To chemically eradicate poison oak and poison ivy, use a herbicide containing glyphosate, triclopyr, or a 3-way herbicide containing amine 2, 4-D, dicamba and mecoprop. See Table 1 for products containing these active ingredients. These herbicides can kill desirable plants, so be careful. A sharp trowel or shovel should work well to remove the roots of poison ivy.
You can also use scissors or clippers to remove vines or branches first. If you use chemicals in your yard or garden, systemic herbicides or herbicides are a quick fix for poison ivy. Poison ivy spreads through seeds and rhizomes, so it is important to remove root systems that are located just below the ground. You should not use a herbicide and then try to remove poison ivy by hand, because then you will be at risk of skin contact with poison ivy itself, as well as with the chemicals in the herbicide.
Yes, Pauline, this solution will kill any living plant, including trees, but not the volume dispensed from a spray bottle. As long as you have a good pair of work gloves (and a full sleeve set of clothes), the answer to your problem can be as simple as digging up poison ivy with a garden trowel. We translate the science of everyday life for farmers, families and communities to foster a healthy and prosperous Georgia. Salt to put on winter sidewalks kills everything, stack it on the roots of a vine, if you can cut it, better yet, I have cut live trees, I have poured a bag of rock salt on the stump, and it will never grow again.
If you're not sure if you have poison ivy, put on a thick pair of gloves and cut off a bunch of leaves to examine it closely. The useful phrase comes in handy when passing through an unknown lawn, but when the invasive plant finds its way into your yard or garden, children may not be as careful and daily activities may be disrupted when homeowners are forced to work around those “leaves of three” they cause itch. But poison ivy can also look a lot like poison oak or hairy raspberry leaves (which you don't want to kill), and it's often confused with the Virginia vine (which has clusters of five leaves). Identify poison ivy and a similar plant, poison oak, by the memorable rhyme leaves of three, let it be.
Unless you have a severe reaction, you should be able to treat a poison ivy rash without consulting a doctor. Poison ivy has a complex root system, so if you remove plants from the ground but don't get rid of the roots, it will continue to grow. These are chemicals that I don't use in my garden, but if I had a backyard overrun by poison ivy and young children stumbling through it, I'd want a quick fix to the problem.
