Is there a better way to remove a poison oak plant than with a chainsaw?

This weekend, I needed to remove a poison oak plant along my property but the plant was too big and too much on a hill for spraying; so I cut it with an 18" chainsaw and packed it up for proper disposal.

After just two hours, I was covered in the poison oak oil (my clothes came out of the wash all streaked black as if the kids had taken a black marker to them) - but I had to stop as the two recyling bins were jam packed to the brim.

Since I still have a few more poison oak plants to remove, I'm wondering if you outdoor experts have a better way than what I'm doing for removal of a poison oak plant from your property? (The last picture is of me washing up!)

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    I didn't measure it, but this one plant is about 20 feet long (or so), by about 20 feet deep down a hill - but I only removed about 5 feet along the curb as I ran out of room in the bins.
Reply to
Danny D.
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In California wilds, goats that preferentially ATE poison oak were used to 'maintain' the landscape. Goats were happy. People were happy. Now THAT is recycling!

Reply to
Robert Macy

Danny,

Are controlled burns allowed in your area? Remember that uroshiol will evaporate so you'll need full face protection and breathing apparatus. Stay upwind, too.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

That looks like an incredible lot of work, and a risk of some wicked allergic reaction. I've not yet reacted to poison ivy, but know friends who are super sensetive.

With poison ivy, I'm told not to burn it, as the fire releases the poison into the air, and anyone down wind will have allergic reaction. Not sure about poison oak.

You have courage, and a lot of hard work. And, you have my respect. Wonder if the local municipality has chipper shredders to do this job?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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After just two hours, I was covered in the poison oak oil (my clothes came out of the wash all streaked black as if the kids had taken a black marker to them) - but I had to stop as the two recyling bins were jam packed to the brim.

Since I still have a few more poison oak plants to remove, I'm wondering if you outdoor experts have a better way than what I'm doing for removal of a poison oak plant from your property? (The last picture is of me washing up!)

Here are 19 annotated pictures, taken sequentially.

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    I didn't measure it, but this one plant is about 20 feet long (or so), by about 20 feet deep down a hill - but I only removed about 5 feet along the curb as I ran out of room in the bins.
Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Brilliant idea, just stay away from the poison oak goat turds?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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In California wilds, goats that preferentially ATE poison oak were used to 'maintain' the landscape. Goats were happy. People were happy. Now THAT is recycling!

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Brush cutter / mower.. (rotary lawn mower on steroids)

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Make sure the unit is powerful enough to handle the material size. A large mower will chop material so disposal is at higher density or chopped material could be left on ground. Cutting path across hill face much faster than a chain saw.

Be prepared to follow up with the proper herbicide at the correct time in the plant's yearly cycle. True eradication is not a "one time" effort.

Reply to
DD_BobK

Burning is the worst of all possible methods for poison oak eradication.... using a defoliant is about the surest and easiest method.

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Reply to
Brooklyn1

Geez if access to this area is limited just cut all the plants at the base with a loping cutter, mark each location by driving a stake in the spot.....

then when it begins to regrow, herbicide it heavily.

i had great success on poision ivy by mixing 50% roundup with 50% poision ivy killer... they wilted by the next morning and just died... either seperately was not effective:(

do not chip or BURN !! Burning smoke will give anyone in area poision whatever in the lungs! can be life threatening!!

why work hard if you can work easy? the dead plants will eventually rot, but will be a itch hazard till they have rotted away...

but the OP will have a much easier job

Reply to
bob haller

How sure are you of the identification?

I ask because a) I've not seen the plant look like that in my area of centr= al Virginia or my old area of northern Wisconsin. There are lots of region= al differences though, and b) because if it really was poison oak or ivy, I= can't imagine removing that much without a massive reaction.

Reply to
TimR

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013 11:05:32 AM UTC-5, bob haller wrote: then when it begins to regrow, herbicide it heavily. i had great success on poision ivy by mixing 50% roundup with 50% poision ivy killer... they wilted by the next morning and just died... either seperately was not effective

Roundup has worked fine for me. The plants take about a week to die, but that gives time to get the poison through the system and kill it all. When they die the next day I don't get the root.

Reply to
TimR

Hi David,

No burns allowed. Plus, the smoke could kill my neighbors.

This is California in a high fire hazard high smog zone. It's my understanding we can't even use a wood-burning fireplace for half the year, but that's for smog reasons. So burning is out.

But chain sawing wasn't all that great either. The chain saw splattered urushiol all over the place. My hair was covered in wood chips, as was my face. The rest of my body was covered, except at the wrists and ankles and lower back (my shirt kept pulling up and the tangly vines would lightly smack me in the back as I pulled on them).

I didn't want to use a chain saw, but I would have been there forever had I used clippers - and I've been spraying it for years - it's just too large for spraying.

Clippers would (eventually work), but even clippers won't cut the 5-inch thick vines anyway - and simply pulling was crazy (I tried that first) because all the vines are intertwined.

I once rented a cultivator and tried to push my way through, but the vines simply fouled the cultivator blades, and the hardest part was unwrapping them without getting the urushiol all over my hands (an almost impossible task).

And, now I have the problem with getting rid of it. I labeled the bins, so I hope they take them on trash day.

So that's why I ask.

Reply to
Danny D.

I have a problem with multi-flora rose. Giant nasty rose bushes that dont die from roundup or other herbicides. Although they are not poisonous, so they could be cut with a chainsaw, but to do so would mean getting under them, and becomeing all torn up from the thorns. I designed a chain that has a loop in the end that I lay around the and hook to my farm tractor. When the tractor moves, the chain tightens around their base, and they will be ripped out of the ground. Then they go to my burn pile. However any roots left over will sprout again. But on the small young ones, roundup works.

I've had some huge ones that would stop my tractor. Either the tires slip, or the engine kills. I found that the only way to get rid of those is to burn them. Dump brush and some smaller logs around them, then a gallon of diesel fuel, and ignite. They do not come back once they are burned.

The OP said he can not burn the poison oak. How about soaking the base of them around the roots with diesel fuel. That almost surely will kill them. Then just let them rot. I dont know how long it takes for that oil that causes the skin irritation to go away after the plant is dead. You'd have to do research on that.

Maybe your local County Extension office can help too. They seem to have info on most local problem plants.

I'm sure someone will state that diesel fuel is harmful to the environment. Yes it is, but probably does less harm than many of the commercial chemicals that are used to kill plants and insects.

Reply to
homeowner

A lot of farmers in this rural community kill poison ivy and poison sumac by applying a goodly quantity of rock salt at their base. The plant dies and within a year of rain and snow the salt washes away. I've gotten rid of rugosa rose with water softener salt.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Friends down the street actually have goats, and they concur. The key problem for them to lend me the goats is that the land isn't fenced in.

Reply to
Danny D.

Hi Stormin,

I have a few red bubbly spots on me, but it's not too bad yet. Mostly it's on my left wrist and right ankle and the back of my neck. I'm very surprised my eyes don't itch since I kept getting chips caught in my eye, and my camera & chainsaw have to be covered in urushiol too!

I cleaned the camera with rubbing alcohol (but I'm not sure if that actually works) - but the strap needs cleaning somehow.

I looked it up in gory detail. NOBODY is ever immune.

Eventually everyone gets it (unless they die first). It's like being in war. Just because the first bullets didn't get you doesn't mean your cell mediated immune reactions won't at some point kick in and the next one is the one you regret.

Note: Actually, I'm told people with AIDS don't get it, but that's a special case.

Yes. I know. Inside your body, the immune reaction can kill you.

I called the waste company - they just told me they won't take it. Luckily I have a 4-inch chipper, but it's a royal pain getting anything down the chute (I'm sorry I bought that loud monstrosity).

Reply to
Danny D.

Those are quite nice!

I do agree that a sideswipe along the isocline line of the steep hill is the way to go because the main roots are six inches thick, and then they branch out in one and two inch thick trunks.

When I cut a trunk, it feels good because I know I've killed a lot but the problem is that the plant really fortresses those thick roots.

They're wholly surrounded by the thinner finger-thick and pencil-thick vines such that you can't get near the main supply line without getting soaked in urushiol.

Reply to
Danny D.

Hi Bob,

Trust me, I tried the weed killer.

Every year I buy this 2.5 gallon concentrated (41%) glyphosate (which is a huge amount considering you dilute it 2 ounces to 5 gallons of water):

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Notice those gloves in that picture are the ones I used on Sunday and they're already starting to show the black urushiol lacquer, which only reveals itself a day later (or after washing), presumably as it oxidizes.

The problem is that you need a helicopter to get the weed killer on the leaves. Sure, I can spray the entire front by the curb, but how do I get the spray 10 or 20 feet deep and down the very steep hillside?

A pressure washer, filled with glyphosate, might do the trick though!

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Reply to
Danny D.

Can the goats be tethered on aircraft cable lines? So the goats don't chew themselves free?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Friends down the street actually have goats, and they concur. The key problem for them to lend me the goats is that the land isn't fenced in.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Hi Tim,

Yes. The Roundup weed killer works.

I buy this concentrate for about $100

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The problem with Roundup isn't that it doesn't work.

The problem is getting to the plant, which fortresses itself with 10 to

20 feet of vines, such that I can't get the roundup to the leaves.

The fact the poison oak, out here, is always on a steep hill, makes it doubly hard to get the roundup to the leaves.

I'm thinking whether a pressure washer could work to throw the roundup the necessary 20 feet, but I've only hooked my pressure washer to a garden hose and never to a 25-gallon bucket of weed killer.

Reply to
Danny D.

Oh yes. Very very very sure!

I have cut human-sized tunnels through poison oak, where the urushiol literally drips like a faucet overhead from the wrist-sized hangers.

The leaves-of-three are distinctive, and are not wild raspberries (whose leaves look similar but are furry & spiny). The white berries are also distinctive, as are the tendrils all over the place.

Of course, the fact that the rash is starting to show up at my wrists, ankles and neck from my weekend work is yet another clue - but - yes, there is absolutely no doubt what it is.

The problem isn't identifying it - the problem is getting rid of it without actually getting it!

Reply to
Danny D.

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