Anyone know if it's too late to kill it or has it already gone to seed? And
should I be able to tell just by looking at it? The dark half of my entire back
yard is a huge 1-2' tall infestation.

It is still not too late in most of the places I've seen, but it is
very, very, very late. It was only two weeks ago that I pulled apart
the terminal leaves and found the first flower bud. Since then it has
started blooming every where (around Chapel Hill/ Durham) and the
seeds form almost immediately afterwards. You need to start pulling/
weed-eating/ or spraying in mid-September, when it suddenly starts
'taking over', which is really a burst of elongation that it goes
through before pushing out it's seeds, sort of like cilantro bolting
before flowering, or the stem on a dandelion seed head that rises
overnight in a freshly mowed lawn. It all happens really quickly once
that elongation starts.

Yes, you should be able to see the flowers, which stick out the end
and look like other 'bottle-brush' grass seed heads (1-2 inch long
main stem with short side stems at 90 degrees with seeds hanging at
end.) If you can see the flowers it is probably too late to spray or
weed-eat, you need to actually pull it out and carry it away to get
rid of the seeds. But, no matter what you do, if you have a lot this
year you will have a lot next year as well. What you are doing by
removing it before it sets seed is reducing the seed bank for next
year, or rather you are actually preventing a huge increase in the
number of seeds for next year (and beyond.) But if you prevent
seeding this year, and do the same thing next year, each year after
that you will have less and less, unless you are downstream from a
neighboring patch.

It's not cancer, people, and it's not hard to pull, or cut, or get rid
of over time. Just make the effort once a year to disrupt it's life
cycle and mention it to neighbors or passers-by. I'm amazed that many
people still don't know that it is an annual and that they think in
terms of it coming back from the roots each year.

I really don't think ornamec is necessary in the average residential
yard, since it pulls out so easily and quickly from around bushes. A
light weight string trimmer works great in open areas. It just takes
time, but it is relatively pleasant work. Think of microstegium
pulling time as the new apple harvest time. Mid September. Don't
wait until you see the flowers. Enjoy it and count your Blessings, or
hire someone else who will.

David