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Boiling water works, but only if the poison ivy is not wrapped around another plant you want to save...
True I suppose. But at that point you would want to cut main PI vine very low and pull/peel it off the to-be-saved plant. Use heavy gloves. Then keep chopping the top off the PI top when it re-emerges.
Something to note in all this -- NEVER Burn Poison Ivy -- the "poison" becomes vapor and can get in the mouth / nose / throat / lungs of anyone who accidentally may inhale the smoke. That can really mess you up.
When you physically remove it, be sure to clean the equipment afterwards so that you don't come into contact later with any urushiol which is more concentrated in the stems than the leaves. Have some Tecnu handy. It can take a day or more for the rash to appear.
After my niece was in hospital with a poison ivy reaction, I use weed killer. I don't want to go through what she endured.
I'm not so sure boiling water will work. Besides being physically difficult to use (the vine might be 20 ft long, growing up a tree), plants like this have evolved in areas where periodic fires are the norm and re-growth from the protected root is usual.
The OP apparently has a severe reaction on exposure to the plant, so any attempt that involves physical removal of part or all of it is best avoided.
Most effective and safest would be spraying Round-Up selectively on as many leaves as you can reach. The product actually works on the root, being transported there by the natural flow of fluids in the plant after absorption from the leaves... A little over-spray hitting the bark of it's host tree won't harm the tree, and presumably the root system of the tree is large in comparison to the ivy, so it won't be significantly affected by RoundUp carried down into the soil..RoundUp has a short half life, so it only persists in active form for a few days. (That's one if it's great advantages over other potent herbicides.)
I'm not so sure boiling water will work. Besides being physically difficult to use (the vine might be 20 ft long, growing up a tree), plants like this have evolved in areas where periodic fires are the norm and re-growth from the protected root is usual.
I know, it is hard to believe.
We had a discussion on here . . . maybe 8 years ago.
I did not believe it, so I tried on some test patches. Did a set of photos.
The hot water hits the ground and roots especially hard -- because gravity works.
(Compared to fire -- where the heat goes upward, leaving damp roots intact)
I did a series of test patches, photos and tracked for 2 weeks. It seemed about 1 gallon per about 2 square feet was pretty effective.
A "benefit" of Hot Water v. Round-up is if you are seeking an "Organic" status. Hot water is compliant.
Turns out it is nothing new -- if you look at Greenhouse Protocols for soil sterilization (they call it pasteurization), they bring the soil to 190F +. From what I understand going much over that can create other problems.
A downside is you can wipe out or damage other parts of the biome in the area targeted.
We had a discussion on here . . . maybe 8 years ago.
I did not believe it, so I tried on some test patches. Did a set of photos.
The hot water hits the ground and roots especially hard -- because gravity works.
]
Gravity works, but so does the capacity for soil to dissipate the heat. It's not unusual for our Midwest sun to heat the top of the soil to 120deg, but 4 inches down, it's still 70deg.
I can see boiling water permanently killing small weeds with shallow root systems, but still doubt it'll work on a poison ivy plant that has long & deep roots.
The most belligerent of us could argue the boiling water would harm the soil microbes...Maybe that's true, but the effect would last about as long as it takes for your freshly washed hands to become bacteria laden again.
I have a patch of poison ivy in the far back corner of my property. It’s in other vines and ferns and tricky to see. I’ve had numerous rashes from it over the years despite the fact I avoid it when doing yard work. Tenacious stuff.
I have considered hiring someone to get rid of it.
Have some Tecnu handy. It can take a day or more for the rash to appear.
I also highly recommend Zanfel- it comes in a tube and it's expensive (about $40) but I'm very sensitive to poison ivy and it stops the rash from spreading. If you use it as soon as it appears, it never gets to the ugly oozing state. You still have to wait a few days for the rash to dry up. Just going through that now.
I don't like using weed killer but that's the one weed where I WILL use the kind you brush onto the leaves.
When you physically remove it, be sure to clean the equipment afterwards so that you don't come into contact later with any urushiol which is more concentrated in the stems than the leaves. Have some Tecnu handy. It can take a day or more for the rash to appear.
After my niece was in hospital with a poison ivy reaction, I use weed killer. I don't want to go through what she endured.
We get it bad as well. We also keep all types of Tecnu on hand and use the heavy duty/works on poison ivy Round Up.
We have it all over the place. I would need hundreds of gallons of boiling water.
I try to get it exposed to wither mowing or sunlight. It does not seem to like either. I may try the boiling water thing on a few dense patches in bad locations. I will also try it in our gravel driveway. We have been spraying the weeds int he driveway with a mixture of dawn, vinegar and salt. It kills the plants but they come right back. We are not winning that battle. Also the salt plugs up the garden sprayer.
We are not supposed to use round up because we live on a major waterway and the drinking water for about 4 million people come form that water. They ask that people living along the water not use round up (or bout 20 other chemicals.).
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