"Hairy panic" invading Aussie homes
An Australian homeowner’s property is being overrun with a plague of exotic grass – and she has the pictures to prove it.
Leanne Gloury, of Laceby in northeast Victoria, said she is out of ideas about how to get rid of a species tumbleweed from her home.
She posted images of her house being overwhelmed by the out of control grass on social media asking for help.
The grass has even forced the closure of the town’s main road as “cars were being lost in the tumbleweed”, Wangaratta Mayor Ken Clarke told news.com.au.
The weed, otherwise known as “hairy panic”, is a constant problem for the area as the grass is so light it spreads quickly but there’s “nothing you can do” once it starts moving, said Ms Gloury.
“Maybe I’m missing something, maybe there’s a way you can get rid of this, maybe I’m attacking it the wrong way? Maybe someone has come across this before and knows a way.
“I could have cried in the beginning,” she said. “I didn’t want to deal with it. I’m not beating it at all”
The outbreak has lasted since January and Laceby residents are at their wits end.
“It just blows and it grows. It piles on top of each other,” Ms Gloury told news.com.au.
“As it gets heavier, the tumbleweed must intertwine with each other. My daughter and I literally had to push through the tumbleweed to find our rubbish bin. We had a wheelie bin under there somewhere. You couldn’t just walk through it and it moved away, you had to push through it.”
Ms Gloury said the weeds hit its peak “a week-and-a-half ago”.
As it is dry season, the grass breaks off and blows away leaving little seeds everywhere.
“It moves, when the wind or breeze comes it moves. It kept relocating itself, but now it is increasing,” she said.
“That’s when it had completely taken over. I couldn’t use the front door — I had to use a remote controlled garage door to get inside.”
Ms Gloury said after trying numerous ways to get rid of the grass, she’s at a complete loss as to what to do.
“I tried raking it, sweeping it, but with a bit of wind, off it would go again.
“I tried mowing it, I got my ride-on and I went up the driveway but it blocked up the blades.
“Of course what happened was the mower just stopped, it was near on impossible to pull the grass out of the blades. I thought it was a waste of time.
“All it did was put a dint in the tumbleweed and condense it down to become quite thick.
“I bought a blower from Bunnings because I thought I could blow it off the veranda.
“It worked the first night, I could move on the veranda, but over the next day or two the blower was no longer sufficient. I came home one night and the tumbleweed just wasn’t blowing or moving.”