OT - poison ivy

I know this is the wrong group - but I like the answers on here better.

My wife was gardening last week and now has poison ivy over her.

The yard in our new Florida home is big and wooded and full of this stuff.

How would you get rid of it? Wife loves to work in the yard.

Harry

Reply to
Harry Everhart
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Harry,

Go to K-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, and your local garden center and tell your problem to just about anybody working in the "lawn chemicals area." It is advisable to get multiple opinions, especially at K-Mart type stores. :)

There are many products which will somewhat selectively kill poison ivy. You can purchase the chemicals in bulk for use with a pump sprayer or you can buy individual aerosol cans (about $4-$5 each) for spot application. I believe that Ortho's aerosol cans have pictures of poison ivy, poison oak, etc. on the front of the container for handy reference.

Some standard broadleaf weed killers (eg: dandelion killer, 2-4-D, etc.) will attack poison ivy somewhat, but there are much better specific killers for so-called bushy weeds such as poison ivy.

Also, you can use just about any broad-spectrum herbicide such as Roundup. Keep in mind that these products kill just about any plant whose leaves they touch and you can't easily use them to kill a weed which is among favorable plants. If you spray them on poison ivy which is growing up a tree, then the overspray onto the bark of the tree is not a problem. In some areas you may have to "bite the bullet" and use a broad-spectrum killer to kill everything in the area just because the broad-spectrum killer is much less expensive and more effective.

Also, do some "Google searching" with search arguments such as:

"poison ivy" cashew mango

This should give you some EXTREMELY important advice about foods which your wife should avoid while recovering from poison ivy contact. There are a number of fruits which come from plants which are closely related to poison ivy. The levels of allergens in these fruits is normally not a problem, but they will greatly increase the allergic reaction to poison ivy. Recovery from poison ivy contact is slow and uncomfortable - don't exacerbate it by eating the wrong foods which contain small amount of the allergen that causes the poison ivy reaction.

If you have a lot of poison ivy on your property, then you probably won't knock it all out in your first attempt. Do some "Google" searching to learn now what you or your wife should do to prevent future contact or to deal with future contact. Poison ivy oils can definitely migrate into your house on the fur of your pets. There are established procedures for washing poison ivy oil from skin and clothing after contact. All of this information and more is easily accessible on the Internet. Just do some "Googling" with intelligents search arguments.

Good luck, Gideon

PS: Thanks for mentioning that you are aware that the subject is somewhat off-topic in this newsgroup and thanks for complimenting our little newsgroup. We try harder.

Reply to
Gideon

It can be a bad job first you need to be sure what it is, it could be poison oak or sumac if they are local and identify all the plants. Poison Ivy has many variants, even vine can intermingle with ground plant species. But "leaves of Three beware of thee" is a good starting and caution point. You can kill it with a weed killer but the leaves can have active poison-oils for 1 year. even on tools. I Kill it with stroner roundup concentrations but then remove all of it. Don`t burn it and be down wind it got into my system for 1 + yr that way. Nothing helped. Wash tools , shoes and all clothes infected from area as reinfection can occur for 1 yr from the oil , washing hands within 15 min after exposure can realy help. Watch your pets they can bring it home.

Reply to
m Ransley

What's wrong with poison ivy killer?

Reply to
William W. Plummer

I've heard lots of horror stories on the home owner destroying valuable landscape when spraying for poison ivy (or any weed using weed killer).

Best (for you) to remove it by hand. But if you must use chemicals, then I'd recommend you use a brush or rag to wipe it on the suspect leaves.

JimL

Reply to
Fred

Spray it with a herbicide that kills poison ivy. Anything that contains 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T will kill it deader than a doorknob and quicker than a train. Any garden center, home center, or hardware store will have what you need. You can probably find it at a place like Wal-Mart or Meijer.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Reply to
Doug Miller

I like the idea of using a concentrate with some dish soap added, but I'd look at other brands besides Roundup. In my experience, Roundup seems to be toward the bottom in quality.

Full disclosure -- I haven't had to deal with poison ivy, but I have had to deal with a bunch of other ivy's and vines. Bayer brand has been working best so far.

Reply to
Hopkins

....

Roundup is selective at all...what you're describing is applying it only to the undesired foliage. 2,4-D or other broadleaf herbicides are both selective and effective on poison ivy.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

And this probably goes without saying.... but don't ever try to burn it out.

Reply to
Matt Morgan

According to Gideon :

FYI: Urushiol (the oil that's the active ingredient of the allergic reactions) on poison ivy is water repellant, which explains why many weed killers don't seem to work that well.

Tip: Adding a small amount of liquid dishwashing soap to whatever you use makes a huge difference in effectiveness.

We do our poison ivy killing using Roundup concentrate, mixed to the specifications on the container (30ml per litre of water, call it two tablespoons per quart with the brand we use), plus about a teaspoon's worth of dishwashing soap. We use a 1 litre pump-action sprayer, and it works very well.

[The roundup plus dishwashing soap is a tip from a botanist who has to do a _lot_ of poison ivy killing.]
Reply to
Chris Lewis

If you really want to kill it you will use a "brush killer" product. All the companies make one labeled as a "brush killer". Add a little diesel fuel to mixture and be careful not to spray anything you don't want to kill.

Round up and the like will only stunt it's growth. Read all the fine print inside the labels. I am not making this up.

Colbyt

Reply to
Colbyt

Garden stores now sell a tube- sponge aplicator , you pour some roundup in the 4ft clear 1" plastic tube a sponge at the bottom stays wet so you just brush the leaves without stooping and getting in the Ivy, or contaminating other plants. Roundup works but I use a stronger solution. When dead cut out the ivy.

Reply to
m Ransley

And don't burn the dead plants after killing them with 2,4-D, either.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Reply to
Doug Miller

The question was "how do I kill poison ivy". "How do I get rid of dead poison ivy" is a different issue. How to wash and protect yourself is yet another.

Reply to
William W. Plummer

According to Fred :

With a pinpoint sprayer and no cross-breeze, roundup is pretty selective.

Aforesaid botanist said the best way to apply in tricky circumstances (like right in the middle of desirable plants) is to wear a pair of rubber gloves, then a pair of cotton gloves overtop. Stuff the cotton gloves with some torn up cotton balls if you wish. Then, simply dip your hand in the roundup solution, wrap your fingers around the poison ivy, and slide your hand up the plant.

Poison ivy is really difficult to remove by hand, because it spreads by long rootlets, at times quite deep in the dirt.

If you just pull it and leave any roots behind in the soil, it'll grow back. Roundup will kill the roots.

Reply to
Chris Lewis

Well willy plumer if you looked a witle more carefully you would have wead the words ROUNDUP was that easy for you to see now.

Reply to
m Ransley

I fought this fight about 5 yrs ago. As others have recommended RoundUp and the cotton glove technique works well. Wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt. Do not touch your self while applying the weed killer. Do not wear the clothes inside your house (they are contaminated). Take them off on the back porch or in the garage and put them into the washer and wash them, then go and take a long luke warm shower with lots of soap.

Dave M.

Reply to
David Martel

And for God's sake, do NOT burn the vines!!!

Reply to
Dr. Hardcrab

"William W. Plummer"

I agree.

And this is to say nothing of how to make it into a tasty salad for your dinner guests.

Reply to
Matt Morgan

Reply to
user

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