You had better check to see if your vegetables are even safe to eat after this insult. I don't think Mallet is registered for use on food crops. Are you saying you plan to gather and eat this stuff? Do not do that until you are sure it's safe to do so. I am very familiar with imidicloprid. It's the active ingredient in some greenhouse pesticides. Although I think it has been registered for use in some OTC products, what you were sprayed with isn't an OTC product. It has a long half life in soil. One source I saw quoted from about a month to over 200 days. That can affect whether you can even plant food there next year. Google Mallet, get the manufacturers number and tell them what happened and ask THEM!!!! if your food is safe to eat.

A tarp will not kill the poison ivy if it is just there for the time, I assume weeks at most, that it will take you to cut the vines from the tree. I'd think you could just cut the vines at the base of the tree in a few minutes, and let the plants wilt in place and die in the tree. If you had access to a sickle mower, you could mow a path to the tree, thereby cutting the poison ivy. You could choose to apply roundup to any cut surfaces you saw in the poison ivy, do your cutting at the tree and leave. It takes a while for ivy and creeper to get badly wrapped in a tree; my guess is that if you cut leading bases of the plants once a year, you will do a lot of good. Note also that you can buy cheap tyvek pants and jackets to wear while working in the ivy. Wear washable shoes, hand protection, and just wade into the mess. Renais

Exactly. But we still haven't heard from OP about how far they're willing to flex from that "organic" stance. From the core argument, it didn't sound like much, but I could be wrong. Like I said, I'll drop something on top of glyphosate, and 2,4-D isn't of great concern to me either. I use things judiciously at minimal levels and only when required (I'm IPM with a least-toxic approach and a strong lean toward organic where possible). And enough of a chemist to read a breakdown chain and understand residence times and the toxicity of the resultants, if only with a lot of help sometimes and a couple e-mails and vid calls to friends. :-) But kudos and love to those who prefer a more organic route than I do. :-) I avoid straw on principle (even the weed free stuff has weeds and its own seeds in it no matter what), but do use ecologically-sourced Canadian peat moss. Yes, that ecologically-sourced bit is...questionable, but it's better than nothing!

Thank you for checking into that, Megatron. That Spectracide product I've talked about works so very well, especially at killing problem grasses in a grass lawn, it's a shame you can't use it. I do understand the issues, though. I use it sparingly and cautiously. Generally weed and feed products don't work either for feeding or weeding. A liquid weed and feed would be especially poor at feeding due to the low amounts of nitrogen dissolved in the liquid. Grass uses nitrogen in quantities of pounds per 1,000 square feet. Liquids can only supply fractions of an ounce per 1,000 square feet. Liquids can green up grass quickly but only for a short term. You'd have to use it every week or two to keep up with the nitrogen demands of grass. Not only that, but if you use a weed n feed in April you are too early for fertilizer, whereas if you use it in May you are too late for weed control. Timing is always off with weed and feed products. You are far better off to apply an herbicide in April and a fertilizer in May. Unless someone from CA chimes in, you're going to have to do the research yourself. Please feel free to ask us about the products if you are not 100% confident about them. I like spray type herbicide for two reasons: 1) you can spot spray the weeds and not have to waste product on the entire yard, and 2) you don't have to "contaminate" the entire yard with herbicide like you usually do with dry chemical herbicides in bags. The herbicides which are safe for St Augustine will definitely mention that on the label. It's kind of a big deal to be safe for St Aug. The 2,4-d types of herbicides will kill St Aug, so watch the labels carefully.