Help Identifying Vine Climbing everything

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by TRex2

While the environment in the Pacific NW is similar to here (except cooler and with less solar exposure) Thistle and Scotch Broom are substantially different plants with different weaknesses.

Make no mistake. I am all about Weed Whacking. I used to work on a job where I could cut over an acre a day with a weed whacker, so I am pretty good at it.

However:
Weed Whacking will have very little impact on the Virginia Creeper here, since it would still be able to photosynthesize off property and grow on property. I need something that will kill the rhizomes crossing the property line, to stop this thing. In the mean time, Atrazine, 2,4D and Roundup will make those rhizomes ineffective, if not dead.

I have to differ with you on this. Roots can only go so far. If your neighbors aren't killing their weeds, you're dealing with seeds that blow in the wind onto your property, too. This was the problem where I lived.

But, if you think that spraying Roundup on a plant that is attached to roots that go for hundreds or more feet, and you will kill that entire root system - good luck with that. I couldn't even get it to kill one huge thistle plant.

On the other hand, I was successful at getting rid of blackberries on a property by putting pigs into the property. But, I bet after I sold the place and moved, any little spec of blackberry root that was left in the ground, probably took off and took over that property again.

I guess the bottom line is, this will be an ongoing problem. I still think you'd save a lot of money by just wacking them down regularly, rather than spraying with expensive chemicals regularly. Same effort, but more money - and you would avoid chemicals in your runoff water or your well water system.

But, you need to find out for yourself. Good luck.

[bassetluv]

Also be careful of the berries on this plant, esp. if you have young children or pets, as they may be toxic if ingested.

Virginia creeper surrounds my property as it's also on my three neighbours' properties. I don't use herbicides, so it's just a matter of me trimming the foliage back and digging up roots whenever I see it. It's highly invasive (though technically not an invasive species), and I'm constantly pulling down the vines from my neighbour's property, as it creeps up the telephone pole and entangles itself around the cable wires when left unchecked. It grows very quickly and overtakes everything if not pruned back or removed.

[TRex2]

It grows very quickly and overtakes everything if not pruned back or removed.

That it does. There is an abandoned house about a mile from me, that can no longer be seen. Covered. A 20 foot tall tree, about 50 or so feet past my property line, is also covered. (I have no actual neighbors, the areas adjacent to my property are wilderness. )

I haven't seen any berries, thankfully. Or seeds.

Some things need to be clarified. Those aren't roots, they are rhizomes, which are worse. Roots move water in one direction and food in the other direction. Rhizomes move both, in both directions, and put up new plants. If you cut the roots off a vine, it might die. If you cut rhizomes, the plant will regrow them, immediately.

Rhizones make the plant hard to kill with Round Up, since you have to nail every part of it, and impossible to kill with weed eaters, since you can remove every millimeter of green and it will just regrow.

[Tribe1960]

If the vine had 5 leaves and looks like poison ivy then it is called Virginia Creeper. Many people get contact dermatitis from this plant. Contact dermatitis is basically an itchy skin rash with blisters, similar to the types of rashes you get from poison ivy.

I have a lot of this growing onto my property from a neighbors house. I let it go and grow on my fencing and decided to pull it off. BIG MISTAKE! I am one of the lucky people who have a severe reaction to this plant. I've uploaded a picture of the plant and one of each of my arms with the rash (see link below). The rash starts out looking like you scratched yourself on the vine, then you get little bumps. These start to itch and then your little bumps become bigger clusters that turn to big water like blisters.

I was given a steroid shot in the hip and 50mg of Prednisone for 5 days. These pictures are from day 2. Believe it or not, these are starting to get better. Calamine lotion helped to dry out the blisters especially when they were seeping.

Link to pictures: [url]https://postimg.cc/gallery/3c5mwjsjw/[/url]