• Home
• About Us
  • Who is BMRG
  • BMRG Board
  • BMRG Staff
  • BMRG Membership
  • Logos
• News & Events
  • The Burnett Mary NRM Awards (2009)
  • The Burnett Mary NRM Awards (2008)
  • News & Natural Matters
  • Events Calendar
• Programs, Plans & Resources
  • Coastal Birds - Great Sandy Biosphere
  • Better Catchments
  • Healthy Habitats
  • Reef Rescue
  • Coastal Water Quality Alliance
  • Education Resources
  • Regional Biopassage Strategy
  • Shorebirds of the Burnett Mary
  • State of the Estuarine Environment
  • Water Quality Improvement Plans
  • Weeds and Pests
  • Wide Bay Burnett NRM Plan
• Funding Opportunities
• Mapping & Geographic Information
  • Country to Coast
  • WILD WATCH!!
  • Maps
• Employment & Tender Opportunities
• Annual Reports
• Contact Us
  • Contact Details
  • Contact Form
• Remote Login

Splatter gun helps to battle lantana

A gas-powered splatter gun is being used in the Mary catchment in the ongoing battle to control lantana.

Funded by the BMRG’s Better Catchments Program, the gun was purchased by the Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee after encouragement from local landholders, Landcare groups and the National Lantana Working Group.

Lantana is a Class 3 declared plant under the Land Protection Act 2002, and often viewed as one of Australia’s worst weeds.  It can be harmful to productive land and to the environment.

The splatter gun technique uses a low volume, large droplet and high concentration application of herbicide to lantana foliage.  It is easily portable and useful in areas that are difficult to access.  It limits accidental damage to pastures and native plants as it is very accurate, with minimal spray drift.

Results from the splatter gun were inspected at field day held recently on a Walli Creek Road property.  Landholders have been very pleased as it easily controlled large, inaccessible lantana bushes in pasture land.  The method is best suited to thick clumped lantana of at least 30cm high or to scattered lantana regrowth with compact growth form. It does not work well on spindly canes as it is difficult to apply the required volume of herbicide.

The herbicide mixture for the splatter gun is a high concentration.  For glyphosate 360g/L it is 1:9 (500mL glyphosate to 4500mL water).  However the amount of herbicide applied is very low, for example a 2m by 3m wide lantana bush that is 2m high requires only 96ml of the 1:9 herbicide mixture.  It is very important not to apply more than this registered rate of herbicide and not to spray to point of runoff, as this can put the plant into shock and inhibit the herbicide uptake by the plant.

Unfortunately the splatter gun method is not the final solution for lantana, and follow-up control is essential.  Control options include fire (depending on fuel load), spot spraying of regrowth, further splatter gun herbicide application (if re -growth is compact and has reached 30cm) or revegetation or encouragement of natural regeneration.

To use the splatter gun, please contact Dale Watson on 07 5482 4766.

Better Catchments is an initiative of the Burnett Mary Regional Group funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments through Caring for our Country.