My environmental mom advocates gloving up and pulling it out by the roots, bagging and then showering With dish soap. She is allergic but not as bad as I am. I just bought round up for the first time but your making me feel guilty enough to go return it tomorrow.

I tried vinegar mixed with salt and dish soap it worked a bit but didn’t get rid of it completely.

I am in the pulling and bagging group if your ground is moist. One of the things that works for me when it is dry is to find a runner and pull upward as I walk toward the main roots. Once I reach the main root I cut the runner off. Then on to the next. If you can reduce the area in this manner to a few main roots and allow them to leaf out you can spray a much smaller area. You need to have the leaves so that the chemical moves back into the roots easier. I wear an old pair of shoes, sock, and long pants while I do it.

Sometimes if the root does not die I have been known to dig it out with a shovel.

How much poison ivy are you dealing with?

For seedlings, I put a plastic grocery bag over the plant and pull the whole plant out, then tie the bag closed and throw it in the trash. Over time you learn where the birds sit to deposit poison ivy seeds, so if you patrol those areas a few times per year you can get the seedlings while they are still small.

For poison ivy plants too large to bag, I use round-up. I figure a small amount of an effective poison causes less harm than large amounts of a less effective control. I don't use round-up on anything else.

eta: I also keep a tube of "Tecnu" around, for scrubbing off if the plant touches skin.

I‘m with nickel. If you have a lot of PI, go with Roundup.

If it is growing up the trees, cut a one-inch section away, near the ground. Apply RoundUp at the cut surface of the part coming from the ground, otherwise it will grow back.

PI is tenacious, it is one of those things that calls for the big guns. I didn’t used to be sensitive to it until I spend a weekend pulling out the garlic mustard in our wee patch of woods. I didn’t realize that there was PI under the garlic mustard. I was miserable for weeks.

And Tecnu. We keep a bottle of it at the utility sink. I didn’t realize I needed it, until it was too late. Now I use it every time I work in the yard.

I won't use round up for health reasons for humans and animals including bees.

I pull it, cut it dig it out and leave it to dry in the sun for days until completely dead. Then I dump it up in the back. I wouldn't put it in the trash as it's likely to impact someone down the line who has to deal with it. The oil can stay active, even on a dead plant for years.

You can also kill it by smothering from light with tarp or cardboard or even heavy layers of newspapers. But that presumes it's not in and amongst things you want to keep.

I wouldn't use roundup on anything but I agree PI is tenacious. I could roll in it when I was younger and nothing. Now if I look at it I get it. One tiny spot on my leg so far but the summer is far from over. I have my husband pull it out because he's not allergic.

When I worked in lawn care, we pulled mountains of poison ivy. Sometimes it took two or three seasons, but even where it came back, it was diminished.

According to my boss's research, killing it with chemicals doesn't really solve the problem. All parts of the plant have the oil that causes the rash, and it can remain on the dead parts for up to five years. So possibly, dead plants are worse than live, because you can't see them.

I wash up well with dawn dishwashing liquid after gardening in PI and it really helps. Urushiol is an oil and dawn is good at cutting grease. In the old days, we'd wipe off the skin with gasoline and then wash it right away as there is nothing that cuts oil better than gasoline. Now at least it's unleaded. :)

Also your immunity to it can change over time. I find I'm largely immune but then once in awhile I'll have a significant rash, and then only mild reactions again for years.

A public service announcement about PI for those that don't know - you should never burn poison ivy. The oils can become airborne and if you breathe it in, the effects can be very bad.

Thanks, everyone! I know all too well the power packed by dead poison ivy. On my ice house are the long-dead remains of poison ivy that
was killed well before we moved here in 1975. About 20 years ago I dug into the
soil at the base of the ice house with a trowel. The trowel cut one of the
roots of that long-dead ivy, and the oil sprayed into my
face. I had no idea this had happened until I awoke the next morning with
vertigo, my lower face covered in poison ivy. Thank heavens I wore glasses
at the time. This has made me wary of pulling it out of the ground.

There was a time (this is going back years) when I would patrol the property every spring wearing a Roundup backpack. I got rid of a lot of poison ivy that way, and it's not as prolific today as it was then. But it still pops up near the house--and undoubtedly on the rest of the acreage, which I haven't checked in a long time.

Annie, for some reason it never occurred to me to smother poison ivy with cardboard. This surprises me, as I am a cardboard freak. :-) I use a lot it--not as much as I used to when I gardened on a much larger scale, but I still raid appliance stores for their giant boxes every couple of years. Setting pieces of cardboard here and there around the property to kill poison ivy won't be pretty, but safety and effectiveness count more than appearance. If we weren't in the pandemic and I were free to visit nurseries I would weigh the cardboard down with pots of flowers. Maybe next year.

Blue Dawn . . . yes. Combined with friction, I've read. As effective as Tecnu, I've been told, and much cheaper.

Elmer, we fostered goats for almost a year a couple of years ago for friends who were dealing with a medical situation. The goats were very helpful!

Increased amounts of CO2 in the air due to global warming is promoting the growth of poison ivy - not only are the plants more vigorous, their range is extending and the plant is producing stronger urushiol.

DH ordered bottles of concentrated vinegar (it comes in various concentrations) from Amazon and it works great on common weeds. On tenacious weeds like thistle and poison ivy it does kill the leaves but often the plant grows back. I use concentrated Round-up and brush it on the leaves and stems.

One of the coolest "natural" things I've seen in recent years was when a local golf club hired a "goat service" to clear out very overgrown brush in the many barrancas around the course. They set up movable fencing around each area in turn and the goats were protected by a couple of herd dogs and a part time shepherd. I'd go by to watch the action. They stayed about 10 days and when done the steep gullies had been vacuumed clean of weeds and other brush that didn't belong and represented a fire danger. It was a sight to see.

Our electric utility uses goats that way! They really can get places the humans can't.

If you do get a rash from poison ivy, the very best treatment that I have found is Ivy Dry.

The photo is of the 'Super' version. I have the old version bought several years ago. Had to ask for it because the drug store kept it behind the counter. Not sure why, maybe because of one of the ingredients? At the time, I thought that the reason they hid the stuff was because it works so well & they wanted you to come back & keep buying other, less effective products. I have to give credit to my mom for finding it years & years ago after us kids got into a patch of poison ivy. (Comes in several versions; I've always used the liquid spray.) Usually two or three treatments is all it takes to dry up the rash.

I just noticed that it is supposed to be good for bug bites, too. I'll have to try to remember to try it the next time I get mosquito bit.

The conservation department here several years ago gave the suggestion that before using any soap or warm water that cool water should be used to rinse off your body. There reasoning was that it would help the oils on the surface rinse away. Then cleaning with soap or other cleanser to remove any residue.

I have more of a problem with euonymus than with PI. Euonymus will cause a similar rash but after it heals it leaves a brown discoloration to the skin. It also takes longer for the burning and itching to leave.

Ci_lantro, I am a fan of Ivy Dry! I keep a spray bottle on my night table, and when I get bug bites II don't think I'd be able to sleep through the night without it. It works better than anything else I've tried.

'Tis the bug bite season. I'm going to break the Ivy Dry out of the medicine cabinet and keep it on my desk. Thank you Alisande for verifying that it works great on bug bites, too.

Cutting at the base of the vine and spritzing the exposed stump or raw end with Roundup esp. made for PI and brush is a good suggestion. You don't have to spray the stuff around like you do with a garden hose and risk killing everything else including yourself. Just be cautious. Don't put your face down there and breathe in the fumes, wash hands afterwards.

I do not like to use things like Round up, but I also want to say that the Roundup you can buy now days is NOT the same (and does not work the same) as the stuff that you see the lawyer adds are for on TV.

But Schoolhouse, it isn't spray drift that has concerned me; it's the fact that glyphosate, it's active ingredient, has been found in soil and in well water. It was originally thought to be contained within the plant and root system, but was subsequently found to have escaped into the soil, etc.

Greenshoekitty, I didn't realize Roundup's formula has changed (to something safer but still effective?). I'll have to read up on it--thanks!

Someone told me about the formula changes, but not sure when it happened. Probably can find the particulars online.

The farmers spray something on their fields that can drive you into the house on occasion. I know they put down ammonia, at least that's what's written on the tank, but sure smells like Roundup or a weed killer sometimes too. Talk about getting into the soil and water.