Effing Goat heads

Hate hate hate bullstickers. I've completely eradicated them from my 2 acres. Also, cholla (choy-ya) cactus sucks.

 

Stepping on Mesquite can be fun too.

 

Ooh yeah! While we're at it, might as well throw in some reverse barbed Cat-Claw Acacia. Destroyer of hiking clothing and general flesh ripper.

 

Damn, those look nice.

 

This is a SEM image of the cholla cactus spine. Those barbs are facing the OPPOSITE direction from the puncture direction. When you pull them out, they splay out, almost like a reverse hollow point bullet, and take chunks of skin out.

 

Pic is neat, and explains a lot.





Never gonna get them out. lol

 

Cholla is the worst

 

I had an old 29er tube that had 9 punctures in it from goatheads, i ended up throwing it in a closet and one day for shtz and giggles I slimed it. Never leaked since. Its good stuff.

 

Report: I made it 400 miles without any issue other than a mild sunburn and hangover. Many of the thorns are still in the tires, but aren't posing any threat. Thanks for participating in my thread! LOL

 

Glad to hear it! lol

 

I just swapped flatless tires onto my trailer dolly after running over a bumper crop in the alley behind my garage. I don't remember it being there last year. Same thing, into my shoes. All over the truck tires (just when I was getting ready to work around them), into the house. I weeded out as many as I could, and after it rains and they sprout again, I'm going back there with a 5 gallon bucket of roundup and nuking the alley

 

Yep those there are permanent passengers. We used to get those fuckers in our legs right above our riding boots while dirt biking in the Mojave. Bastards hurt like hell and do more damage coming out than they do going in.

 

This guy had a bad day:
http://youtu.be/4ajBNvtZ_vE
http://youtu.be/_zH5HI3OdM8

 

Cholla accidents suck. I once saw the remains of a small mammal that perished because it got cholla stuck to it's face and could not feed itself. Died of starvation.

Cholla has at least one weakness that I've been able to find. Granted it only works if you're not impaled, or not in your property. And it is fire. It burns really well! Even if is green, the spines just go up like a tinder box!

We need some agave in here.

Agave tips have a spine that will f*** you up if you run into them. I once witnessed a careless hiker take a square hit to the quadriceps. Stopped him dead in his tracks like he hit a wall. Blades are pretty stiff!

 

They'll also fuck you up if you drink them.

 

This is why I don't golf.

 

Fuckin Goatheads! I swear they have some natural irritant too, the punctures always fester and burn like a mo fo. The bane of bike tires, dog feet, and uncovered human feet! I need that merit badge. Goatheads aren't gonna do anything to a truck/car tire though. I ran over a big patch in Utah recently, my tire was covered, but no ill effects.