Living in South East Queensland, you quickly learn that the landscape wants to reclaim itself. Whether you are on a lifestyle block in the Scenic Rim or a larger holding out near Beaudesert, the battle against invasive species is constant. Among the usual suspects like Lantana and Privet, there is one plant that demands a specific kind of respect and a very specific plan of attack: the Prickly Pear (Opuntia).
I remember a job we did recently up near Tamborine Mountain. The property owner had spent five years "poking at" a massive stand of Prickly Pear on a 35-degree slope. He had gone through dozens of litres of herbicide, injecting individual pads and spraying the fringes. Every time he thought he had licked it, a new flush of pads would sprout from the rotting pile or a fallen fruit would start the cycle all over again. He was exhausted, his hands were full of microscopic glochids