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Using Bleach as a Weed Killer?

May 6, 2010

Gloved hand using a spray bottle to spray a week growing in a driveway crackIt is expensive to kill weeds by using weed killer. You can use household bleach which works better.

Source: from a friend

By Stellalpe from New York, NY

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Answers


Silver Feedback Medal for All Time! 399 Feedbacks
May 6, 20102 found this helpful

Bleach is not good for the environment & will get into the groundwater when you use it to kill weeds. You might try vinegar.

 

Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 231 Feedbacks
May 6, 20102 found this helpful

Agree with the vinegar route. We might try it this year, as our dandelions are already out of control.

 
May 6, 20101 found this helpful

You have to be careful with bleach because it will melt some plastic containers. For instance, if you are using a weed killer sprayer traditionally used for chemicals like Round Up or such.

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Bleach may destroy the plastic rendering the receptacle useless.

 
April 8, 20121 found this helpful

Bleach - not so much! Vinegar will work but it is not selective. Anything you put it on, it will kill. Boiling water or steam will work as well, but be careful you don't get burned yourself!

 
April 5, 201322 found this helpful

Sorry, but the bleach weed killer 50/50 water/bleach and 1/4 cup of dawn liquid soap is really the best, while bleach is toxic, it is less than the toxicity of regular weed killers... why? Because clorine bleach dissipates within 12 hours.

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It does not harm the ground water. It does not harm the soil, you can go out the next day and plant right on top of the place where the weeds were the next day. :)

 
June 5, 20140 found this helpful

Household vinegar/soap combination will work but weeds will return. Vinegar with at least 10% acidity is required to completely kill the weeds to the roots. Be careful you don't get any on your skin as it will burn like heck. Add to this orange oil and you've one awesome weed killer.

 
April 20, 20164 found this helpful

Bleach definitely is a strong weed killer, simply because it will kill every single plant it touches. This is why if you decide to use bleach as a weed killer, you should be very careful not to apply it on your other plants by accident. I would usually use it to remove weeds growing from the crevices of a paved patio or something similar, where I can't harm other plants.

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Lately I had my lawn mowed by a professional company, and the professionals there recommended me to get one of those weed mats. You practically apply a mat around your plants and the weeds stop growing in that particular space. I also found out that old carpets and curtains can be used for the same purpose.

 
June 26, 20160 found this helpful

When using bleach should it be diluted first? And ' rainproof' is it? Like with roundup if you speay the plant and then 30 minutes later it rains, the plant will still be destroyed.

 
May 15, 20170 found this helpful

tried all that..none worked...clorox however did.

 
Anonymous
May 19, 20171 found this helpful

Bleach won't harm plastic containers and spray bottles. Common laundry bleach is sold in plastic bottles, so the manufacturers are confidant of this. Bleach in the environment, in contact with soil moisture eventually degrades to free chlorine (nasty for you and the weeds) and sodium chloride, or common table salt (the stuff you eat).

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Whether it works as a weedkiller I just don't know, but you put it in the laundry with your white bedsheets and undies, and I don't think you've come to any harm yet, have you?

 
Anonymous
July 18, 20170 found this helpful

Bleach will absolutely destroy certain types of plastic if you put the bleach inside of one of those plastic spray bottles the commercial ones for spring larger amounts it will destroy it

 
Anonymous
August 16, 20170 found this helpful

Dawn says do not mix with bleach on the label

 
August 22, 20171 found this helpful

I wouldn't worry too much about bleach getting into the ground water. When we lived in Turkey we purified our drinking water with household bleach. Not as yummy as you might think. I believe a small quantity of bleach water occasionally applied to weeds will be easily handled by our wonderful filtration system brought to us by Nature.

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After all, we use bleach in our toilets and wash.

 
Anonymous
February 14, 20180 found this helpful

Undiluted.

 
February 20, 20182 found this helpful

Isn't bleach used in metropolitan drinking water to kill bacteria? Doesn't beach also deteriorate with time?

 
February 20, 20181 found this helpful

Isnt household bleach used to disinfect drinking water and used in metropolitan drinking water -which is also used to water lawns and plants?
It would seem the concentration to negatively affect ground water would be impossible to attain when bleach is used as a weed killer.
Doesnt bleach decompose with time?

 
April 2, 20180 found this helpful

Bleach is used universally all around the world including America for water treatment! If you've ever had city water, you've also had bleach. It is used to kill bacteria and pathogens, without it in the water treatment entire cities full of people would all get sick and die! Oh yea a little bleach trickles into the ground water and and we have an environmental disaster?

 
April 25, 20181 found this helpful

Rubbish! Bleach will not damage plastic, it is not a solvent and is sold in plastic containers. It is also not a danger to the water-table/ All bleaches work by releasing or reclaiming oxygen from the atmosphere ans become inert within a few hours,

 
Anonymous
June 16, 20180 found this helpful

How much bleach and water to add to 1/4 cup dawn ?

 
June 23, 20180 found this helpful

vinegar will burn the leaves of weeds but it does not kill the roots . therefore your weeds will grow back.

 
August 30, 20181 found this helpful

Not true. Bleach is biodegradable. Once the chlorine dissipates, all that is left is salt.

 
February 25, 20190 found this helpful

A word of caution about bleach use:
1. Bleach will locally sterilise/disinfect the patch sprayed depending on grade and concentration used.
2. 'Disinfection by-products'(DBPs)are the result of the aggressive reactions between the chlorine salts with the soil's organic matter (think proteins and fats etc) of decayed, dead and dying plant and soil organisms (worms etc) in the sprayed patch.
3. These chlorine DBPs are called organochlorines right up there and next to organophosphates - as some of the most poisonous and persistent toxins around (as herbicides and insecticides). Look it up and you'll probably want to use the salt and vinegar spray.

 
June 17, 20190 found this helpful

What do u think is in our drinking water ? Bleach !!

 
June 19, 20190 found this helpful

When exposed to air, bleach becomes salt and water. The water evaporates. Before it breaks down though, it can harm the soil. It's important to spray the leaves of the weed, and avoid excessive contact with the ground.

 
Anonymous
July 15, 20190 found this helpful

Did you dilute it with water?

 
July 25, 20191 found this helpful

Bleach is sodium hydrochloride, when it dries it turns back into salt.
No harm no foul.

 
August 11, 20190 found this helpful

I am confused as to how the bleach can get into the groundwater but an actual weed killer would not? I would think the weed killer would be more toxic than bleach.

 

Silver Post Medal for All Time! 267 Posts
August 14, 20190 found this helpful

Bleach converts quickly to salt water when exposed to air. It shouldn't be too much concern if used in moderation.

I use boiling hot water on my weeds in sidewalk and driveway cracks. For other weeds, I hand pull them or use landscape fabric or cardboard for larger areas.

 
August 16, 20190 found this helpful

Bleach is sold in special plastic containers that aren't affected by it. But, there are weaker plastics that bleach CAN'T be stored in, because it does eat away at its existence.

 
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May 6, 2010

Can I use bleach as a weedkiller?

 
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October 31, 2009

Can you tell me about bleach as a weed killer?

 
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