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There is just a small patch. I much rather do a natural approach to getting rid of it.
(My husband was attacked by it last year! So i know it is poison ivy!)
What I read:
Cover up, cover up, cover up!
Trim to the ground.
Then dig down around eight inches to get all the roots.
What do you think? Who had been successful in getting rid of it without chemicals?
Check with a farm supply store or hardware store that sells herbicides. There are selective herbicides that will kill the ivy but not hurt the grass. Non-selective, something like Round-Up, kills anything it touches. Selective herbicides will only kill certain weeds.
My husband gets it. I don't, but possibly because I was raised where there wasn't any, and have watched carefully to avoid exposure.
This time of year, it's easy to see it, because it turns yellow before surrounding vegetation. What I did, was I put on old crappy shoes and old clothing, tucked pants into socks. Heavy gloves, long sleeves. Everything was clothing I was willing to throw out (if you get poison ivy oil on it and throw it in the wash, it may spread the oil, and someone in the family could still get exposed).
Then I went out and pulled up all of it by the roots. It comes up surprisingly easily. I threw it all in the forest behind the house, up in the branches so that it couldn't re-root. If you don't live adjacent to vacant land, throw it in the trash. Do NOT burn it!!!! The smoke can cause a reaction in people's lungs, and kill them.
It never came back, and that was about a decade ago. Before that, my husband had sprayed it every year with roundup, and it never killed it completely. I strongly advise you against trimming it, and digging it up by the roots. It's really very easy to just pull up the vines completely, just by gently tugging on them.
I saw the title of the thread and thought...sell out and move! LOL!
A small patch is very doable. We kept it down in our main yard area by gowning up in long sleeves, long pants, disposable gloves and we cut off old sock feet and used the upper part to span the inevitable gap between sleeves and gloves stably. (You'll be glad you added that step. Saves the wrists.) I'm not allergic so I slowly pulled up/off the vines to get most of the rootlets. DH who is sensitive handled the trash bag and the we double bagged it for the dump. Do not burn or compost.
We did this in late summer/early fall to force the roots to regrow, then again in the late spring watching for new sprouts under trees while mowing (birds eat berries and disperse seeds in their poo) and old regrowth which we dug up.
We kept it down, wholly eliminated large areas but we had a massive problem when we bought the property. You just have to stay on top of it. Same for poisonous hemlock. We had infestations of both. Arrrgh!
There is just a small patch. I much rather do a natural approach to getting rid of it.
(My husband was attacked by it last year! So i know it is poison ivy!)
What I read:
Cover up, cover up, cover up!
Trim to the ground.
Then dig down around eight inches to get all the roots.
What do you think? Who had been successful in getting rid of it without chemicals?
Thanks for helping me!
I would not touch poison ivy, cut it, pull or dig it out. Part of my back yard is woods that borders other woods. I spray poison ivy plants that pop up every year. They sell a weed killer for poison ivy, but I have found most weed killers work on it. I'm using a spray bottle of Roundup for Poison Ivy now. Previously I had a spray foam that I think was from Ortho. I'm not sure if they still sell it.
If I don't kill it, it seems I get the blisters without even touching it. I had severe cases when I was growing up. Do not burn it since the you can get it from the smoke and you will get it in your eyes.
My late grandfather was not allergic to it either. Now the story I am going to tell is STUPIDITY at its' best. As a child, my dad and his siblings would go to fields and picnic for the day with his mom and dad. Invariably one of them would get PI, all but his dad. He was so sure he was not at all allergic that he would rub it on himself and never get impacted.This went on for years. When they were out one year, his dad did the rub on thing and must have touched his mouth. By that night he was blown up and off to the hospital. He made it, but never went near the stuff again.
If you think you might be exposed, wash thoroughly in shower in tepid to warm water with copious lathering detergent or soap. Hot water spreads the
oil (urushiol) around your skin. Don’t rub; allow the detergent or soap to lather and dissolve the oil. If ever there was a good use for Dawn, this might be it. The last time I thought I might have been exposed, I think I spent 45 minutes in the shower, lathering up all over, rinsing and repeating. I did not get that awful, itchy rash that time.
There is a product made expressly for washing poison ivy off. It is probably found in a drugstore.
If you’ve been out in the woods, don’t touch your face. When you wash up, be sure to lather up on your face, and rinse thoroughly.
I’ve always washed my clothing after forays in the woods, and I’ve never had secondary exposure. Maybe do a cold rinse?
I hate poison ivy!
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