I just had the fields at our property bushhogged (I still don’t have my own tractor) - and the poison ivy has become far more aggressive than I remember it being last summer. We’ve owned the 25 acres for not quite 2 years and we’re moving out there in a couple of weeks, horse to follow about a month later if I can hurry and get the paddock and run-in built. Anyhow - the stuff isn’t everywhere, but it’s in places all over the property, including at least 2 acres in one corner. How the heck do I get rid of it??? Spray with roundup every day for years? Plow that whole area under? Relentless mowing? Help!
If your horses aren’t there yet you can use Roundup to beat it back, then plant good fast growing grass. If it starts to creep in again once the horses are there I wouldn’t worry, they’ll eat it quite happily and have no ill effects.
RoundUp works quite well on poison ivy.
G.
Goats
1 Like
We have poison ivy and oak everywhere and I keep it at bay with aggressive mowing around the pastures so it is basically self contained to the “wooded areas” only
It also wont thrive in sunny areas so if you are able to remove some/all of the shade it needs to proliferate you are a few steps ahead as well
Nasty stuff. I was weeding the garden last night and as I was pulling up some weeds bloody poison ivy plant was right beside it so inside I went to scrub down with a degreaser and then some alcohol for good measure and that seems to have done the trick - no worse for wear today … you apparently have 10-15 minutes to degrease before the toxins enter through your skin …
It doesnt seem to bother the dog, cat or horses, but you just have to be careful as if you touch THEM after they have touched IT, you can pick it up from them as its an oil base and stays on their costs for quite some time
Good luck!
I have never had good luck with Roundup killing my robust poison ivy. If I have poison ivy, I spray with a specific poison ivy killer-?Weed be Gone poison ivy spray. I have only used it on a vine here or there, in areas away from the horses. I guess I would try mowing the field regularly, and if that didn’t work I would spray the remaining poison ivy. I don’t know how long you have to keep horses off the field after using the poison ivy spray.
I am highly allergic to urishol, aka the oils in poison ivy, mango, poison oak, and many trees, including cashew. I know my enemy well.
I also have it in my pasture and what I do to get rid of it is I use a 2 gallon sprayer, and mix up weed be gone and spray. Roundup will kill your grass, and I don’t want dead grass in my pasture, especially in spots. Make sure the back label says it kills the “evil”. Spray it really well. No harm to the grass.
I have 15 acres, and it is good exercise to walk and spot spray, and I was mowing to day as a matter of fact, and I will be out tomorrow morning spraying, die evil die!!
Poison WILL thrive in sun, shade, and keep coming back year after year unless it is killed.
If you can not spot spray, I would suggest you call somebody to come and spray the entire pasture with grazon. You can google it up and read more about it. It is safe to leave horses, and other live stock on the pasture. And after they spray. I usually wait until it is dried then kick them out. Or if you can wait for it to rain. Needs to be sprayed then no rain for a few days. You should see the weeds just literally melt, but grass is happy.
We sprayed a couple years ago, didn’t this year but will next year.
I have a memory for the poison ivy locations or where I see it (like an elephant) and I will go back and spray it. No evil escapes MY memory. I have it in for poison oak too. I always make it 1/2oz stronger than what they say.
This is the BEST site on the evil.
Read this:
Oh take the test too! I know my evil well, I got a perfect score.
“Leaves of three, leave it be.” I chant this in my head when I trail ride in the deep woods.
Go spray, and be happy!
There is a “special” poison ivy killer spray, which works very well IME. Spray it, wait for it to wilt, then cut the plant of at the roots. Roundup works OK, too.
I was covered with the stuff when I was a kid, constantly. Since I’ve grown up, it doesn’t seem to bother me very much any more, which is weird–I know I’ve been exposed, but almost never get a rash any more. Anyone else?
[QUOTE=deltawave;4953887]
I was covered with the stuff when I was a kid, constantly. Since I’ve grown up, it doesn’t seem to bother me very much any more, which is weird–I know I’ve been exposed, but almost never get a rash any more. Anyone else?[/QUOTE]
Lucky! I had the opposite trend - spent my childhood running around weedy parks, creeks, etc., and never got it, never even knew what it looked like. 25 years old, gardening and bam, horrible poison ivy.
I dunno if it’s lucky–now that I’m old enough to not do stupid things like barge through the woods in cutoffs and bare feet, I could probably avoid the stuff if I made half an effort. Back then, though, I sure would’ve liked to be like you–free of pink blotches of calamine from April through October! :lol:
I would go ahead and spray. Mowing just opens the canopy so ivy gets ALL the sunshine to flourish and it will!!
I use Round-up mixed correctly, spray until it drips off the plants. It takes almost the entire 14 days before the plants yellow and appear dying. At the 14 days, I check for surviving ivy, spray again so it is dripping, and check again in 14 more days.
That seems to take care of my ivy, just wilts away. I might find one or two sprouts later in the season, respray them.
I use an electric hand sprayer, which pumps the liquid from a 2 gallon tank on wheels. I LOVE the sprayer unit which has a battery powered hand sprayer that makes weed killing no work. I no longer have to pump up the pressure, keep messing with the sprayer when covering lots of area. Just push the trigger and electric sprayer does it’s work all day long. My batteries last for WEEKS of work.
A product with dicamba (Banvel) would work on poison ivy too. Weedmaster is one that comes to mind (2,4-d + dicamba) that is safe for pasture. Kills the weeds but won’t kill the grass.
yup- never used to have much poison ivy in my old stomping grounds because it was all woods and brush. They mowed it down for public park space and now NO ONE can use it because the poison ivy just went crazy with growth after the forest and bushes were removed…and the municipality is not allowed to use herbicides.
People can “grow out” of some allergies, or develop new ones.
I never used to get poison ivy or nettle rash as a kid. Nowadays, even if I brush against nettles with long pants on, I get the rash. Thankfully, in my new stomping grounds, poison ivy is rare. Poison Oak and Poison sumac are common though, but I don’t seem to get a rash from them.
Thanks all - I bought a gallon of roundup yesterday so I’ll go ahead and use that up and then look at some of the alternatives for poison-ivy specific killing… I’d rather not kill the grass too! Unfortunately, I think I’ve become more allergic over the years. I used to never have trouble so long as I was reasonably careful about it, but I was planting some little trees out there last November in one of the afflicted areas (this is November in Michigan, mind you - everything is supposed to be dead as it had been cold and snowing already!) I didn’t see any live ivy or mature vines, but I somehow got it all over one forearm so badly that I had to get steroid pills from the doc. Anyhow, I guess this is reason #868 to hurry up and figure out a way to afford that tractor… :o
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, NO MORE ROUNDUP!!! These chemicals throw the earth out of balance…This stuff is partially responsible for the degradation of our planet. God put every little being on this Earth for a reason, and thats not to destroy it. There is a delicate balance in nature, and with pollution and man-made chemicals, we have gone way past the line. I urge you to consider organic practices, such as fixing the ph of the soil. Do research! If you kill the planet, you kill our (God’s) children. Blessings!
Round-up has not worked on our poison ivy. I bought a poison ivy specific spray, and it didn’t work either. I think I’ve had poison ivy constantly since we started leasing the 30 overgrown acres next door. It’s everywhere - acres of poison ivy and briars, but I am so happy to have it, lol.
While I generally share your sentiment, poison ivy must die!
Roundup or other, I don’t care, death to this wicked vine!
I got some in wired places pulling up dormant stuff. no fun.
I then invested in ‘brush-b-gone’ which seemed to work well.
I think dormant poison ivy is worse than actively growing stuff…at least you can see the leaves…
but that and fire ants…no mercy!
Have you added a squirt of liquid dish soap to your Round-Up or other weed killers? The soap helps the herbicides stick better to the leaves, so it doesn’t run off so fast.
There are times when spraying may be more effective in plant killing, usually early in the season. Some plants, Honeysuckle, maybe Poison Ivy, develop a waxy coating that seems to prevent herbicides from penetrating the plants well enough to kill them. This could be part of “It’s NOT WORKING” problems.
I choose Round-Up or one of the generic glycosophate products because they DO break down to nothing in a shorter time. Not supposed to accumulate in the soil as other week killers do. They are a safer product for the land than almost any other herbicide. They are NOT for use by or on water runoff places. Of course if you dose the land heavily, do not follow directions, you can cause problems.
READ the labels and follow directions, cautions, to use the chemical products responsibly and safely. You want to keep YOURSELF and the land safe from “accidental” side effects when using chemicals of any sort.
I’ll tell you what.
I promise not to spray RoundUp on poison ivy any more.
If you come here and dig it all up with your bare hands.
Ive had good luck digging up the PI with my metal pitchfork, and then using latrile or nitrile gloves to yank it up, throw it in the gator and take it out back to the manure pile
We have it everywhere and I am so acutely aware of it, and also hesitate that split second when I am weeding before I grab something and yank, to make sure of what it is I am touching
