Weed Eater
American agricultural machinery manufacturer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weed Eater is a string trimmer company founded in 1971 in Houston, Texas by George C. Ballas, Sr., the inventor of the device.
| Weed Eater | |
| Industry | Agricultural |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Founder | George C. Ballas, Sr. |
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
| Website | www.weedeater.com |
The idea for the Weed Eater trimmer came to him from the spinning nylon bristles of an automatic car wash. He thought that he could come up with a similar technique to protect the bark on trees that he was trimming around. His company was eventually bought by Emerson Electric and merged with Poulan. Poulan/Weed Eater was later purchased by Electrolux, which spun off the outdoors division as Husqvarna AB in 2006.[1] Husqvarna revived the Weed Eater brand in the US in 2023 and Canada in 2024.[2]
Ballas was the father of champion ballroom dancer Corky Ballas and the grandfather of Dancing with the Stars dancer Mark Ballas.[3] He died on June 25, 2011.[4]