If it's in gravel, I've raked it up with a fan rake. It doesn't get all of it, and I don't know how that would work if its in dirt .I try to give it a squirt of roundup while its still small, so I don't have to spray too much of it.

Roundup is helping to cause bee colony collapse and will hurt your other plants.

Just pull it up. It's easy.

Yeah, one of the problems I had with pulling it up was the ants. For some reason under each group of plants was a huge pile of ants. The moment I'd pull it up, they'd start going crazy and next thing I know I'm jumping around swiping ants off me.

I started just pulling them up, then throwing the plant so I'd keep the majority of the ants off me, but there's just so many plants. I think I'll admit defeat this year and will be more proactive about them next year.

Roundup is one of the major reasons for bee colony collapse.

To The One Who SHOUTS:

Perhaps a more problematic cause of CCD (colony collapse disorder) has been over looked even though it is the most indiscriminately and extensively used chemical in agriculture and the environment. This organic phosphonate chemical that has been overlooked is the estimated 880 million pounds of the popular, broad-spectrum, systemic herbicide glyphosate (also marketed as Roundup®) used for broadcast weed control in general right-of-ways, home gardens, crop production, fallow fields, understory weed control in groves, vineyards, orchards, and parks; and for aquatic weed control in ponds and lakes. It is almost universally used on millions of acres of Roundup Ready® alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugar beets. An additional, more recent use has been as a crop desiccant prior to harvest for barley, beans, peas, peanuts, sugar cane, wheat, and for late season weed control in other crops.

These uses have created an extensive exposure level throughout the year with especially high concentrations in plants, air, water and soil during primary bee foraging periods. The exposure, physiological damage, and biological impact of glyphosate are consistent with all of the known conditions related to CCD as shown in Table 1 (see in full paper). Of all of the potential individual factors implicated in CCD, glyphosate is the only compound extensively used world-wide where CCD occurs that impacts all of them. That compound, again, is the patented mineral chelator (USPTO, 1964), herbicide, and antibiotic (USPTO, 2000), glyphosate. New studies refer to this compound as the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment (Samsel and Seneff, 2013). (E. Note: Samsel and Seneff is worth reading the abstract on the link. You can download the entire PDF, which goes into the modern diseases glyphosate is creating.)

From here: Glyphosate and bee colony collapse

Don't be lazy, just Google the phrase "glyphosate is one of the major reasons for bee colony collapse", there is plenty of research results on this subject.

The claim that glyphosate is destroying fertility in soils and
animals is actually claiming farmers are stupid. Too stupid to track
production, too stupid to track costs, too stupid to realize something
is wrong.

Seneff? The woman whose "research" consists of analysing text looking for correlations, but then does not test whether the correlation is causal or just a coincidence? She investigates word frequency patterns in databases and has NO LAB.

http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/05/06/navigating-the-agricultural-biotech-minefield-when-an-mit-study-is-not-an-mit-study/

Note the lack of continued "collapse" over time.

Thanks newtoucan for totally degrading any answer to the OP with an IDIOTIC unsupported statement. Roundup won't work for the OP because it kills everything plantwise and a lot aquatic wise too. The OP wants something that doesn't kill everything around it. You could have simply said that.

I cannot promise the OP such a chemical solution but this is close:
http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-LG-5600-Spurge-Herbicide/dp/B000FBKUHC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435416498&sr=8-1&keywords=spurge+power+weed+killer

http://216.119.118.152/documents/public/products/SpurgePower-2Column-(06)-Bilingual-051011.pdf

Unfortunately it is too hot to apply it now. (<85F) It also may harm some plants you desire around it.

I am surprised you simply cannot gather the mat and pull it up. The spurge around here just peels up and I drop it back to the ground upside down to decomp. But there are several species. edit: I too have noticed a correlation between spurge and those tiny black ants. Interesting. I just work fast and have gloves.

A request: To Mary who insists on calling THIS shouting EVERY opportunity she gets, please get with the meaning of SHOUTING rather than prolonging and adding to the agony of another off topic thread. The above is emphasizing, not shouting, ESPECIALLY ON BOARDS WHERE UNDERLINING, OR BOLDING OR ITALICIZING IS NOT AVAILABLE. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF SHOUTING AND IT IRRITATES BOTH MODERATORS AND READERS ALIKE AND GETS PEOPLE BANNED FROM FORUMS. See the difference?

Si, I get it. But isn't Bold and Italic available here? She offended me on a prior thread. But you are right, I should have left it there. Carry on.

"I am surprised you simply cannot gather the mat and pull it up. The
spurge around here just peels up and I drop it back to the ground upside
down to decomp."

You can easily slice through the stem and kill a square foot of spurge at a time ... but it has already set seed for next year, and it is usually harboring large colonies of biting ants that protect their home and food supply and shade canopy by mass assaults on the gardener.

Removing it early and often (by whatever works for you) is the best control method.

I was thinking if the mat is really bad you could use a scuffle hoe (there's a brand I use called a Hula Ho, hah) that "shaves" plants off at the base, then use gloves/hands/tools to gather it ASAP and put in a receptacle to discard it. Like the others said it will have set seed already but you'll be starting to win the war, hah. It will take time and persistence of course. Let us know what you decide to do and how it works out. Good luck!

Yeah, I love those hula hoes. After I started using weed fabric, I forgot I had one for a while. Thanks for the advice all, I did manage to get rid of most of it with a hoe. I have to keep checking back every day because it grows so fast!