I’m aware of four ways that people use to remove Bermuda grass. As far as my experience goes, only two are highly effective though. I’ll share my experiences, moving from the most effective methods to the least.
Glyphosate
Poisoning Bermuda grass with an herbicide that contains glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in the product called Roundup, is extremely effective. This is far and away the most common method of killing Bermuda grass. It’s used by home gardeners, professional landscapers, as well as farmers.
Some years back, I once used glyphosate to kill Bermuda grass that was growing in a crack in my driveway because I couldn’t figure out another way to get rid of it. The spray worked. But because I’m not convinced that glyphosate is harmless, I’ve not used it again.
Fork-and-pull method
My standard method for removing Bermuda is to dig it up. I call it the fork-and-pull method because I find the best Bermuda-digging tool is a garden fork rather than a shovel. Using a fork prevents chopping up the Bermuda grass, which inevitably happens when using a shovel. The problem with chopping up the Bermuda is that the chopped bits will grow into new plants if left in the dirt.
So here’s my general approach when removing Bermuda grass from an area: I work from one side of the area to the other incrementally. I sink the fork in, lean it back and shake it to expose the Bermuda grass with loosened soil around its roots, and then I gently tug on the grass until I can pull it out of the ground without breaking any stems. Sometimes this requires reinserting the fork deeper a few times. Whatever you do, do not yank the grass out such that it breaks.
Here is a young Sharwil avocado tree that had Bermuda growing around it, which I removed a few weeks ago.
It is slow, systematic work, but if you are hasty or sloppy you will snap the Bermuda stems, leaving some in the dirt. Those stems will grow into new plants and you’ve just wasted all of your time and backache. Do it right or don’t do it at all.
To make this clearer, see this photo of a full piece of Bermuda grass pulled up without breaking any parts:
And here is a diagram:
All stems of Bermuda grass are capable of growing and becoming separate, new plants. The stems that are located above ground are usually a very light green color and they are called stolons. The stolons can send roots into the dirt so if they’re separated from the main plant they just become independent plants.
The stems located below ground are white and they are called rhizomes. They can also send out roots, as well as shoot back up to the surface and start growing leaves. Just like the stolons, the rhizomes can be cut off from the main plant and become independent plants. Cutting them off does not kill them.
The digging should be done when the soil is just moist. If it’s wet, it’s too heavy and sticky. If it’s dry, it’s too hard, clumpy and dusty. I like to do Bermuda removal in the late fall through winter, a few days to a few weeks after a rain.
Even being slow and careful, you always miss a few pieces so you must return to the area to check for new sprouts, which are easily removed since the dirt remains fluffy from your forking.
This method is my standard because after using it many times over many years I’ve seen that it thoroughly eliminates Bermuda grass from the area. The only downside is that it requires elbow grease. There’s no free lunch.
Now onward to two methods that I have not seen work as well.
Cover, bury, smother
You can attempt to bury the Bermuda with a combination of cardboard, old carpets, landscape fabric, wood chips, compost, and who knows what else. This can kill the Bermuda that is directly under a thick enough cover. However, any Bermuda near the edges persists and rapidly reinhabits the entire area, even on top of the cover. I’ve seen this happen over and over again.
Also, you cannot plant for a long time, about a year, in an area where you’re trying to bury Bermuda. I’ve seen people be impatient and try to make small planting holes in their cover, and the Bermuda easily finds the holes.
So I think of the cover/bury/smother method as inferior compared to poisoning or digging, but there might be specific situations in which it is still the best approach, for example if you’re trying to kill Bermuda in an entire yard at once and you can cover the whole place and leave it undisturbed for a year.
Heat to death
A final way to get rid of Bermuda is to cover it with clear plastic such that the grass is heated to death. This needs to be done in the summer and in an inland location that gets plenty of sunshine. This is a method I’ve heard of but never seen done. I suspect it sounds more effective than it is in practice since “solarizing” the soil to kill soil-borne pathogens is known to be very difficult to accomplish.
But again, maybe in a place with all of the right conditions it can be an effective approach. I’m still waiting to see the evidence of that.
Bermuda grass is a plant that I respect for its tenacity and its low water needs. I allow it to grow in some parts of my yard because it makes a free groundcover, and my chickens like to eat it. But it’s too competitive for vegetables and young fruit trees. And you can’t turn your back on Bermuda for a single summer or else it expands its territory tenfold!
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Bain of our existence not to mention the other 10 kinds of weeds on our property! We tried copious amounts of the vinegar, Dawn, water and while it *sort of* seemed to have an effect it was a pain to compose and distribute over large weed areas.
Best article on Bermuda grass that I’ve seen! That stuff is the devil’s weed! I totally agree with you — I’ve tried all the approaches you listed and I also think that the fork-and-pull method is the most effective. Smothering was only effective if I used about 2 ft of mulch, which is not feasible for most situations. I found that using glyphosate required repeated applications, and I definitely do not feel good about that. I had pretty decent success with solarization out here in a part of the Inland Empire where it’s at least 100 degrees for several months every summer, but it was a lot of work to set up and a large part of my yard wasn’t usable for 2 months. I just get a better return for my effort with fork-and-pull. You’re so right, though — there’s no free lunch. I find that it’s better to put in the effort to do things correctly from the get-go, and then reap the rewards of your labor in the long-term.
I agree! Best Article. I have been trying to get rid of mine with digging and mulch. It’s not working, but I’ll keep trying!
I have successfully removed 100% of the bermuda grass from my property by soaking the ground and carefully digging up all of the roots. I did use a shovel, and I dug deeply. But, I was very methodical about digging one row and then working from there to minimize cutting of grass roots with the shovel. I would suggest doing a second pass to find any missing bits that will sprout if left in place. I would never apply glyphosate anywhere near our property, and especially in soil (or areas that could potentially runoff into soil) where edible plants and fruiting trees grow.
Twenty years ago our home was surrounded with a Bermuda lawn and tried all of the above. My experience with glyphosate is weeds alway come back uglier and more aggressive than before the application. My soil is loaded with all kinds of junk along with the Burmuda so now I dig a shovel full of clod and sift through hardware cloth installed into a wooden frame over a wheel barrel. Slow and tedious but this gives me an opportunity to remove all the other junk in my soil including the Bermuda.
It was always a problem in the orange groves. My Dad always called it devils weed. We smothered it with old sacks and sprayed it with smudge oil. That kept it in check but it was always there.
Reminds me of an orange grove I visited a few months ago. They are certified organic so have limited options for dealing with their Bermuda. It looked like they no longer pretended to try to reduce or eliminate it. They just mowed it and allowed it to create a vast carpet between the trees. This was in San Diego’s San Pasqual Valley.
Another plant almost impossible to eradicate is Japanese honeysuckle. Deep roots that go down 8 to 12 inches or deeper. After years of pulling the upper plants, I used a hose nozzle set on blast to get to the deep roots. I guess it’s good for retaining soil on a slope but a spreading menace in a yard.
I used this stuff, sethoxydim. It killed the grass in short order, but it also took down a small, struggling plumeria. It did not seem to harm my mango tree. https://www.domyown.com/hiyield-grass-killer-postemergent-herbicide-p-2516.html
Great topic, thanks for your insight. It comes up between our pavers where I can’t fork and pull. My current method is to pour boiling water over the pavers. Works okay for a year or so, but the grass inevitably comes back.
Hi Patricia,
That is similar to my experience with Bermuda growing in a crack in my driveway. It seems that only the top is killed but the roots are not, and the plant eventually rebounds. I’ve heard that if you consistently remove the regrowth (or kill it with boiling water) that you’ll eventually starve the root system and kill the plant entirely, but I’ve never been able to achieve that.
We have been generally happy with the three areas (total about 400 square feet) we have solarized to clear Bermuda grass lawn for garden expansions. We put down plastic May-October two years in a row to get a decent kill in the San Gabriel Valley. The second year we did allow winter squash vines to grow over some of the plastic. Now, after 2 years of garden production, we have the occasional stray bit to fork out, but nothing unmanageable.
I have the Bermuda grass growing in abundance under and around my low spreading evergreen. So using a chemical or boiling water most likely will kill my evergreen. Over the years I have been pulling it out. I’m beyond frustrated. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thinking I’m stuck and will have to continue to pull it out.
I have been fighting Bermuda grass for years in my gardens. I can’t spray chemicals it will kill my bushes. Most invasive weed ever. Only method that works is to dig and pull. Then weeks later check for new growth and pull that. Crazy amount of work.
I agree, Kenny. Crazy amount of work. I’ve been working on some Bermuda in the last few days.
A couple things I’ve noticed to help with the work’s efficiency and effectiveness related to the seasons: Since Bermuda grows only when it’s warm, it is hard to kill at this time because it’s growing so fast. I aim only to keep it from taking plants over in the summer. But then it’s in the winter when I try to dig and pull and actually kill it off in a particular area. It’s important to do this only in winter also because you inevitably disturb the roots of your desired plants during the digging and pulling, but they can handle that better in winter (when it’s rainy and the temperature is mild in Southern California).
Last week, I thought I could get away with digging and pulling Bermuda around a young avocado tree but ended up killing the tree in the process.
Great blog post! I have been in the process of removing my Bermuda grass here in AZ, a 30’x40′ area. I have dug as deeply as possible – peeling it out and sifting like you. I have also used a black tarp/waterproof fabric once each section is complete but also used that to put dirt onto and then dry up/break up the roots and sift. So far, after 4 months, there is not any additional growth I am seeing once I lift the tarp/fabric; I am hoping this process works so I can claim it for fruit trees and garden!
I have been using your method utilizing a pitch fork, but I am concerned that I may be going to deep. Once I get it out I shake off as much soil and worms as I possibly can and flip it upside down elsewhere to dry and kill the roots. Then I dispose of it. It seems though that there are still some roots left even though I am concerned about going too deep. When I take the soil back into place there are what look like tiny roots running all through it. Do I need to get those out also? Are they s part of the Bermuda grass? If so, they go awful deep.
Hi Denise,
You don’t need to remove or even dry out the actual roots of the Bermuda grass, but it takes some time to be able to distinguish roots from rhizome. The plainest distinguishing characteristic is that the roots are much smaller in diameter compared to the rhizomes. You can leave any roots because they can’t grow on their own; only the other parts of the plant can.