Prickly pear.

I have about 30 acres of mesquite pasture that is plumb eat up with cactus. I'd like to clear some out and keep some. I notice the rabbits hole up in it. What other value does it hold for wildlife? Will snakes hole up in them? I like to keep a few snakes around.

And what's the best way to clear them out? If I scrape them out with a bucket, will they just grow back?

Lots of small animals use them for protection And a water source. Snakes love them to hunt in and for protection as well. The best way to get rid of them that I have found is to dig them up with my rock bucket and then plow the area to rip the roots up. Be sure when you dig them to pick up all of the pads. Every pad you miss will be a new one growing. There is poison that works but you have to have a liscense to buy it and it is expensive .

I don't mind digging and plowing instead of spraying. I would prefer it, actually.

http://texnat.tamu.edu/about/brush-busters/pricklypear/

Sneaky, when we had a lease in West Texas, the place was just as you describe. The landowner wanted allot of it for wildlife (mainly B Quail)

What I watched him do. He built a large burn pile then would dig up the cactus with a tractor bucket, (his hands picked up any and all the fallen pads) he would let them dry out and burn the the whole pile. He said it was the only effective way he had found to get rid of it...to a point. I never have seen as much P pear as he had, so not sure how effective it was over time. He would do a couple of acres here and there, throughout the year. He had I believe, 40k acres total!

We have had good luck spraying with Surmount herbicide with a color additive to show where you've been.

Sneaky, the pear like the mesquite is one of the biggest water hogs on pasture land. You mentioned scraping, if you do make sure every leaf is burned or buried, if any leaf remains on the open ground it will regenerate. Usually when you have pear like you do, what has happened in the past is someone pushed the trees and scattered the pear leaves causing more pear to dominate the land scape. This causes more loss of prime grasses and forbes for livestock and wildlife.

All wildlife utilize pear as a food source but it isn't something you'd want as primary food source, use the methods above. If you want to see something that will make you a little afraid of deer, go sit in a patch when they're blooming and watch the deer eat the blooms, it's amazing how much they'll remind you of the movie "Aliens" .

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I have a rock bucket with grapples for my skid steer. I simply dig it with the rock bucket, grab with the grapple and carry over to a pile of cedar brush I had previously dug. I pile the prickly pear on top of the cedar and let it dry a few months. I then pile some more cedar on top and burn it. I go around with a shovel and pick up the few loose prickly pear leaves that drop out of the grapples.

We would get a pear burner, singe off the spines and have the cattle eat them. They really like burnt pear.

Make sure you pick up all the pads that you break off. Doesn't make any difference how dry it is, the moisture in a pear pad will allow it to sprout roots. A generation ago, we cleared lots of mesquite in my country with a pair of bulldozers and a ship anchor chain. Scattered pears everywhere. Swapped one evil for another.

What they said. I dig mine up with the bucket by scraping the top 4-6" of soil with them, put them in a big pile and let them dry for a while then burn them if you can. All I've found living in my patches are rats and snakes.

I would rather have cedar than pear. And I hate cedar.

That's why ranchers call it 'burning pear'. It's a great source of water in drought years. Shot a doe near Freer once that had a mouthfull of thorns from where she had been eating cactus.

Don't forget to save some for yourself. Scrape the thorns off, grill it and hove some nopalitos. I've also had prickly pear jelly and ice cream.

I prefer to remove prickly pear manually in winter, spot treat the big root bases at time of removal with Surmount (picloram +fluroxypyr) + surfactant & dye.
Then spot treat new growth late spring through mid summer with the same.

Good source of moisture and food when times are tuff... burn them and the animals will eat them real fast

In South Texas pear is will be a main part of a deer's diet in Jan-Feb and again in Aug-Sept in many areas year in and year out. It is a great source of fiber and moisture. In October one year I videoed 2 mature bucks jump out a protein feed pen to eat a little corn in the road after they were done with protein. They ate corn for a few minutes then walked off of the road to eat pear. That was a year were we had great rain in June, July, Sept and Oct. It was very green and lush to say the least. If you have ever watched deer eat pear or tunas/fruit it is painful to watch. Many ranches will burn pear in late Feb into early April for bucks to eat and they will drop their sheds in those burned areas. They will just be in those burn areas even if cattle are around the area, they will come in and chew on the pear stumps. A friend hunted down in Mexico and said one of the old cowboys told him if he wanted to kill a big buck take a club and beat a few pear clumps to the ground and break the pads up. Also I believe the pear in South Texas is a bit different in texture and taste than the pear from the Hill Country and northwards in the state.

Just don't get behind a cow that has been eating a lot of pear.

Or in front

Bout like palpating here when the clover is on the ground.... never eva eva eva.. stand in the line of fire

Or pen and work cattle/calves when they are on small grains this time of the year.

I spray mine with a helicopter..

I had no idea they were that useful. I'm glad they are, cause I've got plenty.