08/30/2026
Is this taking over your lawn?
🌾 Got a grass growing faster than everything else in your lawn? It might be Quackgrass.
This is one of the most frustrating w**ds in Utah lawns, it looks like grass, it acts like grass, but it's NOT the grass you want. The USDA actually lists it as a restricted noxious w**d. Here's how to spot it and what to do about it 👇
What is Quackgrass?
Quackgrass (Elymus repens) is an aggressive cool-season perennial w**d that spreads primarily through underground rhizomes, thick, white root runners that can regenerate an entirely new plant from even a small fragment left in the soil. It's one of the most difficult lawn w**ds to control.
How to identify it:
🔍 It grows faster and taller than the rest of your lawn, you'll notice it sticking up above your Kentucky bluegrass just days after mowing
🫳 Clasping auricles, this is the key ID feature (see our photo!). Look for small claw-like fingers at the base of each leaf that wrap around the stem. Most lawn grasses don't have these.
🌿 Leaves are 2–12 inches long with fine hairs on the upper surface and a dull blue-green color
🌾 Seed heads are a 2–10 inch rounded spike with alternating spikelets, each stem can produce 25–40 seeds
Why it's such a problem:
It spreads aggressively by rhizomes underground, pulling it often just breaks the roots and creates MORE plants
There's no selective herbicide that kills quackgrass without also killing your lawn grass
It outcompetes your turfgrass for water, nutrients, and space
Even small rhizome fragments left in the soil will regenerate
What you can do:
✂️ Maintain a thick, healthy lawn. According to USU Extension, the best long-term approach is to suppress quackgrass by maintaining lawn vigor through proper mowing height (3+ inches), fertilization, and watering. A dense lawn is your best defense.
🧪 Spot-treat with glyphosate (non-selective herbicide). Paint or carefully spray individual clumps, but know that it WILL kill any grass it touches. You'll need to reseed treated areas. Repeated applications may be necessary.
🚫 Don't just pull it. Hand-pulling breaks the rhizomes and usually makes the problem worse. If you do pull, you need to get EVERY piece of root, which is nearly impossible.
🔄 Renovate heavily infested areas. For large patches, the most effective approach is to kill the entire area with glyphosate, wait for full die-off, then reseed or sod with quality turfgrass.
🌱 Overseed in fall. Fill in any thin or bare areas to keep quackgrass from gaining a foothold. Thick turf = fewer opportunities for w**ds.
⚠️ Don't confuse it with crabgrass! Quackgrass is a perennial (comes back every year from those rhizomes), while crabgrass is an annual that dies with the first frost. The auricles on quackgrass are the dead giveaway, crabgrass doesn't have them.
Got a mystery grass taking over your lawn? Snap a close-up of the leaf base and look for those claw-like auricles. If you see them, you've got quackgrass. 📸
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