The most common places that poison ivy loves to grow in are highly wooded areas. What most of us don’t know is that they also enjoy people’s yards because of all the weeds, flowers, and trees that they usually contain. This plant is horrible to have when you have children – but it finds a way of creeping up our fence or shed.
There are two types of methods that we want to look at when learning how to kill poison ivy; organic and chemical. Both of these are effective and will help you to kill the plant – roots and all – and remove it from your yard once and for all.
Organic Methods
Many people make the mistake of killing the surface of the plant without trying to touch the roots. This will only kill off the leaves and stems – but will give it a chance to grow back and usually when it does it will be bigger. One way to kill it organically is to remove it completely from the ground.
You want to make sure that you pull the whole plant out along with the roots without any of them breaking out. The best time to do this is after it has rained when the ground is soft. If you don’t want to wait for the rain to come just hose it down for a few minutes and allow the water to soak through. Before you pull it out you need to put on long pants, socks, boots, heavy gloves, and a long sleeved shirt. This will help to protect any exposed areas of skin.
The only downside to this method is that it is not always effective at keeping the plant from growing back and it puts you at a great risk of getting the poison ivy rash. The first sign you see of it growing back you need to go back out and remove it. Each time you do this it will be harder for it to grow back because you are pulling it at such an early stage.
Another method you can try is to pour boiling water over the plant. This is especially useful when you have flowers or other plants that surround it that you are trying not to kill. Just be careful that you aim the water carefully because it will immediately kill the parts of the plant it comes into contact with.
Chemical Methods
Some of us don’t want to bother with spending the time it takes to go out and remove the plant. We want it killed and we want it done quickly and efficiently. When this is the case the best course of action is to use chemical herbicides. Glyphosate and triclopyr are the best forms of herbicides that you can use to kill poison ivy.
You will want to spray these directly to the leaves of the plant several times in order for it to die. It is possible that even with the most effective herbicides the plant will grow back. All you need to do to combat this is to continue to spray down the leaves until it is no longer able to grow back. The only downside to using these is that there is an increased risk of killing off any plants that are around it.