Not my idea, i can't take credit, but I did try it myself and found my cable ties not stiff enough. The ideal thing about using braided poly rope (rather than a smooth paracord or some other smooth rope) is that you have 3 strands that easily separate in the rope. You can then poke the cable tie quickly in between the strands of rope, tighten and leave the end long. Then the cable tie doesn't spin around on the rope and keeps its orientation and you can have the prickles sticking out in all directions.
Check this and there might be another thread on that:
prickly rope
