Removing This Weed From Your Yard May Be The Key To Keeping Wasps Away

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Some see it as a pretty flowering perennial or herb with medicinal value. Others see it as a nuisance weed. Regardless of how you view figwort (Scrophularia nodosa), allowing it to grow may be a mistake that's attracting wasps to your yard. That is because figwort serves as an attractant for several dangerous wasps, including yellowjackets. If you are hoping to avoid these stinging creatures, removing this weed from your yard may be the key to keeping wasps away.

Before completely eradicating figwort from your lawn and garden, you may want to consider the benefits it provides as well. Figwort is a great way to add the ecological diversity in your backyard. In addition to wasps, figwort attracts a number of beneficial insects and pollinators such as hummingbirds and butterflies. In fact, even some of the wasps which are attracted to it have some benefits for your garden, as they prey on other insects which can damage your plants.

With that in mind, rather than remove every single figwort plant, you may choose to have a limited number of figworts growing in an area away from your primary outdoor living space so that wasps attracted to the plant won't be problematic. However, whether you are wiping your yard clean from figwort or just pushing it back into an isolated area of your yard, doing so will take a little bit of work.

Once established in an area, figwort can stubbornly refuse to leave. As a result, it is important to remove all portions of the plant, avoid shaking off seeds, and properly dispose of plants once they're removed. The absolute best way to take out figwort is digging them up individually with a tool such as a Fiskars garden spade. It is critical to remove all of the root structure to prevent the plant from regenerating.

Digging out plants is best done in winter or early spring, before the plant blooms. While it is possible to dig them out at other times of year, if the plants have blooms or seeds, you must be extra careful not to let these drop to the ground while removing the offending plant. One way to ensure the plants don't drop propagating seeds during the removal process is to apply herbicide to them a few days before digging them out. This isn't necessary if they are removed before they seed out, but is good insurance to prevent spreading seeds once they've formed. Once the plants are removed, they should be sealed in a plastic bag and disposed of. Putting them in your compost assures an outbreak at a later date.

Another method that can be used to control figwort in your garden and beds is to place a layer of mulch before the plants emerge in the spring. While weed prevention is one of the main reasons to mulch a garden, in order to be effective against figwort, the mulch layer must be very deep — a half foot is recommended. Additionally, this mulch must be applied early and refreshed often to continue defending against a recurrence of figwort, as the seeds can remain in the ground for several years waiting to germinate.