you can either dig them up, pull up the seedlings (with gloves) or if you do chemicals, use roundup on them, it should work.

Personally I'd let them get to about a foot and a half high next spring, put on my gloves, go pick all the tops (about the top 6 or so inches) and steam them, put olive oil and lemon juice on them, and chow down. They don't sting after they've been cooked, and are one of the tastiest spring greens around. (Then you can go out and annihilate them)

bob

Thanks Bob!
Well this weekend I put the spade in and dug them all up (actually managed not to touch any).
However I know I will get more next year as it is coming under the fence from my neighbours yard and I only get it on that one side.

You probably will get some plants from pieces of root left behind. Unless there is a problem with your neighbors why don't you ask them if you could remove the plants while they are home. Explain that you develop a long lived rash and would like to remove those near the fence on their side. Who knows maybe they want to get rid of the also. But the may be leaving them for certain butterflies, I can't remember which, whose larva eat nettles.

hej Stinging nettles help tomatoes and other rootfruits to grow strong..and they are host of caterpillars..

If you absolutely don´t want them , cut of tops before they bloom...You could eat them..(rinse them, throw into boiling water for some half minute, then chop them fine, put them back into water, simmer for about 5 minutes, then let a cube of vegetablebouillon in, and some garlic and some white wine..simmer low heat some more 5 minutes...taste with pepper, salt ...
and then eat with a hardboiled egg in the plate..--

You can also dry the leaves, and put it into the flour when you bake....
Very much iron and vitamins in it..more than spinach

I have lots of Stinging Nettle and I can relate to how you feel about it. Make sure you pull it before it goes to seed and try to dig out the roots. It will come back but it will be weaker. Repeat the process. If you can mow that area, just keep mowing it and the roots will get tired and eventually give up.
Good luck

I had a couple of acres of stinging nettle behind my house. They are sun intolerant and cannot handle any disturbance, so I trimmed some of the trees to let in more sun, and then took a weed whacker to them. While they recovered from the whacking, other plants had a chance to establish themselves. It took a few years of doing this, but now they are gone. For the ones close to a walking path I poured boiling water on them. They couldn't take much of that.

Hah! Convinced that nettles were "good for you" - they are - I ordered seeds years ago from the seed unit of Mountain Rose Herbs. They literally did go to seed, tho, and have encroached over about a third of my yard. I tried one spring to pull them up and got tendonitis in my arms. Then I found that if you pull them up, or chop up the roots, they form this armored network of roots to defend themselves. I now dry some, eat some in the spring (good soup recipes and pasta recipes are to be found) and then just have my lawn guy now the rest. This is the second year of cutting them down, so hopefully they'll weaken & become more sparse over time. Lesson learned! (as it was with the oregano in my front yard... but that's another story!)