What prickly weed is this?

denisekitcher, Jan 31, 5:03pm
Have recently moved into a rental property but found the lawn outside to be littered with many prickly weeds like this

trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserve-
r/full/361100154.jpg

What's the best way of eliminating this? These weeds are prickly and even with 2 gloves I could still feel the sting when trying to take it out.

Thanks for any feedback.

denisekitcher, Jan 31, 5:04pm
Http://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/pho-
toserver/full/361100154.jpg

oh_hunnihunni, Jan 31, 5:11pm
Can't see your pic (you need to copy the url and paste it as a link) but I suspect it may be Onehunga weed. Autumn spray, and then again in spring - meantime wear shoes on the lawn, it's a nasty little beast.

denisekitcher, Jan 31, 5:18pm
Oops sorry about that - here you go http://goo.gl/6lFVM1

oh_hunnihunni, Jan 31, 5:37pm
Nope that's a good old scotch thistle. You can spray them, or drop a little heap of urea onto their heart, or haul them out with a long bladed knife. Or leave them and harvest the pretty flowers - they'll keep dogs off the grass!

oh_hunnihunni, Jan 31, 5:38pm
Or pour boiling water on them That might be easiest of all.

thistle4, Jan 31, 6:38pm
This Scotch Thistle doesn't like boiling water poured on her. lol

oh_hunnihunni, Aug 8, 2:42am
Well no, most of them don't. They prefer their hot water with lots of tea leaves!