Bahiagrass can be hard to eliminate

I do believe in fairies.

They live in our house and move things. For instance, I couldn't find my workbench. Two days later, I discovered it in my kids' treehouse. The little miscreants even decorated it. And whenever I look for the nail clippers in our bathroom drawer, the darn things are randomly lying around the house. It's almost like the scoundrels drop them wherever they happen to be when they're finished. And another thing, they love to hide the television remote.

Lawns are no different. It's not gnomes messing with your lawn, it's the fairies. They're seeding it with magical seedstalks. You mow them and turn around, and there they are again. Ta-dah.

Those seedstalks grow from bahiagrass. That's pronounced buh-HAY-uh-grass. Bahiagrass was introduced from Brazil in the early 1900s as a pasture grass in the Southeast. It is very drought tolerant because of an extensive root system. It is well-adapted to dry, infertile sandy soils and produces abundant seed that is cheap, which makes it good for seeding roadsides.

Pensacola and Tifton 9 varieties of bahiagrass are recommended for horse pastures, while the Argentine variety can have adverse effects on pregnant mares.

However, bahiagrass is not beloved in the lawn. For starters, the rhizomes/stolons are extremely coarse and rough on bare feet. It maintains low density where weed seeds can germinate and invade. It does not tolerate shade or saltwater. Mole crickets love it. But above all, it's those seedheads that give us reason to hate it. The rigid stalks grow about 12 inches tall with two stems of seeds positioned like fingers pronouncing peace. But run through a lawn thick with seed stalks and it'll feel like your legs are being whipped. No peace there. Mow them and some even elude the spinning blade, popping back up. It's a low-growing grass, but the seedheads require frequent mowing.

To be fair, I've seen stands of bahiagrass that look acceptable with irrigation. If it weren't for those darn seedheads, I'd give it consideration. But that's not going to happen.

However, if you have horses, a long roadside ditch or just need something to grow, seed in late spring or early summer. Keep watered for three weeks if possible to encourage establishment.

If you want it out of your lawn, there are a few options. It's not a rapid spreader, such as bermudagrass, so localized patches can be dug up. However, pervasive areas can be controlled chemically. Round-up can be used in planting beds, but it's a nonselective herbicide that kills everything sprayed. Round-up can be used to spot spray in lawns, but you'll lose some turf.

Vantage (Sethoxydim) is a selective herbicide that can be used on centipedegrass lawns. Read the label. It should not be used until May. It is recommended not to mow seven days before or after application to allow complete translocation of the herbicide inside the bahiagrass. Reapplication can be done after three weeks.

MSMA can be used to control bahiagrass in bermuda and zoysia lawns, but some discoloration may occur.

Manor (Metsulfuron) is another selective herbicide, but it is expensive. Read the label because it recommends not applying within two times the width of the canopy of trees or even planting a tree or shrub in a sprayed area for a year.

Or you can just learn to live with it and mow the seed stalks.

I've learned how to deal with the house fairies. Apparently, they can't move things if you hide them. For instance, if you hide your favorite cereal, they won't eat it all. Now if I could just figure out how to keep them from drinking all the milk and putting the empty container back in the refrigerator.

Tony Bertauski is a horticulture instructor at Trident Technical College. To give feedback, e-mail him at tony.bertauski@tridenttech.edu.