:eek:

JFC that looks like a medieval torture device.

Yikes!

Yeah, the spikey balls on those gumball or sweet gum (whatever you call them) trees look bad but the spikes are actually kind of soft. The hazard is just that there are so many of them and you can roll your ankle.

That's not far off. If you ever step on one, or even have one poke your leg through a sock, you won't forget. It's pretty much the weed from hell. I used to get nailed when I was out bird hunting once in a while, as did my dogs. I don't know how many times I would have one of my dogs come running up on 3 legs, with a foot lifted and I would have to pull one out.

We have something similar here in the Ozarks. Not sure how far spread these things are but the Honey Locust tree will ruin your day if you bury one in your foot, dogs foot, or anywhere else. They're not poisonous but they take a long time to heal and hurt like hell for awhile. Buried one about 4 inches deep in my calf just beside my shin bone once. Took well over a month to heal.
The damn things stay sharp for a long time after they come off the tree.

:eek: Wow, that's a nasty looking chunk of wood. It says the wood is great for burning. With that said, one would have to get the thing cut up into manageable chunks, without getting skewered and bleeding out.

Wow, that is some nasty looking stuff! Better have your chaps on riding through that stuff!:eek:

Man, those things are wicked. I'll occasionally have one imbed itself in the sole of a shoe, and then it conveniently comes off on the carpet when I get home, where I find it later barefoot.

I remember staying in a hotel in Santa Fe once where a previous guest had dragged a bunch of them in. I had to keep my shoes on the whole time I was staying there, because they were imbedded in the carpet enough that a vacuum request didn't get them.

Goatheads are the devilweed. Puncturevine is the weed guide term. They're mother****ers. Second only to grassy sandbur, because at least a light rate of 2-4D will kill them so you can keep them out of grass, but not ****ing grassy sandbur.

You can dig those assholes up and they'll support this giant ass vine off almost no root. It defies physics, botany, and science at large.

When I was a kid, dad took part of a field out of production to expand the farmstead and planted grass in it. Naturally he did this in a drought and got a shit stand of grass, but there was enough there to save, so basically he had 15 acres of puncturevine and grassy sandbur, and it was my job to hoe them out (herbicide would have killed the seedling grass). I bet I hoed and hauled out 50 cubic yards of those ****s. Took me most of a month. They were so engrained in my brain, that when I'd shut my eyes I'd see them, like when you look at a light and shut your eyes, yeah. And I'd dream about them too.

Mother**** both goatheads and grassy sandburs with all the hate and fury that the planet can muster.

Yeah, those damn things ARE a medieval torture device. Grandpa planted a shitload of them. They are tough sons of bitches, but ****.

Fortunately modern versions come without the spikes, and the ****ing seed pods, but mainly the spikes.

When I bought this property, one of the first things I did was cut down every sweet gum.