permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

These plants are interesting from an ecology and evolutionary 
physiology perspective.  Poison ivy is very common in woods and 
slopes and creekbanks here in the Ozarks, on both dry and moist 
sites.

Anyways, I've done the mechanical removal method as recently as 
two weeks ago.  For reasonable amounts of growth, mechanical
removal can be quite sufficient.  Take care to use long handled 
rakes and loppers, trying not to touch the vines even with gloves on. 

One product you should be aware of is a liquid formulation called Tecnu.  
You rub it on your dry skin for 2 minutes, then it wash off in cool water.  
It removes the urishiol oils that cause the rash.  Highly, highly 
reommended.  There is a crew of volunteer forest restorationists here
attacking poison ivy and japanese honeysuckle by mechanical methods 
once a month and they have boxes of Tecnu on hand after the days
work.  Washing in soap and water alone does not remove the oils as well. 

But, for large populations of poison ivy, I would not hesitate to use 
a herbicide like Roundup.  Used to be there was a simple inorganic 
herbicide made from ammonium sulphamate that was geared to brush 
and poison ivy, but it is no longer registered. 

Goats will do the trick, but few people have goats especially in 
urban settings. 

Wish there was a goat grazing service, where you could call up 
the farmer and request a herd of goats for a week, so they can 
munch on your overgrown brush and take out poison ivy, 
briars, brambles, etc. to reclaim an overgrown patch and get it
ready for re-planting to native plants or desirable species.  Probably
that type of biological control might take 2 or even 3 visits
by the goats, to control re-growth.  Thereafter, sheet mulching 
could be sufficient to control unwanted vegetation. 

One more idea.  Get a heavy duty geotextile mulch such as 
DeWitt Sunbelt Weed Barrier.  These are black polypropylene 
mulches used in the nursery industry.  Cover the poisonous
plants, weigh the geotextile mulch down with rocks, and let
the plants die a slow death due to lack of sunlight.  This will 
take a few months, so probably most of a growing season is
lost.  If you start in the Spring, it should be ready for fall 
preparation and planting of perennials.  

Steve Diver

 

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steved@ncatark.uark.edu