If you are talking about Prickly Pear cactus (the ones with large pads), you can simply move them to a safe place or give them away. Offer them on the plant exchange...people will take them...they have beautiful flowers each spring. Each pad creates a new plant.

It could also be Opuntia fragilis....which is a small jointed opuntia which, as the name implies, breaks apart very easily. This I also have trouble controlling. Even though I keep them in pots, they are carried everywhere by squirrels or chipmunks.

Dave
Milwaukee

I would be happy to take some of them off your hands if you want to get rid of them.LMK
maybe we can trade or I can pay postage

kari_gardener,
They grow wild here in Georgia. Alot of people have problems with them spreading by either knocking parts of the cacti off onto the soil (they sprout roots and grow from those pads) or by attempting to mow them down... I think you have to burn them down to the grown to kill them? I think once you get it down to the ground, you will have to try getting all the roots from underneath the soil. This would be a last resort, but coming from a place where these things can become weeds in seconds, I would try giving some away if you find anyone that wants some and then if you don't want them, kill them... sounds mean, but hey, they sting and they spread like wildfire here.

Elizabeth

round up won't kill them?

I'm with the opinion to give them away.

Rent a steam jet machine, it should be effective on plants like this. The steam simply kills the tissues with heat.

There appear to be only two Opuntia species native to Michigan. See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Michigan Opuntia

Some local cultures here in south florida despine 'em, peel, 'em , and fry them up as a veggie. The call 'em nopales. They also make a decent jelly, but when strawberries are around the corner, I don't think you'll have folks beating down your door to make preserves....lol

WOWZER...people want to pay for prickly pear??? Where do I sign up, LOL! I want to know if anyone knows how to keep them from coming back after being pulled by the roots out of the ground, twice burned on the burn pile and now thinking how much more will it take? I read somewhere a 18" trench covered in dirt would do the trick. Better yet I can probably burry it in ash from that same ash pile in use for 34 years. That's my question if anyone still on this!