How to Kill Weeds Using Boiling Water

You don’t have to buy expensive herbicides to kill weeds in the cracks of a driveway or sidewalk. Simply pouring boiling water on them will do the trick without toxic side effects.

Danny: Now it’s amazing to me that vegetation in different little plants can find their way up through cracks on a sidewalk like this. Female: I’ve even seen them growing in the freeway. Danny: Is that right? And you really think that just pouring boiling hot water on the plants will kill them? Female: It does. I’ve done it. Watch. Just be real careful, you know, keep the little children away. But if we pour it all the way here, you’ll see the steam coming up, oh! A little sauna. Danny: Now, what’s so bad about the total vegetation killers? I mean, they are a lot safer now than they were years and years ago, what would be a problem in using that in a situation like this. Female: Well, just as it’s a little windy today, some of that wind could blow, some would miss over and kill or at least singe these pansies here. And then also, just as we see the runoff from the water here, if there were some killer—you know, complete kill out, it could kill this whole edge here. Now you know, we’ve done this. But if these are really persistent weeds, we might need to do it again. So we might need to check it in a couple of days. Danny: Now, speaking of persistent weeds, what about some of the broad-leafed weeds like that? Will the boiling water take care of that? Female: Well, it would probably take care of it, but it also might take care about a plate size around it. You know, it’s very hard to gage how much is going to go on. Danny: I see. Female: Well, Danny, another really important thing about this water, to kill the weeds this way is it really not going to harm tile, wood, concrete or a lot of other surfaces that some of the others might.