Where to use the word "tumbleweed"

Solution 1:

Yes, tumbleweeds' traits can, and have been, applied to people:

"I'm just a tumbling tumbleweed!" - lyrics to a song written by Bob Nolan, an actor, poet and western music songwriter in the 1930's. It attributes the plant's characteristic trait of breaking off and rolling along the plains with the wind to a cowboy's lifestyle.

Edit: The question on whether an annoying person can be called a "tumbleweed" is more of a judgment call. It would depend on whether the person is annoying because they are shiftless and always on the move and at the whim of the "wind" or other external force, not because of their own motivation.

Solution 2:

You can use pretty much any word metaphorically. However, tumbleweed is not particularly irritating, so using it to mean an irritating person is going to create confusion. Hearing it, many people are more likely to think you mean a person without a purpose, who goes in whatever direction the wind takes him.