doing more to help it than kill it (by splitting and spreading rhizomes) 

An army worm infestation could help, but they eat everything.

1 minute ago, amh said:

An army worm infestation could help, but they eat everything.

Yeah I'll pass on that and just trench where I want to plant and lay down some barriers. 

10 minutes ago, amh said:

An army worm infestation could help, but they eat everything.

Pulling out one of these...   

The only thing that will get rid of Bermuda  ..if removed correctly.  


Anything else is futile / a waste of time / won't accomplish  ....Shhh  -quitt  

Bermuda = don't come to play, if you're afraid of getting very dirty and beat up trying to win it's game.  



 

41 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Pulling out one of these...   

The only thing that will get rid of Bermuda  ..if removed correctly.  


Anything else is futile / a waste of time / won't accomplish  ....Shhh  -quitt  

Bermuda = don't come to play, if you're afraid of getting very dirty and beat up trying to win it's game.  



 

I ordered one of those. They sent me this. It's great at cutting. It sucks for digging. But after a partial refund it cost me like $13 shipped so I can't gripe. It would cost me more than that to ship it back. Gotta love eBay. I also bought a "long handled scraper shovel" that came complete with - wait for it - no handle! But I put an offer in for $7 and they took it. Now I know why. 

 

So basically $20 bought me 2 shovel halves. 

3 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Pulling out one of these...   

The only thing that will get rid of Bermuda  ..if removed correctly.  


Anything else is futile / a waste of time / won't accomplish  ....Shhh  -quitt  

Bermuda = don't come to play, if you're afraid of getting very dirty and beat up trying to win it's game.  



 

 

3 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I ordered one of those. They sent me this. It's great at cutting. It sucks for digging. But after a partial refund it cost me like $13 shipped so I can't gripe. It would cost me more than that to ship it back. Gotta love eBay. I also bought a "long handled scraper shovel" that came complete with - wait for it - no handle! But I put an offer in for $7 and they took it. Now I know why. 

 

So basically $20 bought me 2 shovel halves. 

The mechanical removal works, but so does drought, bermuda has a hard time living in my area.

7 minutes ago, amh said:

 

The mechanical removal works, but so does drought, bermuda has a hard time living in my area.

 

At the old house here,  in the desert,  where we see 5 months straight of highs above  102F   ...and get ..8 -10" of rain annually,  if  lucky,    it survived for 2 YEARS  w/ absolutely NO water while that house was vacant between owners. 

When i watered right after moving in, it started re emerging. I was quite shocked since the " yard " was nothing but dirt.. 

New owners don't water the yard ( intentionally ) and there are still big patches of it hanging out in areas i couldn't completely remove it from when i re-landscaped that yard ..Almost 10 years ago.

A couple doors down, in the front yard of another home that has ..for the most part,  sat vacant ...since we moved here ..Almost 10 years ago,   there are still  patches of Bermuda that pop up in that yard.  Nothing but rock in that yard.  

See patches of it out in the desert as well, far from areas where water might collect when it rains. 

Drought definitely doesn't guarantee it's total destruction. Neither does dumping a a quarter gallon of concentrated Bleach on it. ( Tried in some driveway cracks back in May,  just to see what it might do. Barely phased it.   ) 
 

5 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

 

At the old house here,  in the desert,  where we see 5 months straight of highs above  102F   ...and get ..8 -10" of rain annually,  if  lucky,    it survived for 2 YEARS  w/ absolutely NO water while that house was vacant between owners. 

When i watered right after moving in, it started re emerging. I was quite shocked since the " yard " was nothing but dirt.. 

New owners don't water the yard ( intentionally ) and there are still big patches of it hanging out in areas i couldn't completely remove it from when i re-landscaped that yard ..Almost 10 years ago.

A couple doors down, in the front yard of another home that has ..for the most part,  sat vacant ...since we moved here ..Almost 10 years ago,   there are still  patches of Bermuda that pop up in that yard.  Nothing but rock in that yard.  

See patches of it out in the desert as well, far from areas where water might collect when it rains. 

Drought definitely doesn't guarantee it's total destruction. Neither does dumping a a quarter gallon of concentrated Bleach on it. ( Tried in some driveway cracks back in May,  just to see what it might do. Barely phased it.   ) 
 

The problem with manual removal is you just end up breaking the runners and now instead of one you have 20. What I want to do in the front yard is build a giant L shaped bed with bananas and (eventually) large palms staggered, and I'm HOPING that a combination of solarization, trenching, and lining the borders with a 5 oz weed barrier combined with some 10" corrugated metal buried 7 or 8" deep (leaving just enough above ground to hold mulch and compost in place) is enough. I mean, this is all really a pipe dream unless I can grow enough plants to sell enough plants to pay for this, but I think that should be enough to keep Bermuda out at least some beds. I can also use pre-emergents like Preen or something. And I know there's horror stories about removing weed barrier from under mulch and soil, but hopefully by the time that becomes an issue, it's someone else's problem. I've also read that bananas are such nutrient hogs that they can starve the grass out. 

 

I'm not necessarily anti-lawn. We don't water or fertilize this, ever. I just hate that it gets so thick and the Bahia mixed in gets so tall so fast and then just weeds and seeds go everywhere and the house looks abandoned. It's too much hard for us to keep up with, so I think if I can plant out enough to cut the amount of grass down by like 70% (uhh there's like a 14 minute long YouTube video that's just me walking around most of the house) or so then we'll be ok. But I need the stars to align and some money to show up, my health to cooperate, and Chipdrop to work out. 

 

Anyway back to fence made of cacti, that's an awesome idea. 

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

The problem with manual removal is you just end up breaking the runners and now instead of one you have 20.

Manual removal = not a problem, if you take your time carefully removing everything you see.. 

Doing the " tough " work is the only way i've been able to eliminate 97% of it ..permanently.. from where i cut out planting beds / areas on the property where i laid gravel. simply to eliminate  excessive property space devoted to grass.  

3 or 4% left behind that might pop back up over the course of a year or two after initial tear out?  easy to get those clumps out w/ the shovel. 



Where i laid it, 14" deep vertical  barrier ( Used some scrap polycarb corrugate a neighbor was tossing out. ) seems to be holding it from re - invading beds cut out between the lawn area / back walls. Do need to fill some gaps between some of the blocks installed w/ mortar though since surface runners seem to find their way through them in spots. 

Just about time to start on installing the rest of the barrier out front where i don't want grass invading again. 

Barrier that is only 6 or 7" deep?  underground stolons will easily defeat that.

Keeping in mind how hot dark surfaced things can get here when the air temp is 115-120F,  If using thick, black roof shingle sections, laid down since June, doesn't kill the stuff,  Cardboard or plastic won't eliminate it.  Cuts up thick Weed fabric like Freddy Krueger or Jason too.

Grass - specific herbicides?  With what little rain we see, you'd think the stuff would work really well here. In reality?   ..Bermuda LIAO at anyone spraying " poison " at it. 


Landscape certification course work 101, Lawn - devoted property space:   Amount of a property devoted to any amount of lawn space, if the client chooses to have any at all,  should only = the amount of space regularly utilized by the client ( Use a monthly / yearly %'age rate in your calculation ).  Lawn devoted area exceeds that? / Front-of-property lawns ( which normally aren't utilized regularly )? =  waste of space / $$ / resources.

Introduce / Encourage non- lawn alternative ideas for such spaces. 

 

3 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Introduce / Encourage non- lawn alternative ideas for such spaces. 

 

Well I guess on the other hand it's taking in CO2, but literally the only thing we use grass for is dog and cat toilets. I've read people have had success using Fusillade (sp?) but with SEVERAL applications and I really don't want to use anything that requires me to wear a damn space suit to apply it. It ain't that serious. The only watering and fertilizer it gets come from Sancho and the dogs lol. 

7 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Anyway back to fence made of cacti, that's an awesome idea. 

Cactus fences are popular in many parts of the world, but most people use columnar types.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_fence

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Well I guess on the other hand it's taking in CO2, but literally the only thing we use grass for is dog and cat toilets. I've read people have had success using Fusillade (sp?) but with SEVERAL applications and I really don't want to use anything that requires me to wear a damn space suit to apply it. It ain't that serious. The only watering and fertilizer it gets come from Sancho and the dogs lol. 

No, you need grass, just not bermuda. 

St, Augustine is nice around the house, but the natives grasses will keep your dirt from being washed away during rain or blown away by the wind.

3 minutes ago, amh said:

No, you need grass, just not bermuda. 

St, Augustine is nice around the house, but the natives grasses will keep your dirt from being washed away during rain or blown away by the wind.

My grandfather spent years trying to get this stuff to take root, and I'm glad it's not everywhere. Why he wanted it is beyond me, the Bahia towers above it in most of the yard anyway - and it seeds constantly. I just don't have the energy or the determination or the equipment to rip all the Bermuda out. I'll just do the best I can with my little areas and let that be that. 

 

The fun part is when I start pulling it from up against the house and I get a really long runner and it snags and there's a fire ant nest in there and fire ants don't particularly like going airborne. I got got a few times today. 

2 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

My grandfather spent years trying to get this stuff to take root, and I'm glad it's not everywhere. Why he wanted it is beyond me, the Bahia towers above it in most of the yard anyway - and it seeds constantly. I just don't have the energy or the determination or the equipment to rip all the Bermuda out. I'll just do the best I can with my little areas and let that be that. 

 

The fun part is when I start pulling it from up against the house and I get a really long runner and it snags and there's a fire ant nest in there and fire ants don't particularly like going airborne. I got got a few times today. 

I find the fire ants while doing yard work all the time and my feet end up looking like something out of a horror film in early spring.

1 hour ago, amh said:

I find the fire ants while doing yard work all the time and my feet end up looking like something out of a horror film in early spring.

Yeah. I dunno if it's aging or the diabeetus, but they tend to leave scars now. 

25 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Yeah. I dunno if it's aging or the diabeetus, but they tend to leave scars now. 

Fire ant bites rarely have any lasting damage on me, but a few years ago, I was bit by some sort of tiny ants that left scars.

30 minutes ago, amh said:

Fire ant bites rarely have any lasting damage on me, but a few years ago, I was bit by some sort of tiny ants that left scars.

Who knows what kinds of ants are what anymore? Every year they get more violent and more deadly than the last. I found a hidden nest in the windowsill in my grow room this afternoon so the perimeter spray came out, the potted plants all got some dust, and I just blasted the entire side of the house with the hose. Then I went to pull a vine off of a dying tree, and hooooooooly yeah. One of the 3 trunks just fell and it's full of ants so I made sure to water that really good too. They were a good 3 or 4 feet up inside the tree. It's ugly and looked terrible and now we know why. I just hope they migrate someplace else before I have to go cut the rest of it down.