In message , Stanley
writes

I have got several beds infested with thousands of them and they are
trying to take over the

universe. Tell me about it.


Does Roundup go off? I tried spraying them with it the other year with no
effect. I have a bottle of the concentrated Roundup that is a few years old.


Roundup won't work unless the leaves stay wet long enough for the
chemical to be absorbed by the plant. Muscari have shiny waxy leaves
that are hard to wet so the spray probably just ran off.
You could try adding a squirt of washing up liquid just before you
spray: then check whether the leaves are actually wet with the mixture.

Please, please, please does anybody know what will kill them?

Overcropping will kill anything if you keep it up long enough.
So if you pull up all the leaves every year for a few years the bulbs
will starve. Unfortunately the tiny leaves of the little bulbils are so
small and numerous that it'd take you all your time to get them all.

Shading them out with yew or cypress will eventually do it; and they die
out surprisingly fast if you flood the land for a few weeks each year.

Weekly use of a flamethrower during their growing season will kill them
in three to five years, and you can grow bedding or vegetables in late
summer and autumn.


Can you let me in on the secret before I go mad.

If you can get weedkiller formulated as a gel or thick liquid that you
wipe onto the leaves with a sponge or special glove, it's worth trying.
Otherwise, buy a hoe and use it. Don't allow any green leaves to come
up. If you're fairly anal about this the bastar^h^h^h bulbs will die
out.
You'll need to move any plants you want to keep but can't hoe round,
such as other bulbs. Isolate them in pots until you're sure they're
muscari-free.
As above, you can grow seasonal crops outside the muscari season.

Good luck, you'll need it.
--
Sue ]