Poison Ivy

[Pullstart 62,916]

Can’t stand the stuff.  Can’t get near it either.  I have a few areas around the farm that could stand getting rid of this crap.  Any preferred methods?  I’m thinking gasoline in a spray bottle of sorts and getting all mid-evil on it with a flaming cocktail!

[Snoopy11 5,714]

 

2 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

Any preferred methods?

Just get naked... 

 

UH... no, definitely more irony than truth there...

 

I personally wear gloves, long sleeves, and physically remove it from trees and such areas. Then I go take a shower in cool water using ivory soap. I get a REALLY bad case every year... but it is only because I refuse to do the right things. When I do the right things, I don't get effected.

 

Don 

[ri702bill 8,346]

Don't do it!!! My brother in law years ago did that and inhaled some of the smoke - guess what? Yup, poision ivy blisters inside the nose AND throat - you only do that once....

I still have a bag of DuPont (I think) crystals called Amate from the 1980's - looks like rock salt and you mix it with 5 gallons of water - pour it over the area you want to rid the ivy. It is probably outlawed now - it kills ALL the vegetation in the applied area - NOTHING grows there for about 5 years or so. Nasty stuff.

Edited December 14, 2021 by ri702bill

[Handy Don 12,237]

When we bought our current property, there was a lot of poison ivy. 

Rule #1 -- eradication is a three-year saga. You must have patience

Rule #2 -- burning is BAD, the smoke can carry the oil that causes the rash into nasal passages -- one of our neighbors was nearly hospitalized for it

Rule #3 -- chemicals rule

 

I used chemicals specifically designed for rooted, woody vines and applied then very precisely according to the directions while wearing suitable PPE.

 

Year 1. Seeming victory. Everything I sprayed died off over a period of a month.

Year 2. Uh Oh. About ⅓ of the vines had the temerity to resprout and start growing again. Re-attack. Again, everything touched died off.

Year 3. No, you're not gonna win, you sly vines. Scattered vines resurrected themselves (these were in the areas originally most heavily covered). Re-re-attack. Again everything dies off.

Year 4. Quiet celebration. No new growth seen. Since then I've seen only individual, isolated growths and I jump right on them.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Handy Don

[Snoopy11 5,714]

16 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

I used chemicals

You neglected to mention the names of those chemicals... 

 

Don

[pacer 3,173]

Oddly - (and thankfully!) I am not affected by it, and with 5 acres of wooded property here in the south..... 

 

To show how ... easily? it can be to get on a person, some yrs ago my wife, who could just walk by it and break out, came up with a bad rash on the inside of her arms, from wrist to above her elbow..... say what? She hadnt been anywhere near the stuff, was bad enough that we went to the doc. On questioning  both of us, determining that I didnt get it, he asked did she wash my clothes? Yes.... He said she was getting it when she put her arms into the machine to load, she was rubbing the oils from my clothes onto her!!! So from then on if I had to get 'in the woods' I would wad up my clothes and put them the machine with out letting them touch the rim and start it. Thanks doc!

[pfrederi 17,741]

Roundup definitely do NOT burn it.  If you get expose Tecnu helps...

 

 

[Pullstart 62,916]

44 minutes ago, ri702bill said:

Amate

 

I found this read from 1955 when I searched Amate.  It gives mixtures of various acids to kill various woody plants.  

https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=agexperimentsta_circ

 

[Pullstart 62,916]

I just took a trip to the jungle and found that I (we) last purchased a gallon of concentrate of poison ivy round up last May.  Huh.  

 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,602]

Echo above “do not burn” comments. Not good.

 

I’ve used roundup or equivalent - repeat couple years… gone…

 

And…if cutting / mowing remember it’s the oil not the plant, so it will be all over your tools, mower etc…

 

[ri702bill 8,346]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

I’m thinking gasoline in a spray bottle of sorts and getting all mid-evil on it with a flaming cocktail!

Come on guys - this is Kevin at his best!!! You just KNOW he's going to have to do a comparison test to see if Roundup is flammable......

Edited December 14, 2021 by ri702bill

[Pullstart 62,916]

Don’t worry, I’ll get my safety flops and bubble suit!

[Pullstart 62,916]

I found this in the barn just now.  Funny how many times I’ve moved it but not looked at it!

 

Unfortunately, it did not want to cooperate.  The sprayer didn’t prime and seems a little out of adjustment.  Feels like a project is in order.

 

 

[Maxwell-8 4,277]

1 minute ago, Pullstart said:

I found this in the barn just now.  Funny how many times I’ve moved it but not looked at it!

 

Unfortunately, it did not want to cooperate.  The sprayer didn’t prime and seems a little out of adjustment.  Feels like a project is in order.

 

 

 

 That was the best thing we consumers could get. But has been banned a year ago.

[ri702bill 8,346]

5 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

Don’t worry, I’ll get my safety flops and bubble suit!

Then all is good - for now ......

[Pullstart 62,916]

Two birds, one stone kind of project.  I picked up this K91 powered compressor and have yet to do anything with it.  I believe I could build it into a siphon sprayer.  Nix the air tank and make it a dedicated sprayer pump.

 

I believe I’ll use this technology in my poor man’s pressure washer.  Fire up the engine, turn a valve, have a sprayer.  Simple as that.  There are tons of trees around that will be able to use this battle axe, so it should do me fine for a handful of years.

 

 

[Herder 2,354]

Goats love to eat poison Ivy and are very effective in doing so.  And byproduct of their work is fertilizer!!  If you don't like roundup, use commercial strength bleach, applied during sunny weather works the best. 

[Moparfanforever 854]

I read that the US military had considered burning poison ivy for poison gas, so yeah , do not burn  !!

[wallfish 17,014]

My Stepfather took his Zippo lighter and burned some along the fence. He was a city boy from Philly that didn't know any better and also found out he's extremely allergic at the same time. His arms looked like he held them in a camp fire they were so blistered. On his face too. Ended up in the hospital for about a week. He even had that stuff in cracks where the sun don't shine too. NASTY

Afterwards my mother, not allergic at all just went out there and pulled the all the rest of it out with her bare hands and stuffed it into bags. Unfortunately us boys didn't inherit that gene from her.

[wh500special 2,188]

Kevin,
 

I didn’t read the label on your Roundup product, but most weeds aren’t affected by Roundup if they’re not leafed out and actively growing.   You might need to try something else if you’re going to do it this time of year.  
 

I had a world class crop of poison ivy at my last house.  I sprayed some of it with regular roundup and it died back for a short while.   Generally I just stayed away from it.  And we moved.  
 

I saw a This Old House episode years ago where the gardening guy, Roger, recommended waiting until winter and pulling it out while wearing gloves and PPE.  It looked like a disaster in the making to me but I guess it can work if you’re disciplined enough not to touch your face or nose while doing it. 
 

good luck. 
 

Steve

 

Edit:  found the video.   And they did it while it was green and juicy!   Not sure I would attempt this. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by wh500special

[953 nut 55,324]

3 hours ago, ri702bill said:

3 hours ago, pacer said:

she was rubbing the oils from my clothes onto her!!!

Don't do it!!!

Don't Burn it!          A friend of mine was on his way back from our pond in his swim trunks when he walked through the smoke from a neighbor burning a pile of poison ivy. He was a few hundred feet away but Bob was covered head to toe with blisters. He became allergic to stuff he had never been bothered by before.

At the first sign of any poison ivy I spray with "Crossbow"  mixed at four times the recommended strength and put a marker flag where it was, check back frequently because as has been said by others this stuff doesn't give up easily. 

[lynnmor 7,308]

I bought a jungle of a lot to build my house, tons of huge poison ivy vines to cut.  I made large piles of brush containing the ivy and burned them.  On a Saturday I burned a particularly large pile with the smoke drifting back over the hill.  Sunday morning the guy living out of sight back there showed up at church with a bad rash, he asked me what I was burning.

 

I have nearly eliminated the poison ivy over the years by cutting the vines that go too high to spray, then wait till they develop many leaves that I can spray with Roundup.

[Snoopy11 5,714]

2 minutes ago, lynnmor said:

he asked me what I was burning.

 

Don

[Racinbob 11,095]

I bought some of this last spring.

 

 

Let me tell you IT WORKS. I was tired of spraying the limestone along our drive 4 or 5 times a year. One shot of RM43 and that was it. Be careful though. It will migrate and kill more than you planned to. Fortunately nothing important was destroyed. Poison ivy is listed and while I can't vouch for it in that regard but I'd bet it would do the job as long as there wasn't something you didn't want dead nearby. 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,326]

Another war story on burning it. I worked with this guy for 8 years 1976 to 1984. The year before I met him he burned a boat load of it. Every spring he broken out from head to foot because he breathed in the smoke. He bought calamine lotion by the case and had a note from the Dr. so he could wear shorts to work . He broke out every spring until he died. DON"T BURN POISON IVY !