Cigeratte Butts! Ughhh!

[eggy]

Well every year in the spring I encounter tons of these from commercial accounts who do not pick trash up during the winter, how do you guys handle picking these up out of the grass any tips? Any type of equipment available to help?

[WatkinsLawn]

I have several of these commercial props. w/ the same proplem. What I do is just before the lawn comes out of dormancy, I mow with the blades as low as I dare without scalping with a bagger (I use my 48" Bob Cat W/B because it has best vaccuum of my mowers). I empty the bagger into their dumpster. I usually go over the bad areas 2 or 3 times in the lower gears. This seems to get up about 85% of the winter trash. The rest gets mulched so small that it isn't noticable (I'm talking about little 1/4 inch sized pieces of paper or so). I have a clause in my contract to allow me to charge extra for this service for "excessive debris removal."
As for whatever cig. butts that don't get picked, the customer can pay us extra to rake them up. But nobody has ever had us do that cause the bagger does good enough.

Dave

[YLC1]

What we've done in the past to remove cigarette butts from mulched areas was to use a handheld blower/vac set up on vac.We had a restaurant that the mulch beds along the main door became the ashtray.Luckily it had brick nuggets.:)

[Mark]

On all my commercial accounts which deal with the plubic such as banks , stores and doctors offices i sweep the lots every sat and sun after church. Price varies but still good money. Most all the Business around here require this on your contracts. Marks Mowing Service

[Mark]

Sorry i meant public, never was to good a typing. Mark

[SLSNursery]

We have had good luck switching a couple of Echo backpack blowers over to vacuums. The bags wear out kind of quickly, but the units work. They even pick up other debris, like leaves, etc. that might collect in a doorway.

[Mowingman]

I blow everything I can into the turf areas, then run over the grass with my Walker. The GHS deck picks up all the debris.

[groundsguy1970]

EZ REACH mechanical hand....save the mulch. Pre-M the cig areas hard and just pick 'em out.....no rake, well every now and then....but try not to disturb the mulch. Just hand pull them with the EZ REACH mechanical hand.......they sell for about $25.;)

[keifer]

In the turf area what about a billy goat vac?

[jason2]

Groundsguy,

Where can I find the EZ REACH? I've been looking for one since last year. Also how long are they? I want something for when I'm on my Lazer. Hate stopping and getting off to pick up garbage.

[BRIAN GALLO]

Echo shred n vac (or similar). When you are in mulch or stones, just go light on the throttle. It will pick up the butts, and leave the mulch undisturbed. In the turf, I would just put the bagger on your mower, or use a billy goat.

[Guardian]

If you want a "EZ Reach", just go to an ACE or TRUE VALUE store, they come in 3 dif. sizes, I prefer the longest.

Some of the Gas stations we do, we blow the trash to an area and rake it up. Sometimes we blow it in the street and traffic takes it to the interstate ramps (I know, thats bad -we dont do it often) -I feel like I'm gonna get reamed for saying that.

[summitgroundskeeping]

B-I-L-L-Y G-O-A-T VAC. O-H Y-A

[eggy]

So the Billy Goat Vacs will really pull the cig butts up from the grass? I have heard so so reviews on those, however most have been about leaf removel.

[crs]

I have an old Toro vac that does a great job on trash in the turf and on hard surfaces. It also works pretty well for leaves on heavily landscaped small residential accounts. I made a hose for mine so I can clean out beds as well.

I am surprised at how much I use it now.