"stick Tights"

[+TresOkies]

My wife wonders if anyone has a good way to get rid of stick tights on a pair of socks, short of throwing the socks away. We got into a mess of them this past weekend.

 

From Encylopedia.com

Stick tights: name sometimes used for species of beggarweed and of bur marigold of the order Rosales, family Leguminosae, and the order Asterales, family Asteraceae, respectively.

 

Thanks

[+dkwolf]

A surveyor I worked with had a pretty good method for getting rid of them--go home, take off socks, hand socks to young daughters. Hour or so later, socks clean(ish). Seemed to work for him.

[+BlueDeuce]

Ultimate and Painful Hitchhikers

 

WAYNE'S WORD Top 17 Hitchhiking Plants

 

[based On The Difficulty In Removing Them From Your Socks]

 

 

 

Eleven Hitchhiking Plants.

 

A. Burdock (Arctium lappa, Asteraceae); B. Grappling-hook (Harpagonella palmeri, Boraginaceae); C. Horehound (Marrubium vulgare, Lamiaceae); D. Bur-grass (Cenchrus echinatus, Poaceae); E. Bur-clover (Medicago polymorpha syn. M. hispida, Fabaceae); F. Beggar-ticks (Bidens pilosa, Asteraceae); G. Sand-bur (Ambrosia acanthicarpa, Asteraceae); H. Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium, Asteraceae); I. Krameria (Krameria grayi, Krameriaceae); J. Stick-tight (Desmodium cuspidatum, Fabaceae); K. Devil's-claw (Martynia annua, Martyniaceae).

[+Isonzo Karst]

Get yourself a Schipperke or better yet meet a near neighbor with one. My neighbor's will meticulously remove every stick tight from pants, socks and shoelaces (she eats them).

[+Stunod]

Last weekend I just threw out my socks because they were so covered

[+MountainMudbug]

Pull them lil boogers off with a pair of pliers

[+BlueDeuce]

G. Sand-bur (Ambrosia acanthicarpa, Asteraceae);

 

I wonder if that's where Ambrosia got her name.

[+Prime Suspect]

I wear long pants and hiking boots, so they never come in contact with my socks. However, my shoelaces are another matter. If you don't mind looking a little goofy, put painter's tape (the blue stuff) on your boots, covering the laces.

Edited September 8, 2005 by Prime Suspect

[+dyankee1995]

You think taking them out of socks is bad. Try taking every stinking one of them out or your dog!!!!

[+EScout]

Prevention:

Wear desert/trail gaitors. Tight nylon weave keeps things from sticking. Put tape over the lower laces that show under the gaitors.

 

Some of those burrs look like the ones that give your bike a flat tire. The spine breaks off, puctures tube and then stays in tire to puncture tube again.....

[+Miragee]

I bought some of these at REI last spring when the foxtails were especially bad here.

 

 

They work really well.

[+Indotguy]

Sometimes you can use a dull knife blade to scrape them off. It works great for bluejeans.

[+KoosKoos]

You think taking them out of socks is bad. Try taking every stinking one of them out or your dog!!!!

Socks aren't nearly as bad as taking them out of my leg hair!!! Ahh, the joys of caching in shorts!

[+srt4guy]

You think taking them out of socks is bad. Try taking every stinking one of them out or your dog!!!!

shave the dog!

[+tands]

Here's how you remove all sorts of evil prickly buggers. We learned this while going after the Atalaya Cache near Myrtle Beach. When we got back to the car, we were covered with wickedly sharp sand spurs - see G in picture above. These barbed nasties break off in your fingers when you try to remove them. First I found a pair of pliers, but it was sloooow going. So I looked in the car and found the greatest gift we have received from the Roswell UFO crash. I found the loop pad from a surfboard leash's velcro foot strap. The Velcro loops magically de-activated the sand spurs, which fell harmlessly to the ground. (except the one that doinked into the car floorboard, found that one the next day!)

 

- T of TandS

Edited September 9, 2005 by tands