Hi all,

I have a rather nasty case of horsetails. It has travelled from the
overgrown jungle of a garden next door. I realise that without
clearing it from next door I have no chance of permenantly eradicating
it, all I want to do is stop it from coming up from between my patio
paving slabs. If I pull them up then they keep coming back within
days and are 1 foot high within a week or two. They are actually
starting to cause the slabs to become uneven! Pulling them from
between the cracks is difficult as most often they just snap where
they emerge from the crack without any root coming up.

The 'tails are also coming up in my borders (I just keep pulling them)
and are travelling across the lawn (and patio) at about 3 metres per
year (I just mow them down). In a couple of years, my neighbours on
the other side could well start to have the same problem.

I tried Round-Up on an area of them with very little effect. I
realise that I need to 'roughen' them up a little before applying,
however the smallest amount of roughing up seems to just snap them.

I bought a tub of sodium chlorate as it claims to stop growth for 6
months, but having read the instructions I am actually a little afraid
of using the stuff!

It's the patio thats the big problem so my questions are :-

Is sodium chlorate going to be effective against this pest?

How best to apply it (pour it down the gaps between the slabs, spray
directly onto the weeds)?

The instruction don't say whether children/pets need be excluded. I'm
guessing that they do. Question is, for how long?

How close to the grass is it safe to go?


Thanks for any help eradicating this beast of a weed!


Mike