I've never gone on the offensive against poison ivy before. I just learned to avoid it.
But that's changed. I bought 4 gallons of 43% glyphosate,.. been mixing it 18 ounces to 2 gallons of water,..and every couple of days for the past week or so I take my 2 gallon sprayer and go in search of it.
I saw how much of that stuff was growing on my 5 acre patch last year and I just thought there was too much of it to tackle. But this year, I've decided to make it a routine to go on search and destroy missions to rid my place of it.
It's difficult to get to some of it because it grows in the shade of brush,..so I've got to climb up inside the grown up areas of my place to get to it.
I've made about 4 swoops of the place so far and today I noticed that it's getting hard to find any that isn't in the process of dying from my previous applications of weed killer.
I know I'll never be able to completely eradicate it. But I'm going to appreciably thin it out.
It helps that I'm able to spot it so well. I got wrecked a couple of times by poison ivy when I was a kid and I learned to spot it at an early age. One sprig of poison ivy can be growing in a patch of Virginia creeper and I can lock onto it.
Come down here and get all that schit around my stomping grounds when you’re done if you find yourself bored. I hate that stuff with a passion, have already had two bad cases of it this year from hunting turkeys and arrowheads.
Come down here and get all that schit around my stomping grounds when you’re done if you find yourself bored. I hate that stuff with a passion, have already had two bad cases of it this year from hunting turkeys and arrowheads.
I know how that can be. You've got to learn to spot it. As mentioned, it made a mess of me a couple of times when I was a kid and I learned to pick it out from everything growing around it.
every spring when the grass is come in but its not to hot, i put on long pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves and a hat and go around ripping that stuff up
it still comes back, over time I've learned to aim the weed eater away from when I hit it, then when I finish i come inside and scrub my face and neck.
Had a bunch of poison oak growing out of an hollow old growth stump on my old place. Waited till winter in a rain storm when I was sure everyone was inside and threw a bunch of firewood down the hole, lit er up, and threw some drywall over the top. Cooked that schit alive and never came back. Made me smile.
There is no question about it, you can eliminate it, you just have to keep at it. When you think you have it all take a break for a couple of weeks and go looking for it again.
every spring when the grass is come in but its not to hot, i put on long pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves and a hat and go around ripping that stuff up
it still comes back, over time I've learned to aim the weed eater away from when I hit it, then when I finish i come inside and scrub my face and neck.
hate that stuff
Get a 2 gallon spray bottle and some glyphosate concentrate. It kills it at the roots. It'll kill everything else it touches, however. So you need to concentrate on only putting it where you want it to go.
You can avoid killing everything in an area when killing poison oak if you make a hockey stick shaped pvc applicator. The top end of the stick has a screw plug, the bottom of the stick has some small holes drilled in it and a car wash mitt zip tied around it. Roundup drips outa the stick into the mitt, wipe it across the tops of the leaves and you won't kill nothin you don't want to.
I'm not sure what variety we have up here but a little Outlaw wilts it down fast.
I believe Outlaw is a version of Banvel?
Glyphosate does a good job. But it takes a couple of days to see that it's working. That premixed poison ivy killer is glyphosate mixed with some type of defoliant and it will pucker it up overnight. But good old glyphosate will take it out all by itself. The results are just not as immediate.
Didn’t have great luck with glyphosate here since poison ivy is a woody plant. Brush killer does the trick though. Had a big patch that hit the dust when I borrowed a tractor with a squirrel cage blower on the back, covered 50-60 ft at a swath
This has been an extremely bad year for poison ivy in my neck of the woods. Like you, I spotted it early and did weekly search and destroy missions also. I've got it wiped out. Of course, I'm not dealing with 5 acres but me and the Round Up laid it low.
I'm in a similar battle with wild parsnip. It spreads like wild fire and in the last 5 years its taken over every ditch and CRP field in Iowa. I have som nice CRP planted in native wild flowers and grasses that I'm trying to save. I'm also getting Canadian thistles and common mullins as well.. i put a 15 gallon sprayer on my ATV and spray from it. I use some pasture spray I get at Tractor Supply .
If you have good fences, goats love the stuff and they're immune to it. They'll clean it right up. Just don't pet them after they've been wallowing in it.
Glyphosate mixed according to label instructions will kill it, and just about anything else. Tractor Supply sells their 41% concentrate for $10/quart. It may kill plants a little slower than Roundup brand, but at 1/3 the cost, I can wait. I found out last year that there is a glyphosate-resistant horseweed in some areas; unfortunately the horseweed around my place is the resistant variety.
I've only got about an acre that I'm having to work on. My problem is, it's also covered with honeysuckle bushes. I want to cut the honeysuckle bushes, but the ground under them is carpeted with poison ivy.
I fight poison oak on our property, but use a much weaker dose of glysophate - about 4 ounces per gallon plus a sticker. I want the plant to die slowly so it has more time to get to the roots. If I go to a higher concentration I find that the leaves burn off quickly, it doesn't get all the way to the roots and it just comes back a year later.
If you have good fences, goats love the stuff and they're immune to it. They'll clean it right up. Just don't pet them after they've been wallowing in it.
When my daughter was a 4H kid we had goats. They killed every broadleaf on the place except goatweed. Poison ivy was completely eliminated.
That's the ticket. Glyphosate is mostly a grass killer. 2-4-d works better on broad-leafs. 2-4-d by itself will probably kill the ivy and won't kill any grass.
Guess I must have a natural resistance to poison ivy and such because I've been in and all around it countless times in my life and so far have never had any reaction from it whatsoever,
Guess I must have a natural resistance to poison ivy and such because I've been in and all around it countless times in my life and so far have never had any reaction from it whatsoever,
Many people seem to be immune like that. Then one day they get in the stuff and it nails them. Apparently a susceptibility slowly builds up in the body then bang, you get hit.
I got it horribly bad as a kid. Always had a span during the summer when some part of me looked like I had massive chemical burns. Eyes swelled shut, fingers swollen to half again their normal size and covered in blisters, legs raw and weeping, terrible stuff.
Then in my late teens I seemed to have built a resistance and rarely had a reaction and when I did it was just a few bumps or a mild rash.
Now after I’d moved to a poison ivy free zone for 10 years and came back home I seem to get it just as badly as when I was a little guy. Guess my resistance went away since I wasn’t using it.
That's the ticket. Glyphosate is mostly a grass killer. 2-4-d works better on broad-leafs.
The glyphosate seems to be killing it fairly well. I don't expect it to be permanent, however. Right now I just want to get it knocked down enough so that I can cut some trees in the fall.
I know you still have to be careful around it when it's dead, but I'm just working to keep it from taking over, at this point. I expect it to be an annual ritual.
Next year I'll go after it with 2-4-D. But this year I'm about 85% through it and still have a lot of glyphosate to use up.
There's one place out back about 20' X 8' that was just a carpet of poison ivy. It's right beside a tree that I need to take down. That patch is what made me decide to start fighting it every place I see it. It was over grown with light brush when I bought the place. I started mowing it and had it cleared out pretty good. But then it covered over with poison ivy.
I just went scorched earth on it. I think it's going to be a dirt patch for a year or so.
There's one place out back about 20' X 8' that was just a carpet of poison ivy. It's right beside a tree that I need to take down.
Poison ivy berries are a common food source for birds, which often leads to the seeds being deposited under trees, powerlines, etc. and resulting in poison ivy hot spots.
Keep in mind killing the plant with herbicide just kills the plant, the urisol is still out there and the plants far less visible when dead.
Although I have not needed to clear acres of poison ivy or similar plants on my acre it was far easier, cheaper and very effective to suit up and pull it by hand. The first year I stuffed two forty gallon bags full that weighed about forty pounds each. I have only had it return around two trees and it's easy to spot.
I'm not allergic to it, but my wife is, so I have to keep it sprayed around the place so she doesn't get into it. Like some other posters on here, a mix of glysophate and 2-4-D is what I use. Also, there's a product called Crossbow that's good for poison ivy and just about anything else like it.
Guess I am lucky as I can be all in it and it does nothing to me. My dad and middle brother same way. My son is 4 and it doesn’t do anything to him either.
Guess I must have a natural resistance to poison ivy and such because I've been in and all around it countless times in my life and so far have never had any reaction from it whatsoever,
Many people seem to be immune like that. Then one day they get in the stuff and it nails them. Apparently a susceptibility slowly builds up in the body then bang, you get hit.
That’s what happened to me, now I just look at the crap and I get it. Have had it internally too...not fun.
Nobody's mentioned puttin a little dish soap in the glyph mix yet, so I'll throw it in here.
1/4 cup in your 2 gallon sprayer will enhance the effectiveness of the spray, makin it go farther.
Add the water first, then concentrate then soap, so it don't foam up while mixin it.
Yep - the soap acts as a surfactant (a substance which tends to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved).. Commonly used on several row crops for weed control...
6. Another technique to clear the area of poison ivy is by planting grass seed. Ivy will not grow where there is a lawn. I tried this at my cottage and it worked. The only downside is that it takes time, but, once you have grass, you won’t have poison ivy.
yep what I found as well, Ortho brush killer concentrate is what I have used and Ortho ground clear in the past. Roundup also does not work on english ivy at all.
6. Another technique to clear the area of poison ivy is by planting grass seed. Ivy will not grow where there is a lawn. I tried this at my cottage and it worked. The only downside is that it takes time, but, once you have grass, you won’t have poison ivy.
I've gotta say that's not correct. We've had a really wet, cool spring and it was growing right out in the yard of a place I own. It was so wet, you couldn't keep it mowed weekly. Its dried out some now and I got it controlled after mowing it twice.
I keep 4 acres mowed. There's not much poison ivy in the places I keep clear. But the acre that's grown over is lousy with poison ivy.
I'm slowly cleaning it out the old fashioned way,...with a chainsaw. But every now and then I think about hiring a man with a forestry mulcher to just "do it".
Yep, my arms were covered in poison ivy/oak/sumac from cleaning out a fence row a weeks back. I bought a brush cutter with a steel blade to cut out blackberry vine and saplings in a fence row. I went to pulling on the cut vines and I came in contact on my arms. I just let it dry up with no cortisone usually.
I went back thought and sprayed with Pramitol. That stuff is wicked as it is a soil sterilant. It kills anything in the dirt for about a year. It's good for fencerows but bad for crops/quail. I don't like using it a lot but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I've been thinking about getting one of those to go after the honeysuckle,....just so I won't have to spend so much time working my back bending over to cut it flush with the ground with a chainsaw.
Honda makes a good one with a 4 stroke motor for $400. But they're hard to find.
I use Round-up mixed with Crossbow on poison oak and blackberries. I mix in dye to make sure I spayed what I want and don't over spray. We don't have much poison oak, but it does a number on it. Hell on blackberries, too.
I've had it once, I didn't notice the vine on some huge logs I cut and carried, short sleeved and the log edges digging into my arms while vine was dripping juice into the abrasions. Otherwise I can basically roll in it. I have a similar fight going every year with thistle however. A neighbor with a 25-30 acre pasture which right now looks more like a thistle production farm. My place is almost thistle free but in about 2-3 weeks seeds will be raining over in the breeze. They always wait to cut/bush-hog until after it goes to seed.
Keep in mind killing the plant with herbicide just kills the plant, the urisol is still out there and the plants far less visible when dead.
Although I have not needed to clear acres of poison ivy or similar plants on my acre it was far easier, cheaper and very effective to suit up and pull it by hand. The first year I stuffed two forty gallon bags full that weighed about forty pounds each. I have only had it return around two trees and it's easy to spot.
Trying that would kill me.
I don't even like to step on it with shoes.
I'm not phobic about much of anything. But it's fair to say that I'm phobic about poison ivy. I've had some very bad experiences with it. It left a lasting impression on me.
Been fightin' that crrap for 50yrs.! Round-up, Crossbow & a little Dawn dish soap tank mix will kill it dead. Genaric brands make it more affordable & work just as good.
That's the ticket. Glyphosate is mostly a grass killer. 2-4-d works better on broad-leafs. 2-4-d by itself will probably kill the ivy and won't kill any grass.
Sorry guys. This just is not true.
Glyphosate kills the broadleaf plants as effectively as it does the grasses. Adding 2-4D to the mix just allows you to see the broadleafs wilt sooner.
All it is, is a feel good thing.
When I want everything dead, I use Glyphosate. It leaves bare ground behind.
When I want to leave the grass alive, I use Brash, Weedmaster. or Range Star interchangeably to kill blackberry, willow, scotch thistle, canadian thistle, bull thistle, wild rose, sweet clover, or dandelions out of the lawn. I bought 2.5 gal of Range Star at the local Farm Supply for $69 last week. I mix three quarts into a 25 gal ATV sprayer for 3% and kill everything I need to.
It is much less expensive to use just the chemical you need to use, and it is more environmentally friendly.
I've been thinking about getting one of those to go after the honeysuckle,....just so I won't have to spend so much time working my back bending over to cut it flush with the ground with a chainsaw.
Honda makes a good one with a 4 stroke motor for $400. But they're hard to find.
Bristoe, The Hondas are nice but heavy. I purchased an Echo SRM-410U. It's a 42.7cc 2-stroke. You still need to wear a harness but it takes no prisoners when that blade starts spinning. Add a carbide blade or a chisel tooth blade similar to a chainsaw and look out. You certainly don't want to trip when using it.
The chainsaw style blade is often called a Beaver Blade. I have a pair of them I rotate through in the fall when I'm trimming up all my deerstands. A heavier-duty line trimmer will spin them just fine, mine is a Shindaiwa. A guy can clean up a lot of stuff with a Beaver Blade, a Stihl pole saw, and a chainsaw.
I've knocked a few patches down with Roundup, but it never grows much over a foot or so up here in the north because of the winters. Not so in Florida however. We were out birding and the local curator at the park said to be careful of the poison ivy. He pointed out a tree just off the trail that had it growing up and around that tree at least 40' high!!! I had no idea that it would grow that large, but if it is a true ivy, it can climb. I was amazed.
Been fightin' that crrap for 50yrs.! Round-up, Crossbow & a little Dawn dish soap tank mix will kill it dead. Genaric brands make it more affordable & work just as good.
Round up does not need to have any surfactant or crop oil added... see the label.
you are using gly waaaayyyyyy to heavy... 2 oz per gal will smoke it... put fertilizer on it and the deer will eat it to the ground...
Maybe,....but it's killing it. The area I'm working is over grown brush,..so I'm not worried about killing anything that happens to get in the way. The worst places are in the shade of some big honeysuckle bushes and bradford pear trees. There's not much else growing up under them,...maybe some miscellaneous weeds here and there. As soon as I get the poison ivy beat down I'm going to start cutting the brush. If it get's killed during the poison ivy eradication process, it's no loss.
Prescribed burning will get rid of poison ivy. Alternate your burns between Fall and Spring to get the maximum plant diversity without the poison ivy (and autumn olives, honeysuckle, etc).
I've only got about an acre that I'm having to work on. My problem is, it's also covered with honeysuckle bushes. I want to cut the honeysuckle bushes, but the ground under them is carpeted with poison ivy.
6. Another technique to clear the area of poison ivy is by planting grass seed. Ivy will not grow where there is a lawn. I tried this at my cottage and it worked. The only downside is that it takes time, but, once you have grass, you won’t have poison ivy.
This is BS. Poison ivy grows in my lawn, though it is very tiny, stunted like. But it is there and far more common than you know unless you actually look for it.
I am on the same warpath. Somehow I got the durn Poison ivy juice on my hands and then it spread to all sorts of nooks and crannies that were covered up by jeans and a long sleeved t shirt as I was doing yard work I knew I got in the stuff and quickly stripped and showered but.....gotcha!
Anyway next day I lad down 4 gallons of Round Up on 3/4 of an acre, and I'm going to hit it again in another week. Same dose. That stuff is evil!
I am on the same warpath. Somehow I got the durn Poison ivy juice on my hands and then it spread to all sorts of nooks and crannies that were covered up by jeans and a long sleeved t shirt as I was doing yard work I knew I got in the stuff and quickly stripped and showered but.....gotcha!
Anyway next day I lad down 4 gallons of Round Up on 3/4 of an acre, and I'm going to hit it again in another week. Same dose. That stuff is evil!
Rubbing alcohol. That's what I clean up with after I've been out working in it. Then I shower.
In fact, I just went through the process about 45 minutes ago.
I was all up under stuff getting up close and personal with poison ivy infested areas with my sprayer.
As soon as I finish, I grab a wash cloth and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and give my face and arms a good scrub,..then a shower.
I've only got about an acre that I'm having to work on. My problem is, it's also covered with honeysuckle bushes. I want to cut the honeysuckle bushes, but the ground under them is carpeted with poison ivy.
I've got to get rid of the poison ivy first.
Burn it all!
It would burn the whole county down if I set that whole honeysuckle/bradford pear patch on fire.
Interesting. We have a gent in the next town over who rents his goats out. Kind of a laugh around these parts, but with a thoughtful look in the distance as the laugh goes down. I'm thinking mebbe its worth it....
I had 3 acres that was literally covered with the stuff along with thick briars.
A trip to the farmers auction and a truckload of goats and pigs in the back had me buying electric fence wire to enclose the whole thing. In a few weeks everything was down to the dirt.
That's the ticket. Glyphosate is mostly a grass killer. 2-4-d works better on broad-leafs. 2-4-d by itself will probably kill the ivy and won't kill any grass.
Sorry guys. This just is not true.
Glyphosate kills the broadleaf plants as effectively as it does the grasses. Adding 2-4D to the mix just allows you to see the broadleafs wilt sooner.
All it is, is a feel good thing.
When I want everything dead, I use Glyphosate. It leaves bare ground behind.
When I want to leave the grass alive, I use Brash, Weedmaster. or Range Star interchangeably to kill blackberry, willow, scotch thistle, canadian thistle, bull thistle, wild rose, sweet clover, or dandelions out of the lawn. I bought 2.5 gal of Range Star at the local Farm Supply for $69 last week. I mix three quarts into a 25 gal ATV sprayer for 3% and kill everything I need to.
It is much less expensive to use just the chemical you need to use, and it is more environmentally friendly.
I'm a dumbass, not a horticulturalist, or chemist. But the extension people, and ag folks recommend the mix to kill resistant weeds, And more mature weeds.
2,4D is for killing broadleaves, but leaving grass. Glypho, tries to kill everything. But, they each enhance the killing power of the other.
Again, if you disagree, Penn State Ag is who you are arguing with. Except, I will say, in my experience, it works.
He pointed out a tree just off the trail that had it growing up and around that tree at least 40' high!!! I had no idea that it would grow that large, but if it is a true ivy, it can climb. I was amazed.
That's the ticket. Glyphosate is mostly a grass killer. 2-4-d works better on broad-leafs. 2-4-d by itself will probably kill the ivy and won't kill any grass.
Sorry guys. This just is not true.
Glyphosate kills the broadleaf plants as effectively as it does the grasses. Adding 2-4D to the mix just allows you to see the broadleafs wilt sooner.
All it is, is a feel good thing.
When I want everything dead, I use Glyphosate. It leaves bare ground behind.
When I want to leave the grass alive, I use Brash, Weedmaster. or Range Star interchangeably to kill blackberry, willow, scotch thistle, canadian thistle, bull thistle, wild rose, sweet clover, or dandelions out of the lawn. I bought 2.5 gal of Range Star at the local Farm Supply for $69 last week. I mix three quarts into a 25 gal ATV sprayer for 3% and kill everything I need to.
It is much less expensive to use just the chemical you need to use, and it is more environmentally friendly.
I'm a dumbass, not a horticulturalist, or chemist. But the extension people, and ag folks recommend the mix to kill resistant weeds, And more mature weeds.
2,4D is for killing broadleaves, but leaving grass. Glypho, tries to kill everything. But, they each enhance the killing power of the other.
Again, if you disagree, Penn State Ag is who you are arguing with. Except, I will say, in my experience, it works.
Oh, it certainly works. But you will certainly never see a pro applying it that way as it would be wasted money out of his pocket. When spraying 500 or 1000 acres, that's a lot of cash.
When your dealing with a 1/4 acre lot, it is not such a big deal.
And by the way, I carried a commercial applicator's license in Oregon for 12 years, and controlled the weeds on a out 400 acres of commercial property during that time.
Previous applicators used the mix of Weedmaster and Roundup. When I took over the account I used Weedmaster for 98% of spray duties and made up a tank of Roundup when needed for grassy patches.
I reduced the cost of materials by over 50% for that account compared to the average of the previous five years.
Idaho Shooter, Actually that's where I got the idea. That is what is recommended to farmers for some tough weeds, And those that have become glypho resistant.
No, they aren't pro applicators, but they are paying the bill, And consult the top ag people.
Not for every acre or field, but to address problem areas.
For my small areas, money doesn't matter, I go nuclear. Heck, I open the bark on junk trees and give them 42% glypho in the peeled back bark. They die.
2,4D is for killing broadleaves, but leaving grass. Glypho, tries to kill everything. But, they each enhance the killing power of the other. .
I've used them mixed like that before. It's good stuff for when you just want to nuke stuff deader than dead. Gly works better on grass, 2,4D on broadleaves, mixed kills everything.
When the temp is above 80 24D will drift and kill other things you aren't targeting. Sometimes it will move a long distance. Some states have date restrictions for when you can and can't spray 2,4D. I have used Glycophosphate to kill it in my yard. It will grow up through thick grass. One of my neighbors has it growing next to the street in their yard. They mow it and it pops back up.
I don't disagree with that guy. But good old rubbing alcohol is a cheap solvent that will take poison Ivy juice off your body.
When I'm out working around it I keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a wash cloth out on the bathroom counter. As soon as I come in I give my face, neck, and arms a good cleaning with it,...sometimes followed by a shower if I've been close to a lot of it.
But from what I've read, if you wait much longer than 30 minutes to clean it off, you're outta luck.
