Mare's Tail weeds

They like an acid soil, so I would check the ph to see if you have acid soil, if so lime it , they will still come up , but probably not as many, try to pull, or better still dig them out, as soon as they appear, before they have a chance to open up and spread their spores, check daily and keep on top of them , you WILL win eventually when they get tired , { if you dont tire first}lol

I think mare's tail has a waxy coating so any weedkiller does not get absorbed. Put on some thick gloves and treat the plant roughly - this will break the coating in places - now spray and some of it will get absorbed. As this is a persistent weed, you will have to repeat this several times, but you should win in the end.

thanks so much for the help and suggestions, will try and try and try :)

I'm not sure whether mare's tail is different from horse tail, but I was told recently how to get rid of the latter and it works perfectly for me.
Simply soak the plant in malt vinegar ! You may have to do it twice, about 4-5 days apart, and pour some at the base of the thing.
I hope this works for you as it's worked 4 times for me in different places. I should add I keep a sharp eye open for it and catch it while it's small.

Mare's tail has a coating of sillica so as suggested it needs to be crushed to allow the weedkiller to be absorbed. At one time you could buy a red gel containing glyphosphate so you could paint the weed but I believe the good old EC have banned it. You can make up a mix of wallpaper paste using glyphosphate and paint this on. You might have to do this several times. This method works best when the offending weed is growing between established plants.

thanks for all those really helpful tips i will definitely try the last two.

jenni,
Could you please let me know if the vinegar works, it seems to take a maximum of 10 days for me but it's never failed yet.

jenni,
Could you please let me know if the vinegar works, it seems to take a maximum of 10 days for me but it's never failed yet.

Of Course i will let you know - but I have so much of the horsetail it would take gallons!! I'm not sure whether it will affect surrounding plants so I will do a few just to test first. I am also not sure if the vinegar has to go on neat or diluted so I will try it neat. By the way England is getting a heatwave while we have had absolutely torrential rain from Friday - none this morning as yet - hopefully getting a dry day??!!

So where the heck are you Jenni ? And where I am in the North of England it wasn't that hot anyway, those lucky beggars down South had the mini-heatwave according to my Southern relatives.
I Put the vinegar on neat and in less than 10days it's gone completely, but I never allow it to get higher than say 6 inches and so far it has never re-appeared as yet.
But if you've a lot of the stuff and you live somewhere exotic I could pay you a visit for a few days and give you a hand ?

And If I lived somewhere exotic I would let you come and give me a hand BUT I live near Belfast - 4 seasons in one day!! (Mostly wet, windy ones)
Yes I have tried the vinegar on the horsetail around the garden path so see wat happens - does the vinegar also destroy the good plants??