Tricks for weeding around cactus, thorns and prickly plants

Those of us who have a landscape that involves prickly plants know that weeding around spines, thorns, and prickles is difficult, tedious and painful. Each type of cactus or thorny bush probably requires a unique approach so if you have suggestions, please note the plant you are trying to weed around.

What methods or tools help make this job easier for you with your particular plant?

Here at my place, the prickly pear is growing tall (up to 4’). Interspersed among the cactus is silver leaf nightshade and a few desert globe mallow that I am working to extract.
I am having some luck removing these invaders using a narrow weeding tool called a “long handled corkscrew weeder.” I can twirl the long unwanted stem inside the corkscrew then continue toward the root by twisting the tool clockwise underground. Once I have the root I can pull the weed out of its prickly fortress. The brand is DeWit. I am happy with the results around the prickly pear in silt-sand soil.

Using cardboard cut to fit where the weeding is needed might help.

Planting the sedum plant or something similar might help once the weeds are killed by the cardboard.

I've had some success with needle-nose pliers.

Weeding plants with thorns teaches me to move carefully with full intention and hyper-spacial awareness.

But more pragmatically, I do 90% of my weeding with specialty hoes anyway, so no big deal.

Dear Anne, Phil and Joseph,
Would y'all be willing to share the types of cactus, thorn bushes or other prickly plants that you are working with and weeding around. Prickly pear is probably very different from raspberries.
And Joseph, what is your "specialty hoe"? Did you custom design some low tech super hoe?
Anyone cultivating an actual garden with dense thorns that you love?

I have lots of prickly pear cactus, agarita and pitya.  

I don't weed around them though if I did I would use my suggestion.

I do have thistle that is prickly though I weed it young before it gets prickly.

I use a spade to get rid of baby cactus.

Most of my cactus are in pots here, but I do have a succulent bed that has to get cleaned out from all the aggressive grasses and buttercup that want to take it over. When I lived in Tucson I had night-blooming cactus under a big mesquite, and that's when I discovered the value of the pliers to grab weeds in between the cactus clumps where my hands couldn't reach (and had no desire to). Ironically, some of what I pulled were mesquite seedlings, since they came up by the hundreds.

Here I sometimes get out the pliers when I want to tackle the buttercup and couch grass under the goji berry and sea buckthorn bushes.