I've had a problem with them over the years, but I find the main thing is to never let them seed. They don't create new plants by dividing, they simply seed new ones, thus if you keep pulling off the flowers every couple of days you can deal with the existing weeds in your own time, either by pulling them or chemicals. I've also discovered that there's a quick and handy way to deal with those pretty, but troublesome seed heads that allways scatter when you disturb them. Just use a cigarette lighter on them and they fizzle away instantly.

They're a lot like docks: they like heavy soil, usually, and are useful for breaking up clay.

If you live near fields which are badly managed, or have been closed for haying, you could be getting 'fairies' coming in on the wind and settling on any bare ground.

They're not too good at coping with a lumpy mulch such as autumn leaves. Any that do get through are easily pulled.

With the older ones, you'll need to choose your time, when the soil is easy to work. Late summer is good, after a spot of rain; the ground is warm and your big digging fork can get in deep, to the full depth of the tines. Don't waste time cutting the tap root with a gardening knife. They just sprout again, and have forked roots.

Until then keep the flowers swiped off. They send up new ones daily.

On the plus side, the young leaves can be added to salads in moderation, and are healthful. If you keep hens, then the leaves are good for them, too.

The catsears, hawkbits and hawkbeards are much easier to get rid of. Ox tongue (Helminthotheca echioides) is a prickly customer, worst when it's dry. They all have similar flowers but a different growth habit.

.... going out for a gallon jug of white vinegar and a blow torch!
I've tried chemical herbicides on the dandelions and they don't work. I can hear the dandelions laughing at me when I point the trigger sprayers at them. I even doused some that had come up from cracks in my patio with lighter fluid and torched them. (I know, I need help.)
I don't want to eat them, I don't want to ferment and drink them, I want them out of my garden!

I know there is a gardening version of vinegar that is something like 30% acetic acid and that cooking vinegar is about 5% acid. Does the regular cooking vinegar work? Because I can tell you for a fact that 30 % acetic acid is hard to handle and can burn you seriously if you acidentally get any on you. It's a real acid and as dangerous. Thanks

OK -- I sprayed the little b@$#@%&$, and now my garden smells like dandelion vinegrette. How long until I can dance on their graves with glee? Bry84 -- thanks for the frying tip -- it was very fun and extremely therapeutic -- mwah ha ha ha ha!

I am very happy to report that most of the weeds I doused with regular-old 89 cents a bottle white vinegar are dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead! They looked like someone deep-fried 'em. I've written "Dandelion Death" on my spray bottle with a skull and crossbones, and I'm going out for more vinegar. My neighbors think I'm nuts because I've been setting fire to all the puffballs I can find and I mutter to myself as I'm spraying, but I don't care -- it works!

I read that vinegar will NOT kill the root, so the dandelions will come right back. Last year, I did the boiling water thing. Labor intensive, but it does work. The trick is to get that boiling water all the way down the taproot. This is difficult for me because our soil is so incredibly rocky. It's a constant battle.

We just moved out into the country and our yard is filled with dandelions! What is the best and fastest way to get rid of them? Am desperate as our neighbors have green clean cut lawns-it's embarrassing!

I had about 200 dandelions in my lawn last year (moved in to new house). This year I had about 5.

How did I win?

First- Last spring/summer, I plucked every single yellow flower before it turned into the deadly white puffball. Took hours over the course of time, but it depletes the dandelion of its food source through the flower.

Second- In the early fall, when they are actively pulling nutrients into their roots for the winter, I sprayed each & every single one on my 5000 sq. foot lawn, individually, with a glyphosate-based product, I think "Basic Solutions Grass & Weed killer". Roundup is too expensive for me. I also sprayed each & every single plantain on my lawn as well.

Third- I aerated in the fall, limed the lawn, and planted tons of turf-type tall fescue everywhere.

No plantains. No dandelions. Now I have bittercress, mouse ear cress, and a few others that I need to attack this season. I will attack them the same way.

g'luck

why dont you just cut off all your hair and go buy a hat?

This is the best read I have had and much needed laugh! Coming off a book from the perspective of 3 Afghans and 4 decades of horror and great sadness- and then before I turn in for the night I look for answers to the dandelion explosion in my yard and truly put things in perspective! I asked my father why can't we just respect these flowers - and he rightly corrected me " because they are an obnoxious weed!" I hate the perfect lawn across the street - and the person living there! I think I will try the lighter thing first- this small town waits for me to do my thing each day- I am going to make their Sunday! Have a good evening

Glyphosate is a carcinogen. Glyphosate may also kill your grass. The reason why one has a lot of dandelions is because of the infertile clay soil. By not mowing your lawn too often, the grass will outcompete the dandelions, so that the dandelions will grow longer leaves but not flowers. Then you can pluck the leaves off the ground easily. When you mow your lawn, leave the grass clipping in your lawn so that it will decompose and make your lawn more fertilize in the long run. If you don't like this, then you can add nitrogen to your lawn. Mowing your lawn too often in the summer will also kill your grass and reduce the function of grass as a ground cover. Add clover to your lawn will also suppress dandelions. Of course not everyone likes clover. But clover adds nitrogen to your lawn and its runner root system will suppress dandelions especially during the hot and dry summer months. Adding calcium will also allow you to amend your clay soil in the long run so that grass will become more competitive.

I LOVE all my dandelions and I really do not care what my neighbors think of my lawn.
I refuse to spray poisons where I walk and have my grandson play!
My son and I mow the lawn on the highest setting and don't care WHAT'S growing there just as long as it's not poisonous.
I've gotten quite fond of dandelion tea and having the young leaves in my salads. I made a salve out of olive oil infused with dandelions that takes care of every itch and rash we ever get. It's also GREAT for after scrubbing up after gardening! No more old-looking, dry skin hands for me!

While someone is recommending ANY herbicide at all, I'll just say that using roundup or glyphosate for spot control in a lawn is just a BAD idea. I guess somehow spup managed to miss the grass, but generally, you will kill enough grass near the weed that you will create a bare spot where, guess what, weed seeds willl thrive. Just use a selective, that's what they are for.
Kathy if it were any other weed I could forgive you, but a lawn of dandelion puffs will beget an adjacent lawn of dandelion puffs. This is why HOAs sometimes prohibit people from having weedy lawns. (I think HOAs are generally awful) Would you consider it very civil if your neighbor grew poison ivy along your property line, so that your kids were always stepping in seedlings from it and getting poison ivy? I'm not directly criticizing you, I'm just questioning whether having a free-for-all lawn is really a civil and neighborly thing to do.
Arthur, here's a suggestion...don't drink glyphosate if it's a carcinogen. Meanwhile, please don't eat refined sugar, red meat, or milk as some authorities (yes, not just "folks") also consider those things carcinogens.
But you are mostly spot on in the rest of your post. It's not just a matter of mowing too often, it's that 95% of people in this country idiotically mow it wayyyyy too short. Leave the putting green look to the golf courses. And yes, if you leave it higher you DO cut it less, which is also beneficial to the environment. They used to say cutting it close prevented kids from getting ticks, but I'm highly skeptical of that. I have a wetlands area on my property in addition to my lawn. I've NEVER gotten a tick from my lawn, no longer how high I let the grass get. (never over 7-8 inches at worse) I do get them in the wetlands area, where at various times of year there really is high grass and forbs. (1-3 ft)
I used to blanket spray with selectives - because I had to. Cutting high, I now have almost all broad leaved weeds under control. (I cannot stress this transformation: this lawn was nothing BUT weeds 8 years ago...previously maintained by white trash hayseeds - no pun intended - who scalped it, of course) I still do spot treat dandelions and a few other things with selectives. Picking the flowers will not magically kill the dandelions...in that case, merely mowing would kill them and it certainly doesn't. Yes, you want to prevent as many puffballs from forming as possible.

Dandelions, being one of the earliest plants to blossom, are an important part of our pollinators early spring diet and there is some evidence that the pollen has some anti bodies that aid in maintaining the health of those pollinators.

The dandelion leaves are a good food source for us as well.

Spraying plant poisons is very damaging to our environment and most likely to our health. It is well known that long term exposure to low levels of some substances (for example Carbon Monoxide) is just as bad as short term exposure to the large amounts of the same substance.

kimmq is kimmsr

"Spraying plant poisons is very damaging to our environment"

So, presumably you only eat organic food, since commercial agrobusiness uses orders of magnitude greater quantities of these herbicides than home gardeners? Frankly, white Europeans being in North America is damaging to the environment - should we all go back? Even organic agriculture is terribly damaging to the environment if, for example, it destroys the habitat of an endangered species. Lots of things are potentially "damaging to the environment". The point is sensibly prioritizing these degrees of disruption. I personally don't think the sensible use of something like glyphosate, by a home gardener, is "very damaging". In fact, I know it isn't...compared to various other uses of that chemical. (like roundup ready crops) If you want to look at it that way, merely having a LAWN, whether treated or not, is "very damaging", because, guess what? A mown lawn is not a natural habitat anywhere in the US! Better everyone just let their land revert to forests in the east, fire-prone fields in the high plains, conifer forests in the PNW, etc. Which funny enough is kind of what I'm doing...slowly. I one day plan for most of my 3 acres to be woodland garden with a shrub understory. Alas shade trees take time to grow. Until then, I don't want the lawn to be a source of weeds that cause mayhem in the cultivated areas.

I've taught my chickens to eat the seed heads, they do miss some but it's been fun watching them!

I've had no luck burning them because the fuzz burns and the seeds remain...

Has anyone had any luck injecting them with either saltwater, vinegar? I think I've decided to leave some dandelions, my chickens like them and so do the bees, but I really want to create an area of nice grass or moss for soft feets. Those mowed dandelion heads and hairy leaves don't feel good on your feet ;(

david, in case you missed it the World Health Organization has put glyphosate products on the list of suspected carcinogens.

Most all of what "we" consider "weeds" are really wild flowers growing where we don't want them growing.

kimmq is kimmsr

"david, in case you missed it the World Health Organization has put glyphosate products on the list of suspected carcinogens."
Well, thank goodness it's not used as a food ingredient. Oh, wait a minute...it's sprayed all over round-up-ready crops. Guess what? When I spray a patch of poison ivy, I don't come by the next day and eat it. Again, the correct per-label use by home gardeners is absolutely inconsequential in terms of both health effects and environmental effects, compared to agricultural use.
Guess what else is carcinogenic? Gasoline. I guess you think people should have to wear full body tyvek suits and respirator masks to fill-up their cars? Wow, that would really slow down refueling!

"Carcinogen" and "cancer" are scare concepts that get politicized and thrown around. Furthermore they create false senses of security by thinking you can avoid risk factors and therefore avoid cancer. There was just a story on WBAL a few nights ago about a teen girl who died of melanoma even though she never used tanning beds and always wore sunscreen. I'm not saying some things aren't linked to cancer: anyone who smokes is playing russian roulette and I highly doubt round-up treated grains have been sufficiently studied for their safety. But if we banned everything that could possibly be linked to cancer or in some way considered carcinogenic, we'd have to live in a vacuum, literally. I think if you do enough poking around you can find studies suggesting Vitamin C is carcinogenic. Really, if you're "scared" of roundup, start supporting organic agriculture in some way and leave gardeners alone.

And btw I in no way say this in defense of Monsanto or their corporate practices or GMO shenanigans. With Glyphosate being off-patent that's basically a wholly separate issue now - as far as home gardeners are concerned. (nobody has or ever will create "roundup ready" rudbeckias or coneflowers)
Fact is roundup is good at what it does, has a good safety and environmental profile when used correctly, and should continue to be available to home gardeners. I can't believe the utter idiocy of certain countries like the Netherlands banning it for home use. (meanwhile allowing commercial farmers to continue to use hundreds of tons of the stuff!)

"Most all of what "we" consider "weeds" are really wild flowers growing where we don't want them growing."

Most of what "we" consider "gardens" are really managed collections of wild flowers growing where "we" want them because something else was prevented from growing there LOL.

davidrt28 (zone 7)--I pick the blossoms BEFORE they turn to seed heads. My neighbors lawns have more dandelions than mine--and, this house we bought was empty for 2 years (at least) so, these dandelions are inherited. I do control my dandelions with NATURAL means ONLY! (And, yes, we DO eat only organic!)

NOBODY thought dandelions were weeds until the herbicide companies convinced us that they were!

Historically, the dandelion is a VERY important early season food source.

Round-Up makes me physically ill when it is sprayed. I am not the only one so affected. There were enough of us in my last neighborhood that the HOA had to tell the landscapers they could not use it any more! Guess what? Weeding by hand took them no longer, in fact, one employee told me it was FASTER than trying to get the weeds with round-up, was more effective (the weeds didn't grow back as quickly) AND they didn't even have to hire any additional employees.

The people in our new neighborhood are very careful what they spray as many of them also keep bees.

Kathy I certainly admire your commitment if you manage to pick every dandelion flower before it becomes a puffball.

Dandelions were certainly considered weeds in the Victorian and Edwardian era, before herbicides were available, because laborers were paid to pull them from the estate lawns of the toffs.

It would actually be interesting to know whether a double-blind test could confirm your supposed glyphosate sensitivity; it's actually more likely that the aromatic* surfactants included in almost all blends of it are what you smell and are bothered by. The pure compound is odorless. In any case just because people become somehow sensitized or allergic to something does not automatically make it a poison. Nobody calls peanut butter "poisonous" because some people are deathly allergic to it.

(* i.e., alkyl or aryl, not meaning "smelly" exactly but rather containing a benzene ring. The usual one is called polyoxyethylene-alkylamine in the trade. A usable form of generic roundup could certainly be formulated without these compounds though. They just happen to be cheap and powerful wetting agents and adjuvants.)

BTW as for bees, I would never use a neonicotinoid pesticide on something I know was visited by bees. (those are what are much more strongly linked to colony collapse disorder) For the first time ever I had to use a bit on a couple flowering plants, I will remove their bloom scapes this year to make sure no bees visit them. I believe in being as thoughtful toward the environment and nature as a I can...within reason. That means my 3 acres are not going to be overrun by mile-a-minute (introduced exotic pest species), poison ivy, and lawn weeds. My garden is highly visited by all kinds of insects and wild life, my wetlands have many frogs and toads including tree frogs. I am very careful not to spray near those areas because of the very slightly risk of hurting amphibian life with certain surfactants. So, you can use certainly herbicides without "destroying the environment".

I hardly ever have to use pesticides against insects. Once every 5 years or so and if a plant required it constantly I wouldn't grow it. (i.e., hybrid tea roses though I don't really like them, I do have the most disease resistant one of all, 'Belinda's Dream')

Final comment...the one time I had spray the bog to kill a massive colony of poison ivy, I used the special aquatic form of roundup - more expensive - that uses surfactants that do not harm amphibian life.

David, you do not need to ingest, eat, anything that has been sprayed by any glyphosate product, you simply need to inhale some or get some spray on your skin. When you spray this poison around do you wear, as recommended, safety goggles, a respirator, long sleeved shirt and long pants, and proper foot protection? I have seen "licensed" pesticide applicators spraying these products wearing flip flops, shorts, and tank tops, as well as others who seem to be not terribly mindful of the directions that came with the product they are using.

kimmq is kimmsr

Let me summarize and comment on some of the funny logic of some people here.

1. You need to drink a glass of glyphosate to get cancer. No, you don’t! There are studies on small mammals showing that a small enough amount of glyphosate is sufficient to cause cancer, not to mention its horrible toxic effects on infants and pregnant females. That’s why glyphosate is banned in Europe. The European community does not buy the Monsanto lobbying crap. Obviously, they have figured out that just as you don’t need to dive in a pool of asbestos to get cancer, so you don’t need to drink a whole bottle of glyphosate to get killed.
2. You can help farmers by using glyphosate to stop the spreading of dandelions. No, you can’t! The reason why you have dandelions is because of the poor soil resulting from years of poor farming practice of the so-called “modern farms.” The tilling of land and the use of fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides have killed most of the beneficial microorganisms in the soil and have led to serious soil erosion. Dandelions thrive on heavy clay soil that lacks organic matter due to “modern farming.” BTW, farmers have already used a horrible amount of glyphosate to pollute our underground water poisoning citizens like you and me who rely on well water to survive.
3. Dandelion is like poison ivy which should be eliminated from planet earth. No and hell no. Even elementary school kids know from their science class that every living organism has a special and irreplaceable role on our planet. That’s why we don’t wipe out all the poison ivy plants or even poisonous snakes. Not only is dandelion not poisonous, it is in fact a healthy food item. Dandelion was first brought to the New World by European immigrants more than two hundred years ago. Dandelion is a very reliable source of calcium and vitamin C. Petrochemical companies try their best to condemn an innocent and in fact beneficial plant in order to sell their poisonous products. Only ignorant and uneducated people will fall into their trap.
4. You will be condemned by all your neighbors if you don’t kill all the dandelions in your yard using herbicides. This is obviously not true. Only ignorant and uneducated people will use glyphosate on their own land. At my previous house only four out of eight households in my neighbourhood have used glyphosate. Three households with PhDs, including myself, will seriously condemn anyone who uses the poison. I certainly don’t care whether you want your lawn to look like a golf course; however, I practice natural gardening and everyone should have the same right to do so. Just don’t spread the poisonous chemical to my land!

Drug dealers (Petrochemical companies) will tell you that taking drugs (using fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides) don't kill you, but my advice to you is don’t do drugs (don’t use fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides) or you will get addicted! I use grass clipping and dandelions to grow my vegetables and to feed my chickens. If you want to dump them into your yard debris bin, I can’t help but tell you what kind of wasteful fool you are!

Well, it's good to have a mostly-reasonable discussion of the topic. It's ultimately, like the "controversy" over global warming, outside the scope of a gardening discussion forum. (better for forums on the environment, toxicology and/and agriculture, since agriculture is using several orders of magnitude more of the stuff than home gardeners)

Just a few corrections to instances of putting words into my mouth - a common tactic of those who have arguments that are weak, unsubstantiated or hysterical:
I never said I was "helping" farmers by doing anything.
I never said poison ivy or dandelion should be eliminated from the planet.
I never said dandelion wasn't a possible food item: many other weeds are. It's irrelevant to whether I want to them taking over my perennial beds.
I never said someone would be "condemned" by their neighbors for having a lawn full of dandelion seedpuffs. I questioned whether it was "civil and neighborly" to do so. (Frankly, we'd be better off with a lot of people NOT having lawns, period.) BTW, the whole reason I got on this thread was to point out glyphosate is the WRONG choice for getting dandelions out of a lawn. But noticing that would have actually required reading what I wrote instead of acting like a demagogue.

I will continue to periodically respond to scare postings with rational counterbalancing arguments. Like the link I posted above, here it is again if needed: Glyphosate – The New Bogeyman « Science-Based Medicine

Please read through the entire thread to see who I was referring to for each of my points.

For some self-proclaimed civil and neighborly person, would he/she spread potentially hazardous chemicals to pollute the underground water and kill most of the microorganisms to disrupt the soil leading to even more notorious "weeds" in the future?

If you want to be handsome, do it the nature way; don't do plastic surgery! Or you will become Michael Jackson. The only natural and sustainable way to reduce dandelions in your yard is to make your lawn naturally fertile with a lot of organic matter. Just observe any natural forest and see that there is rarely a ton of dandelions around. Only infertile land disrupted by "modern farming" using fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has a lot of dandelions in it. So be "civil and neighborly"; don't disrupt the soil/land by applying toxic chemicals to it. Also, be "civil and neighborly"; don't apply herbicides and pesticides to your lawn when your neighboring house has a pregnant woman or infants who may be poisoned by consuming the polluted underground water "spread" by you!

Since you have mentioned honey bees, there is a recent research study that is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology: "Effects of field-realistic doses of glyphosate on honeybee appetitive behaviour" by Herbert et al. pointed out that glyphosate is detrimental to the well being of honey bees! Here is the link: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/217/19/3457

BTW, do you want me to quote some of the most prestigious academic articles pointing to the potential toxic and carcinogenic effects of glyphosate and other herbicides? Please do and I will not let you down! :-)

davidrt28 (zone 7) I do, indeed, pick every blossom! I make infusions and freeze it for use in the winter. It takes a LOT of blossoms to make an infusion!
I also make a salve for my skin from the blossoms. It the BEST for dry skin!
To me, it really doesn't matter WHAT it was that made me so ill. All I know is my doctor SPECIFICALLY asked about Round Up and other, similar sprays and that once they were no longer being used my symptoms went away and have not returned.

davidrt28 (zone 7)--one last thing. I did some research and you are wrong about them being considered weeds in the Victorian era:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Taraxacum

"Dandelions haven't always been troublesome weeds. In Victorian times they were cultivated with care and eaten by the wealthy in sandwiches and salads. Even today the leaves are used as cure-alls and the flowers made into wine. There are many dandelion species including the most familiar common and red-seeded varieties."

People like David seem to think that those that have genuine concerns about the poisons that are being used with abandon are ignorant, scaremongers that spread misinformation that needs to be corrected by saner people. That others can have genuine concerns and that there is information to support that concern is not on the proponents of poisoning the planet they live on agenda.

Please, David and others of similar belief, do not refer to those concerned about the poisoning of our planet as paranoid and ignorant. You do not need to try to correct what these people believe and know.

kimmq is kimmsr

OMG, thought I'd die laughing at the person who uses vinegar in a spray bottle with skull and crossbones drawn on it and burns every puffball she/he can find, muttering as she does all that. I talk to myself as I dig up the dang roots to the thickest, unending patch of dandelions ever. We have Spring Green, one of the environment killers, spray our grass several times a season, but we're just now getting a backyard since we bought this place. Their destructive dogs nearly destroyed the house and fenced backyard. We've worked HARD to get grass to come back, and the dandelions are in the flower borders that don't get those chemicals that are destroying the environment. I just laugh when I hear crap like this --- so PC, so bleeding-heart, so tree-hugging, so irritating when these people start interfering in peoples' personal businesses, trying to make them feel like criminals. I curse as I dig out roots. Can you imagine what I'd say to someone who criticized my gardening? I don't have time or patience with condemning people. They can stay out of my yard!

Oh, and BTW, I don't always get the entire root, though I try. I KNOW I'll see that whole plant sprout again. Since vinegar and weed chemicals that hypocrites criticize (I don't believe they are perfectly innocent about using chemicals) don't kill the root, has anyone tried salt? I had the thought and wondered if anyone had tried it.

We've done a combination of burning (tiger torch with propane), digging (cursing hte clay soil the whole time), and smothering. The smothering involves laying down thick pieces of cardboard or newspaper out and wetting them then loading dirt on top. This shrinks the huge dandelions down to nothing as long as there are no cracks or light. If there's a crack, watch out, they will find it.

The only way you can successfully control dandelions is to enlist your neighbors in the process as well as whoever manages the verges of your adjacent streets. There are about 200 seeds in every single dandelion head and all they need is the slightest breeze to travel a considerable distance, then alight and begin a new plant.

ha ha ha, dandelion is a joke, try trying to get rid of monster invasions of yellow nutsedge or bindweed

Pretty amazing to me that so many people would be defending with vigor the notion that chemicals and their breakdowns in our soil, that then go into earthworms, other wildlife and our water supply, are all completely safe and worry-free, in a world with massively increasing mystery diseases and mental disorders, with residual glyphosate being found in people's urine and in their hygiene products (cottons).

Never mind the effect the product is having on our guts/microbiome, now being determined to be the seat of both our physical and mental health.

Never mind the resistance that the weeds have been long proving they're building to the chemicals (forcing stronger and stronger concoctions of glyphosate and adjuvants to control the weeds), the drift of the seeds from the evolving/resistant dandelions contaminating other lawns around them making it even more difficult for their chemical-free neighbors to deal with.

Never mind how appallingly immoral and unethical the company is that makes glyphosate, creating food plants that won't produce seeds any longer forcing foreign farmers to buy more seed from the company in order to survive.

Never mind the increasing numbers of countries year after year that are placing various bans on the chemicals, those countries that may not have the deep pocket lobbying powers that the US conveniently has.

And never mind the company having a history of creating chemicals that were perfectly "safe" for years, until proven perfectly unsafe and disabling/deadly years later.

lol...people will fight with everything they have to be able to keep doing what is comfortable for them, regardless of more than enough controversy and questions about safety, and regardless of how corrupt the company is that they get the product from. Just as long as they can do what they want, and as long as someone provides them with an argument they can use to justify something that is self-evidently imprudent if for no other bare-minimum reason than the questions and concerns it raises.

Throw away the common sense that screams "loading the environment with foreign chemicals might not be a good idea" and instead force people to "prove" that it's unsafe; even though the burden of proving it safe has never actually been met (and conveniently, it actually can't be, based on completely insufficient regulatory standards).

I live on an insane planet; probably because people are drinking and eating too much glyphosate.

You are the people who are crazy. I've used all manner of herbicides for years, I've just used them responsibly. So when you dig a shovel full of dirt anywhere in my garden, it is absolutely teaming with earthworms. There are so many frogs and toads in my bog and in my trees (yes, we have tree frogs) that all night long from March to November there is a positive cacophony of amphibian song. If you go out at night you will always find hordes of toads hunting insects. I'm absolutely sick of the childish hysteria and PC brainwashing over things like glyphosate. That herbicide was more extensively safety tested than a lot of the GRAS chemicals used to flavor and color candies, and probably quite a few pharmaceuticals that people purposely ingest. You get FAR FAR more of it in your body from eating non-organic ANYTHING than from the miniscule amount people used for their private gardens. So, please write your long passionate essay on a food forum, imploring people to support organic agriculture, if you must. I'm not a fan of Monsanto and agricultural GMO at all. Fish genes being found in corn is probably not a good thing. But generic roundup has been available for years so it's not like I'm supporting Monsanto by using it.

BTW to amend to what gardengal said above, you actually CAN control dandelions even if your idiot neighbors' yards are full of it. You just need to use another chemical - surflan. A germination inhibitor that is a synthetic version of a chemical found in rice.

For what it is worth World health now says Glyphosate is UNLIKELY to cause cancer however Sunlight, eggs, most raw organic foods, are admittedly far more toxic on the scale. Here in Ontario Canada Organic farmers are allowed use of 64 chemicals, some extremely toxic, like borax for example.

There are obvious reasons why evil Monsanto will hire people to speak for this multi-billion business.

Dandelions, being a staple food brought by European immigrants, will never kill people. It is just another nutritious food. Unnatural chemicals, no matter how safe they claim, will. Has Monsanto done any experiment using their chemicals on human subjects yet? Give me some evidence, people!

For those advocates of toxic chemicals, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, please take as much as you wish. There are better ways to keep weeds, pests, ... out of my garden. I don't need to use chemicals with unknown effects on humans. Oh, by the way, since when did WORLD HEALTH conduct experiments using human subjects? LOL.

The merger of evil Bayer and Monsanto will definitely bring more "interesting" discussion on this topic!

Old post (nov 2004) but bry, brilliant method you have of reducing seed from unwanted weeds.

dandelions are some of the earliest blooms that honey bees are able to forage on. I actually plant it. nut sedge & creeping Charlie are the weeds from hell.

To keep my sanity, I have learned to live with them, to appreciate their pretty yellow in spring and close my eyes to their seedballs by mowing. They are gone by mid-summer. I have enough stress with other garden pests that actually HARM my plants.

Try to ignore them. It's healthier for your spirit, and overall mental health.

Hoping everyone who wanted dandelions still have them, and those that do not have got rid of them. Hopefully we have all sent our fall soil tests to the lab, to optimize soil for the crop you want next year, be it lawn or garden. This goes a long way toward weed control.

baker creek heirloom seeds carries these:

http://www.rareseeds.com/search/?F_Keyword=dandelion

I have bought dandelion seeds from Baker Creek, because my ducks have gotten rid of every last one. Dandelions are their choices food so now I have to grow dandelions in my greenhouse along with lettuces and other greens for supplemental fodder for them. The Baker Creek seeds germinated fine btw and are at the 1 in. seedling size now.

Before I had ducks, I always let my dandelions and clover go as a food for the bees. I grow a very expansive garden and I never have a problem with the bees finding my plants.

The trouble with Bry's method with the lighter is it only gets the fuzz and does NOT get the seed. You need a LOT more heat than the fuzz can provide to damage the seed.

Omg some people are crazy! They're not weeds! They're flowers

They are BENEFICIAL! They actually FEED our lawns and gardens and help prevent drought. Also, many different insects need them.

Please stop OBSESSING over things to the point of needing POISON to do something. I haven't used any type of poison for years and my gardens are healthier than ever! I let the natural predators take over and I don't mind a cluttered garden with dandelions. As a matter of fact, the dandelions actually make things grow better!

People please stop trying to control everything mainly mother nature. I watched my grandfather kill himself struggling with "weeds" and trying to turn everything into straight lines. It boggles my mind how much energy and money is wasted on front lawns

"Please stop OBSESSING over things to the point of needing POISON to do something."

So if someone is dying of an infection or cancer, they should not use a potentially toxic antibiotic or definitely toxic chemotherapy medication to treat it? People should stop celebrating New Years with champagne? Ethyl alcohol is most definitely a poison - try drinking 500 ml of it undiluted and see what happens. POISON is just a scare word. Should be ban people from growing Aconitums, because they are very POISONous lol?

"It boggles my mind how much energy and money is wasted on front lawns"

Yes exactly why I agree, a lot of people probably shouldn't have them. Especially the morons who scalp their lawns 2-3 times a week, causing a lot of lawn mower emissions, and just end up with a big pile of crabgrass and Microstegium. (well it usually isn't must of a pile...more like a concrete covered in dingy green) If people in the midwest want to have a front lawn of native prairie - go for it. I guess you can call the fire department out to protect their house during the periodic once-a-decade burn down. BTW it won't have dandelions in it, because they are a Eurasian invasive. If people in the east want to have forests as a front yard (and back), go for it. Definitely better for the environment than a lawn scalped 2-3 times a week.

I've leave it as a mental exercise for people to see through your "As a matter of fact, the dandelions actually make things grow better!" I guess they can pull N P and K out of a trans-dimensional portal, too.

Actually, you don't need to use toxic antibiotics OR anything. USE THE PLANTS. Your response is a very over reaction to an attempt to explain how it worked for that person. NOTHING you posted was helpful.