Getting rid of poison ivy

While cleaning up in the back yard, I noticed one 6 foot long vine of poison ivy on a fence behind the work shop. I was going to go buy some poison ivy killer from Lowes, but looked up if there was a natural way to get rid of it. I found this info and wanted to know if anyone else has tried this:

"Start with a gallon of white vinegar. The ?average? vinegar is 5% acidic and will work just fine, but if you can find one that?s 10% or

20% your mixture will be more potent. Pour the vinegar into a pot and heat it over the stove. Add 1 cup of salt and stir until the salt dissolves. Let it cool, then add 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap.

Vinegar, when diluted with a gallon of water makes a good fertilizer for acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons and blueberries. When mixed full strength with salt, it works very much like Round-Up. The dish soap helps the mixture to stick to the leaves."

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I mixed up a small hand sprayer version of this recipe and sprayed the vines leaves while it was still hot. While the leaves were wet with the mixture I sprinkled additional salt on the plants leaves. I know salt will do damage to many plants and even prevent some from growing, so added the extra salt in case of rain that might or might not clip us in a couple of hours. I figure the salt will get washed into the soil below the plant and do some damage that way, too.

Anyway, it's been about an hour since I sprayed it with the hot mixture and the leaves are already wilting, but, it looks like we may get the rain I thought was going to miss us. I can re-spray the leaves if need be, so that isn't a problem.

My question is has anyone tried getting rid of poison ivy and what did you have to resort to before it finally did the job. I've heard it's hard to get rid of, but thought I'd try the natural method first before resorting to dangerous chemicals.

Reply to
Muggles
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I use the dangerous chemicals. You don't spray anything but the poison ivy with them. If you want to glove and bundle up you could pull it and bag it for the trash can. Lots of luck.

Reply to
Frank

I'm with Frank. I use the dangerous chemicals as you want to kill it, not just aggravate it. You want to kill the roots and just hoping the salt will get to the roots is just, well hoping. Without touching it, can you cut the vine close to the ground and spray a real poison ivy killer on the cut portion?

Wear gloves, wear long sleeves if you decide to pull the vine down after it's dead. Wash your clippers in hot soapy water to kill the sap from the poison ivy. Whatever you do, DON'T BURN THE VINES!

Let me repeat that DON'T BURN THE VINES!

Reply to
ItsJoanNotJoann

As danger goes, herbicides are not that dangerous. I generally find poison ivy growing under desirable shrubs and trees (the birds crap out the seeds while sitting on a branch). Rather than just indiscriminately spraying herbicide, I sometimes cut back the poison ivy, soak a piece of paper towel in Roundup for Poison Ivy, wrap it around the remaining twig, and crimp some aluminum foil on that. I wear disposable latex, vinyl, or nitrile gloves, and tape them to the cuffs of my sleeves. I wear an old shirt, and discard it afterward.

It works pretty well.

Cindy Hamilton

Reply to
Cindy Hamilton

imy front hill side got overwhelmed by poison ivy.....

tried pulling it just spread. tried repeated applications of poison ivy killer it just aggravated it.

came here looking for a solution.

a poster here solved it. he said mix poision ivy killer 50% with roundup.

sprayed it in morning by evening is was dying. broke some federal laws, but it worked.

i have some perenials planted by my mom who died many years ago..

i had a couple landscapers come by but they insisted on killing everything on that hillside.

use the noxious chemicals before you or yours get poision ivy and are put on predisone. thats nasty and makes me very ill

Reply to
bob haller

Roundup works fine.

Once in a while I really do have to cut some.

First I spray it with hairspray, then work a plastic bag over it, then cut with shears that I immediately wash. I haven't had any trouble doing it this way and I am highly allergic.

Reply to
TimR

Ya know it works even better if you add the eye of a newt, the toe of a frog, and two ounces of Diet Coke.

Reply to
Wade Garrett

Glyphosate (Roundup) works for me, at about 5% concentration. Some may be harder to kill, in which case the brush killer products work.

Reply to
trader_4

What does the aluminum foil do? Keep the plant moist so the Roundup does dry up? Whatever, it does sound interesting.

I have made 'collars' for offending plants and for the desirable plants as well. Either to concentrate the spray or to protect the desirable plant from overspray. Cardboard bent around whichever plant works very well.

Reply to
ItsJoanNotJoann

Interesting! What does the hairspray do??

Reply to
ItsJoanNotJoann

If it's just a few plants, I'd likely just pour a small amount of gasoline on the roots. (a half cup or so). It's not natural, but effective and pretty safe (as long as you dont ignite it), and pretty cheap for just a few plants.

Reply to
Paintedcow

One thing that works - not "legal" is a mix of diesel fuel and roundup.. Just a few onces of DF per gallon.

Reply to
clare

Diesel is one of the recommended wetting agents for Garlon 4 (the active ingredient in Ortho Brush B Gone). It does work.

Reply to
gfretwell

Uncle M, did you ever see someone actually using a handcar? I did.

They hadn't used them in decades when I was a tyke, but I they still had them around in the railyards, and I'm guessing that the putt-putts had all gone ka-putt and there was a guy who really needed to get somewhere.

Reply to
Mike Duffy

For at least the last 30-40 years all I see is a pickup truck with the flip down rail road wheels.

Reply to
gfretwell

When my Mom used to make that mix, she used Mountain Dew. Maybe that explains why the vines grew to the sky, and the booming voice came from the sky. Some thing about fe fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an English bum. The big guy climbing down from the sky got all rash and itchy from the poison ivy vine. Mom ought have used Diet Coke.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Please let us know what works. Couple days from now, send another post through the list. I'm sure plenty of readers will benefit from a field tester report.

I've heard that burning poison ivy vaporizes the poison chemical. People who touch or breathe the smoke or vapors can get poison. Allergic person who breathes the vapor might die from lung trouble.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Same here! I probably use $10 worth of gas each year for this sort of thing. A gallon jug of Roundup was around $25 the last time I looked. The gas evaporates after doing it's job, so I dont think it's all that bad for the environment, or at least no worse than the costly chemicals.

Reply to
Paintedcow

i have used that all my lifetime to kill weeds in concrete driveways etc

Reply to
bob haller

hey at a fall festival in mars pa I got to actually use one of those pump handcars. they stopped letting people ride it for liability concerns. it was hard work but a bucket list kinda item. from watching the old petticoat junction tv show

Reply to
bob haller

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