Dear Fellow Pond Bosses,
We have a poison ivy problem on the wooded paths around our club's beautiful five acre pond. Can anyone give me some advice on the safest way to eradicate it or should I just suggest the membership wear long pants? I have researched various chemical sprays but I am not that enthusiastic about spraying right along the water's edge. Is there any product designed to help with this problem?
Thanks!
Paul
Leesburg, VA
"No life, my honest Scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant, as the life of a well-governed Angler; for when the Lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the States-man is preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on Cowslip- banks, hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us."
Izaak Walton
The Compleat Angler, 1653
Welcome to PBF Paul!
In my experience, Glyphosate is effective on poison ivy. There are several pond safe glyphosate herbicides on the market. I use AquaNeat but there are many others to choose from. Just make sure you get one that is pond safe. For example, Roundup is a glyphosate herbicide but is not considered pond safe.
Good Luck!
Bill D.
Bill,
Thanks for your quick replay. I will do as you suggest.
Regards,
Paul
Live poison ivy and dead poison ivy are equally bad. Killing the vines prevents the spread to new areas but that is the only problem it solves. The oil is what your skin is reacting to and the oil stays on the stems, vines, etc.
So mechanical removal is the best plan. You can mechanically remove when they are dead or alive, one way you use chemicals first, the other way you don't.
My advice is find people who are confirmed to not have hypersensitivity reactions to poison ivy oil and have them be involved in the removal.. Burning is not an attractive option due to smoke born carriage of the oil droplets.
Also the oil stays on the tools used in mechanical removal and can transmit to other people even months later.
Remember oil transmission through gloves, clothing etc is also a good way for spouses to get poison ivy when that clothes is handled later.
I'd love to see this thread be expanded to include the best ways to remove the oil, and for others to share the best way to treat the poison ivy once the rash is in place.
What I've done to eradicate poison ivy:
1) Put on a painter's suit that will be bagged and thrown away. Include the booties that will be worn over cheap shoes that can also be thrown out.
2) Put on 1 pair of surgical skin tight gloves followed by a second pair of work gloves that will allow me to grasp and have grip.
3) Lay out in advance the construction trash bags that will be used, the extra pairs of gloves in case the worn gloves tear, and most importantly the 5 gallon buckets of cool water with throw away cotton towels and Technu poison ivy scrub and Zanfel. I want everything laid out easy access ready to go.
4) Crossbow by Southern AG. Truly nasty stuff.
5) Cutting tools that will also be bagged and thrown out.
6) Ziplock bags
I cut back all the ivy and bagged it as I went. I left 8 inches above ground for vines that I could not pull out or off trees due to height up tree.
I then use trip zip lock bags and pour Crossbow in the bags and insert the vine then zip it close and position it so it cannot spill or leak. I have found that by allowing the vine to absorb the chemical for days the vine will kill itself. Once it was withered then I went in again and removed the dead vines.
X1000 on the 'don't burn it' part...I've known of several around my area that ended up in the hospital after breathing the smoke. Bad juju for sure.
basslover, you really go all out!! soaking vine in crossbow sounds great but in a big area that is a lot of zip lock bags!!
My .02 on tecnu. Read the label, active ingredient says: "deodorized mineral spirits" They put a fancy web page up, give it a fancy name, charge $12 per bottle. They tell you to wipe down everything that has oil on it as it 'separates the oil from your skin or clothing' (clothes, shoes, skin, pets etc)
I say save your money and just use mineral spirits instead. You can get about 4 gallons for $12.
Goats will readily eat poison ivy. They will probably eat it in preference to everything else there, but they're browsers, like deer, and will include a little of this and a little of that.
Old goats have been known to flop around in patches of it after consuming too much Falstaff.
I use roundup. Course I don't have any right near my ponds edge either. Guess it all depends on how much you have to spray too. I don't think a spray bottle of roundup like in my case a year is going to hurt my pond... specially if it has days to dry before it rains... Now if you need to use a couple gallons then that may be a different story...
RC
FWIW I've never done the mechanical removal part as I'm extremely allergic. I spray it two or three times during the summer and let Ma Nature decay the vines away. Second year I still do a spot check just to be sure. IIRC the oil in the dead vegetation is no longer viable after about a year. Just respect the dead stuff the same way you do the green stuff during that year.
I'm sensitive the the urushiol oil in poison ivy, typically suffer with outbreaks 6-8 times each year. That's a lot less than it used to be. I've been through many incidences with my eyes swollen shut and 1"+ diameter blisters all over face and arms. Prednisone was always the prescription that cleared it right up, I never messed with the anti-itch dopes and such. These days I wash down any exposed skin with rubbing alcohol after being out in the woods, every time. I still get it fairly often but the rubbing alcohol really cuts down on the severity, it works me.
I use glyphosate to kill it, I spray it as many times as necessary. Any brush with it on or in goes to a brush pile and burned, I just stay upwind. Good luck.
Bryan
poison ivy doesnt affect my blood line must be the indian side
I am also fortunate in that way, non reactive to p ivy, oak, and sumac. I just finished removing mechanically by hand a long fence row that included lots of poison ivy and poison oak. I could roll in the stuff and not get it. Mosquitoes and chiggers don't bite me much either. I wish I could say that blackberry and greenbriar don't stick me.