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Poison Ivy is everywhere this year

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Anyone else having a problem with rampant growth of poison ivy this year?

If it was a cash crop I'd be rich :sad:

Is it the wet season causing the growth?
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Lots of it here as well. I suppose the rains have made it prolific this year...

Last summer while clearing an old farmsight i pulled some up with my hand not thinking about what it was untill a few minutes had gone by and I felt something going on with my hand. I had some WD40 in my truck and used it to wash my hand off. I only had a tiny area that i missed and the ivy come through. WD40 works to remove the harmfull oils of the ivy. GOOD TO REMEMBER...


Regards, Kirk
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I've been attacking it with herbicides.

Quite literally sprayed 50 gallons of herbicides around the house and property this year, much of which was aimed at poison ivy. Realize I only live on 8+ acres. I've not made a dent in the poison ivy.

Last night I noticed some new sprouts coming up in the rock garden. Its popping up in the flower beds. Along the edges of the woods. Along the road. Creeping into the paths. Growing up trees.
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Spray it while it is small is a good thing to do. easier to kill when little. roundup? it should kill the roots too.

This stuff sucks to have around. i get into it with out knowing and i am one sore puppy. ivy dry is the best product i have found to deal with the rash.

Regards, Kirk
 

luvs

'lil yinzer~
GOLD Site Supporter
i rang my Dad & checked. he must be busy.
you should not slide over hills covered in poison ivy. trust me. you'll have to take medicine & use oatmeal/aveeno fer soaks. then peel. ew. i learned that when i was 12.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well I've got a load of large Hostas to divide and plant, so my wife and I went out early to scout out places for me to plant about 40 1-gallon size transplants. Everywhere she wanted a group of hostas I saw more poison ivy!!!

Put on some gloves and went out to pull them. Found a well established mother plant, it was growing in an established hosta bed and keeping itself pretty well hidden in a corner of the yard where only the dogs roam. Pulled 2 handfulls of that plant out, root is still there, but I know where it is now.

Definitely brushed it across both of my forearms, I was not able to immediately wash, but I was only a few steps away from my workshop so I went looking for WD-40. Didn't find any, but I found PB Blaster?!? Sprayed my lower forearms, finished my work, went inside and scrubbed up in cold water with DAWN dishwashing soap. Dawn is an oil dispersant type of soap and I've heard lots of reports that it is good for washing away the oil of the poison ivy plant. Guess I'll find out!!!

In any case there is a lot more out there.
 

luvs

'lil yinzer~
GOLD Site Supporter
i'll play my cards- ur gettin' poison ivy. urishol oil (via that plant) clings. wash stuff, & soon. several times over. soap hooks onto oil molecules & they can then be rinsed away. from u & items u own, too.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
It would not surprise me. I've got all sorts of anti-itch stuff if I end up with rash/blisters from the contact.

I get it on my arms/legs every year, actually this year I've had less of it (so far) than other years despite the fact that its growing like crazy all over the area. Usually the contact is pretty minimal, today's contact was not too bad, just light contact. So be it. But on the good side, I got a bunch of it out of the flowers.

Oh, and the gloves are set aside, apart from other garden tools.
 

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
I have an abundance of it here too. I have been allergic to it my whole life. Roundup usually doesn't work on it here. I have to get the herbicide for woody plants. I used to get shots at the beginning of every spring until they took them off the market, no scientific proof it worked. Well they worked for me. But maybe someday.

The bad thing with poison ivy is the vine grows and spreads underground. Even if you cut it off at ground level it will pop up again somewhere else. If you are successful in killing the leaves with herbicide, the vine is still alive.

My Mom rinses her skin with bleach if she thinks she touched it. Seems to keep her from getting much of an irritation from it. But the bleach burns her skin, silly woman.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I use Round Up Brush Killer or Bayer Brush & Woody Plant Killer.

I also explain to my wife NOT to pull them when the leaves turn brown. I want the herbicide to get all the way to the roots. Usually there are signs of wilt in the second day, but that may just be superficial damage.
 

Leni

Active member
Thank God I don't have it here! The one time I ran into some my doctor told me that I'd end up in the hospital if I ever came in contact with it again. It was a very severe allergic reaction.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
You are lucky!

I just sprayed another gallon of brush killer on a new patch of poison ivy that i found adjacent to a back gate that we rarely use. There was a large patch on the other side of the gate opening that I had sprayed last week, this patch went unnoticed until today.
 
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