If you find poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) on your property, you need to act quickly, but with caution. If you allow the plant to take hold and spread, you’ll have a major fight to get rid of it. Most people develop a painful, itchy, blistering rash on contact with the vine, so a few precautions are in order.
Poison ivy is a perennial vine that spreads by underground runners. It can be difficult to remove but leaving it on your property puts everyone in jeopardy. Before beginning, take the time to understand the process completely and make sure you have everything you need before starting. You do not want to have to run to the hardware store in the middle, possibly contaminating your car.
You Will Need:
- Old clothing, gloves, boots, socks, head covering, goggles, breathing mask
- Duct tape
- Shovel, pruning shears, rake
- Bottle of chlorine bleach or weed killer
- Heavy plastic bags
- Rubbing alcohol
- Strong soap and cold water
Identifying Poison Ivy
The appearance of poison ivy can vary depending on the part of the country you live in. I refer to the plant here as a vine, but it can also have an erect woody shrub appearance or grow as a trailing shrub. It often grows on trees, fencing, or the land surface. The rhyme “leaves of three, leave it be” is a good way to identify the plant. Poison ivy has three green leaflets that make up a complex leaf. “Berries white, run in fright” is another good childhood rhyme that works also.
Dress for the Job
Before beginning, you should dress in clothes that cover you from head to toe.
Long pants, long sleeves, boots and socks, gloves, head covering, goggles, and a breathing mask. Tuck your pants into your boots and your sleeves into the gloves.
Then use duct tape to seal the sleeves and pants legs so that no leaves or oils can get to your skin.
Even if you do not normally react to poison ivy, take precautions.
Related: The Long-Forgotten Cheesecloth
Worst Way to Get Rid of Poison Ivy
My father-in-law made the mistake that many people make. He removed all the plants and put them in a pile to burn. Unfortunately, the smoke carries the oils from the plant and can cause a bad reaction to people downwind, sometimes for miles.
He inhaled some of the smoke and ended up with a horrible external rash and a serious lung problem. Do not burn poison ivy, it can cause serious problems to anyone who comes into contact with the smoke.
Choose a Calm Day
You want to do this on a calm day without much wind. You don’t want the plants or oils getting blown around or back onto you. Choosing a calm day give you better control of the plants.
Dig Up the Plants
If you have only a few vines, dig them up completely, roots and all. Place the plants and roots in a plastic garbage bag and tie the bags closed for disposal. If you have a large area covered in poison ivy, cut the vines off at ground level and bag the vines. Then dig up as many roots as possible or spray the area with a weed killer or with chlorine bleach. Rake through the soil to remove all root parts possible.
Any roots that remain may sprout again, so keep a diligent eye on the area and be proactive if new sprouts show up. If you act quickly and remove each new sprout, you should be able to defeat poison ivy within the year. Ignoring new shoots allows the plant to return and spread. You may be fighting poison ivy for many years to come.
Related: BOB from the Dollar Store for $50
Disposing of the Plants
Bag the plant in heavy plastic bags and tie them securely. Put them in the trash for disposal or take them to a lawn-waste disposal facility.
Clean Your Tools
Cleaning your tools is an important step in the process. If you skip this step, you may end up with a poison ivy rash next time you use them and have no idea what happened.
Clean the entire tool, including the handle, with rubbing alcohol.
Give them a thorough disinfecting, then oil the tools before putting them away.
Clean Your Clothing
First, dispose of the gloves you used, and your face mask, if it is disposable. Wash the goggles and boots with warm soapy water and a garden hose.
Wash your clothes separately, running them through the wash cycle 3 times in hot water to be sure they are completely cleaned and rinsed. A better solution is to wear old clothes and toss them out when you are done.
Take a cold shower and scrub your skin with a strong soap. Hot water will open your pores and allow the oil into your pores.
Once you’ve removed the poison ivy, enjoy your space knowing that your family is safe from harmful rashes. Keep an eye on the area, however, making sure that any new growth is treated immediately. Keeping a diligent eye out for new growth can help you win the battle against poison ivy.
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i’ve also found that using roundup and rubber gloves will do the trick. Place the leaves on the palm of your hands,with gloves on and use a small paint brush,and apply liberally to the leaves,the pure roundup,it will destroy poison ivy all the way to the roots,since the leaves are how it is nourished.It worked for me.
Your hands shall soak up the roundup and is carcogenic. Try vinegar instead, works wonders.
On the West Coast we have poison oak. Basically the same idea as poison ivy three leaves it all, but it is a shrub that can also climb on trees. Rule of thumb is to cut it down to the ground, and pour weed killer on it three years in a row. If you miss that third year it will come back!
Every use of toxic chemicals further poisons our beautiful planet. Roundup (containing glyphosate) is also a carcinogen, which can really be bad for YOUR health! THINK before you spray!!
What about spraying with Round up?
I never had a reaction to poison ivy but then made the mistake of removing the ivy by hand and ended up with lung and eye issues so bad, I had to be on heavy doses of steroids for 5 weeks! Also had poison oak and sumac which are systemic. Had red boil-looking things pop up here and there for years!
I have never reacted to poison ivy but I know alot of people that do, I also have Sumac shrub coming through the chain link fences from an undeveloped piece of property behind me; also have some other three leaf vine growing around a couple of trees no matter what I do I cannot stop the growth of that vine
Spraying with Roundup also kills everything around it, as well as poisoning your soil for years.
Not so fast! That poison ivy oil is in the ground when you pulled it up! Just like your clothes that oil gets on everything those leaves and roots touch! My brother got poison ivy in the winter with snow on the ground!
It is amazing how many people do not recognize poison ivy. To a beekeeper, poison ivy is an important forage plant for the bees. The flowers make a delicate tasting honey that is non-poisonous. I do not know if eating honey produced from poison ivy will desensitize one from the oils that are on the leaves,
Goats can help you remove Poison Ivy. They will eat all of the Poison Ivy they come in contact with. Apparently it does not do them any harm.
Goats are amazing animals. Just provide water and a little bit of feed. They cleaned up my poison ivy after years of me trying to get rid of it. They also remove debris that is potential forest fire threat.
Unfortunately you cannot then touch your goats as they will have the poisonous oils on their coats from walking around and through it.
DO NOT pet or touch the goats, or any other animal/ pet if you suspect they have been into poison ivy.
Mix a weed killer half and half with kerosene. Cut the bush down and paint the exposed stump end with a brush [I use an acid brush (Lowe’s calls it an electric wire brush)]. I’ve seen this mixture kill real tree stumps the first time.
before removing the poison ivy get the ground very wet, this makes the roots come out easy so you wont miss any of the roots
Roundup?? Really?? After all the cancer announcements about this product??
If you get any ivy on your skin..chickweed is great.
This is what you do with the black walnut hulls. Duh.
plant ‘sweet fern’ around the area….. the ivy doesn’t like it
We had a local fellow that would rent out his goats for poison ivy removal (charged little more than time and travel expenses) and they did a great job. Ask around and see if you can locate a goat owner willing to let his/her flock forage your ivy problem. It will probably be the cheaper and defiantly safer, Eco-friendly option. The goats love it, the owner gets paid to feed their goats and your problem is solved. EVERYBODY IS HAPPY.
And another way to identify poison ivy is by another saying.”Hairy vine, no friend of mine”. If you find a hairy rope looking vine running up a tree it is likely poison ivy. DO NOT TRY TO PULL IT DOWN. As close to the ground as possible, using an ax or hatchet, cut through the stalk. Make another cut several inches above that and remove (using gloves) the cut portion. After the vine has died out and the leaves have fallen it is still poisonous to touch so it is a good idea to remove the vine buy cutting off as high as you can reach from the ground. This way no one can inadvertently touche it and the remaining vine in the tree is of no danger to anyone. To prevent new growth mix a tablespoon of salt with a few drops of dish soap and just enough water to dissolve it, then soak a paper towel with the solution. Cover the root stump with the paper towel (this will kill other plants to so try and cover just the vine) and toss some dirt on it to hold it in place.
Very early in the spring people who live in the swamps eat some of the young & tender leaves in salads and build a immunity to poison ivy.
You have some kind of verifiable references for this practice? Because, if you are just passing along some kind of rumor that you heard once – that can be pretty irresponsible, and dangerous…
As a young kid at the time (4th grader) we had a family acquaintance from whom I learned a lot of things regarding fauna and flora. After successfully teaching me how to rid my hands of warts that bled every time I used my pockets, I trusted him when he told me how to avoid the battery of shots I endured every Spring to thwart poison ivy. Ingesting a portion of the poison ivy leaf was the remedy (through a cautious preparation of a sandwich). I went from annual shots and occasional hospitalizations due to poison ivy (I was a kid who was always running in the fields and woods all Summer!) to barely getting a blister even when as an adult a bucket load of poison ivy fell on top of me inside the skid loader while cleaning a fence line. The remedy was to eat a portion of the leaf annually however, once did the trick for me. I have other family members that have tried the same remedy and it has worked for them. Good luck!
i feel that they were a little off what they meant was in early spring before the temp goes off the charts and you are out camping is take the young and tender leafs and wipe you butt off
This naturalist claims he eats young poison oak leaves in the spring to give himself natural immunity to the plant. He also states that the Chumash Indians, a California native tribe did the same thing to get natural immunity. They made baskets out of poison oak vines which gave the white man the rash.
Christopher Nyerges
https://www.christophernyerges.com/
SCHOOL OF SELF-RELIANCE. survival education since 1974. Click below to see The School Of Self-Reliance’s Official Facebook Page: School Of Self- reliance .
I had trouble attempting to just copying his name, would up having to copy the whole info.
Clergylady also verified that the indians did that as she lived on a Chumash reservation in her younger days.
If you think poison ivy has touched your skin, act fast. Soap and water will usually work, if you’re thorough about it. If that’s not available, a solvent such as rubbing alcohol or witch hazel and a rag will do the trick. If you’re likely to encounter poison ivy on a walk, take some with you. Poor it on the poisoned area. It captures and suspends the plant’s poisonous oil. Then remove by rubbing with a rag, paper towel, or whatever’s handy. To be sure, repeat. Then discard the rags where they won’t be touched by anyone (the solvent will evaporate, leaving the oil) and don’t burn. See previous comment about burning poison-ivy vines.
Go to your local store and buy some “ground clear” or walmart has a generic called “eliminator” total vegetation killer.
It is a mixture of round up, salts, and other chemicals designed to kill everything that it comes in contact with, and keep it killed for a year or two. It’s made for use along fence lines, cracked driveways, and other places where you want to kill everything indiscriminately, and keep it clear.
Mix it properly, and spray it on the leaves. it follows the vine from the leaf to the root, and it kills the whole plant.
Be careful with round-up products. They can cause cancer, and birth defects in both people and animals.
Monsanto (the maker of round-up) was successfully sued by an entire village in South America (class action) for devastating these peoples lives with a generation of still born, and deformed babies…
You will never hear about that in our wonderful American “free press.”
I’ve been warning people about round-up for years, but it does have it’s uses for things like removing poison ivy when used properly.
You need ‘Woody Plant Killer”. Just spray it on the leaves and it will die. Small sprayers work great for this. I carry one with me when I mow because I am highly allergic.
How about killing lots of elm trees. When I lived on this land from 1981-2005 I never allowed sprouted elms to live. While I was gone 2005- 2017 my step son let elms and other trash trees take over. Believe me they grow fast!. I have hundreds too get rid of from large stumps still growing lots of branches to nearly 20 ft trees and lots of smaller trees almost an elm Forrest in some areas
I’ve always hated deadly chemicals but these elms are tempting me. I’m very chemical sensitive. Long story but farm over spray on a harvested potato field made all of my family sick and within weeks I lost a baby and almost died as well.
I’ll try almost anything to get rid of these trash trees.
You can kill just about any tree by making a cut around the trunk, another cut an inch or two above (or below) it, and peeling all of the bark between the cuts down to solid wood. Trees carry all of their food and water from bottom to top in the outside layer of the trunk just below the bark.
You would be better served to call someone, and sell them the trees if you have that many. Go through with them to mark the sold trees with paint, and they can prepare and cut them at their convenience.
You won’t get rich, but you won’t have to pay to have the trees removed, and the harvested trees will be used for something – even if it is just firewood.
I’ll probably cut the trees and regrowth hordes of branches. I can try peeling around the trees about ground level. Otherwise they just grow 10 ft of new branches thick and healthy.
I can burn anything 2.5 inches across or thinner. I have a big pile waiting from my cutting last Fall. Ready to clean up branches and cut for my rocket stove. Larger wood goes to bbq or neighbors wood stove. He’ll cut it to length. Smaller branches will get run through my chipper. That can be used in the garden or run through the gravity fed pellet hopper I use on the rocket stove.
Wish you would give the details on your rocket stove with gravity fed pellet hopper, it sounds like the bomb. Love looking at all the different rocket stoves people create and put on youtube.
I bought this rocket stove. Underwriter lab approved. Wasn’t cheap but I’m very pleased with it.
It’s actually made is a small factory by a family. Son designed it and did all the work. Dad cashed in his pension to fund it.
I used to weld but my arc welder was stolen and just wasn’t able to replace it with my move and I needed heat… Choice, buy a welder, metal band saw, and materials so I could make something or getting an approved rocket stove that is acceptable under my homeowners insurance.
If I were 20 years younger I’d have gone for another welder but with caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s I can’t safely weld anymore anyway. He has to be with me almost 100% of the time. I still have a small wire fed welder but it wasn’t sufficient for this project.
Look up Liberator Heater rocket stove. He does a nice presentation, with and without the pellet hopper. If someone decides to buy tell the Clergylady sent you. Lol. Just enjoy the utube presentation.
I’m happy with it and so is my insurer. I have my rocket stove, pellet hopper, full off grid solar home finally, and paid for!
Solar was another adventure but I’m happy with it.
I don’t know where you live but here in the Adirondacks of NY state most Elm trees are already dead from the Elm Tree Beetle. I always thought they were beautiful trees.
New Mexico. Elms are healthy and grow fast. Take zero care. After even a sprinkle of rain the seeds sprout and come up thick. A few for shade would be ok but these have grown in a berry bed, interspersed with the grapes on my arbor, in a small stand of yellow wild roses, all over the yard… Many places I don’t want them.
When I was here I just kept the tiny sprouting Forrest pulled up. Now I need to kill a growing Forrest that I don’t want. They are along septic tanks, building foundations. Growing almost everywhere except in the driveways and an old graveled parking area.
CL – cut around the base like I told you in my last post. Leave them standing to dry, so that they don’t rot on the ground – then sell or give them to someone who sells firewood, or a local saw mill if you have one.
Once the trees are gone you can drill holes into the top of the stump and put some stump killer into the holes. I think that it is called stump-b-gone or some other silly name. It kills and rots out the stump so that they can be removed more easily later…
I don’t understand why you are making this more of a problem than it is?
Killing the stumps has been the biggest problem. A friend cut several of the larger trees and I took a wide band of bark below the cut. By spring the stumps are growing many new branches many 10-15 tall. They are now big bushes. No central trunk for a tree. I want them dead and gone.
I was asking for suggestions on how to kill the stumps. I guess it’s poisons to the rescue. I’ll just drill the stumps and carefully add poison; after I cut all those new branches.
Branches can go in a new pile to dry out and either burry in the gardens or burn in my stove.
Drill holes in the stumps and pour in salt or lye, it will kill it dead.
This article notes an important distinction: the need to use cold, not hot, water to get the oil off your skin, but instead use hot water to wash it out of your clothes. The evil vegetation’s oil (urushiol) doesn’t dissolve well in water at all, but hot water does dissolve more of it. That’s great for clothes that have any of the bad stuff on them, but as the article says, hot water opens your pores and that bad effect beats out the better dissolution. What to do: Use lots and lots of cold water to get it off your skin.
But have the calamine lotion ready anyway, LOL I should subscribe to a service to deliver it, since I get PI every year no matter what precautions I take. I already have some on both feet, and I never go barefoot outdoors, and never wear sandals near anything green. Yicch!
From my experience years ago in the landscape industry I discovered that about 50% of men from Mexico are immune to poison ivy. Very few of us Bolillos are immune, I’ve made several trips to the ER in this lifetime (poison ivy from a romantic encounter in the woods is not something you want to show up with at the ER…)
But a lot of landscape companies will send their immune employees out to your home and dig up all the PI, price not too high.
Run the hottest water you can stand over the rash if you have it bad, it tingles, feels good, then it goes numb for a couple hours. Best relief there is.
I used a hair dryer set as hot as I could stand it for a few seconds. Alleviated the pain for almost 24 hours.
Use the hair dryer as hot as you can stand it, then come back again until it is unbearable, let cool briefly, and do it a third time till you can’t stand it. The third time’s the charm!
An old farm girl taught me that, and it always works for me!
If you do get a rash from any of the urushiol containing plants (poison ivy, poison oak, sumac, etc) our kids doctor who did mission trips to South America turned us on to a product called Zanfel that is the best thing I have ever used. One or two treatments (just washing with it) clears up the reaction. Expensive at around $20.00 a tube, but well worth it!
All I do is pull them out with rubber gloves, trying to get the long runners. If I get any on me Bentonite clay made into a thick paste with a little water cures it fast, also for nettles. Forget chemicals!
There were frequent fires every Fall in our county. My dad would go to help fight fire the usually a few days in the hospital recovering from poison oak in the smoke.
I’m so allergic to poison ivy I get a rash if I look at it cross eyed, LOL. We were able to get rid of it in the backyard when those neighbors removed their bushes. But it is still prolific in the front flower garden. I can’t go near it, it grows freely among the day lillies, hostas, bachelors buttons. DH will periodically weedeat the area. I’d like to save the ‘good’ plants but IDK how I can when it is all so intertwined.
Soak plant with vinegar during dry weather
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/health/monsanto-roundup-cancer-verdict-bn/
A jury handed an unparalleled $2.055 billion verdict in favor of a couple in California who say their cancer was caused by long-term exposure to Monsanto’s popular weed killer Roundup, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Yes, round-up is a dangerous chemical. If you don’t know how to use and respect the dangers of dangerous chemicals, then don’t use it.
As an auto mechanic for 30 years I am used to dealing with dangerous chemicals, dangerous tools, and dangerous situations.
Round-up is an available tool that works better than many (meaning ALL in my experience) “home remedies” out there. I like natural products as much as anyone else, but sometimes you have to use dangerous chemicals to get the job done properly.
Mix the chemical as directed, with maybe just a touch of dish soap to help break water tension and soak into the leaf better. Wear proper protective gear (gloves, long sleeves, mask, eye protection, etc.) Use a small sprayer with a fairly course spray so that you aren’t creating a fine mist, and CAREFULLY spray it on the leaves of individual plants that you want to kill.
Take a shower, and wash your clothes.
Keep people and animals away from the plants, and remove them after they are dead.
Guns and cars are dangerous too if you don’t know how to use and respect them.
I’d just prefer to keep the chemicals away from my grapes, wild goose berries, and wild yellow roses where I harvest fruit, rose hips- leaves and roots.
Trees are beautiful but weeds if they grow where you don’t want them.
Stump remover is just pure saltpeter, or chemical name potassium nitrate. I don’t know how poisonous it is to surrounding plants. It is the concentrated form that kills and rots the stump from the inside out, and any that leaks out would probably be pretty well diluted.
I have also heard of people burning them out. Another option is to just pull them, especially in areas around your good plants. You build a temporary teepee style frame work, and use a come-a-long to pull them out of the ground enough to cut the roots.
There are several ways to get rid of tree stumps depending on the type of tree. In the north country, drill holes in the top and fill with water just before it freezes. the expanding water will break it down. Or put honey in the holes if you are in bear country. Don’t forget black walnut powder.
Build a bonfire on the tree stump and enjoy. I know of people who put their smoker over the stump. Again, it depends on the type of tree.
My Moms remedy for poison oak exposure was wash with dish soap straight from the bottle then lightly work it around and rinse with lots of cold water. If you break out she used warm compresses to draw it out then wash with hot water and plenty of calamine lotion. At most my childhood break outs lasted a few days. I never broke out again after my early teens. Can’t say why. I was certainly around enough of it. None here on either NM property I’ve owned. Glad not to need to mess with it. Memories are quite sufficient.
One should never rely on jury verdicts to prove or disprove any fact. After 25 years working in court, I can safely attest that jury verdicts are almost never based on fact. Jury verdicts and eye witness testimony, two of the most unreliable sources of fact known to man. Just a quick example that has stuck with me for over 40 years. Man shot his wife in a rage. Emptied a full magazine of 7 rounds of .45 acp into her. The jury found him guilty of second degree murder and also as a separate verdict that he was NOT armed with a dangerous weapon at the time of the commission of the offense. That left everyone in the courtroom scratching their heads, including the defense.
What works for me if the rash pops up on my hands or legs I will scratch the blisters open while taking a shower and wash all the oils away with hard scrubbing and soapy warm water. Does not infect me anywhere else because it does not have time to absorb into skin. It burns like crazy but it works and is dried up the next day. Ofcourse if you have a severe case go to doctor and get a cortisone shot. I have had to do that as well. Fun fun fun.
They make a special soap for getting poison ivy oil off of your skin. It’s called Tecnu, and it comes in a poison ivy treatment kit with a small bottle of the soap along with a larger bottle of clear calamine lotion.
It’s been a few years since I bought mine, so I don’t really recall where I got it… probably Walmart, a feed store, or Tractor Supply Company.
CVS carries Technu. Also our good friends at Amazon carry a very complete line of Technu products. They also carry Fels Naphtha soap on the same site. Felt Naphtha soap was what my mother used to use when she got the poison ivy rash. Old timey remedy. What you want to search for is Technu poison ivy remedies. If you just ask for Technu you get electronics.
Consider using Tea tree oil or witch hazel. both will drawn out the oils, reduce the itch, and blood being drawn towards the injury. Both shrink the pores and cool the skin.
Round Up works the best for getting rid of poison ivy. But because of the oil on poison ivy you need to add some dish washing soap to the Round Up mix this will cut through the oil on the plant and let the Round Up be absorbed better.
To get rid of poison ivy
Use the black walnut hulls after they are dried. It can be handled. And it can be spread any time of year.
Always use witch hazel, antibacterial, antimicrobial.
It cleans out pores, and is an astringent. It works for acne, bug bites, in relieving itching. It reduces swelling and bruising.
if you are industrious can be grown as a landscaping plant.
This is the KISS method.
can I stop getting comments on this subject?????? any time
Hi Martin,
You subscribed to receiving notifications each time a new comment was posted to this article(probably you did not realize it when you clicked on the Subscribe button). I have cancelled the comments notification and from now on you will no longer receive them
God bless,
Claude
martin I —
I guess that you checked the box that you wanted to get follow up comments, otherwise you wouldn’t be getting them.
You will have to ask Claude how to turn them off after you have turned them on. It’s not like any of us have your email address, and we just decided to send you unwanted comments…
The most urgent tree root has been cut down, girdled where outter bark and green layer were removed all the way around. The branches are just a few months old and already 6′ tall .. .. Under the corner of my mobile home. It really has to go! Ok, I’ll try poison there. Those in other places we may pull if the neighbor can help. I can’t use a comealong this year. Bone surgery isn’t ready for a workout just yet.
I’ll be hunting a stump killer.
Really people! You seriously are that worried about occasionally using farming chemicals when you are preparing for SHTF scenarios of radiation, ash fall or biological pathogens? I get rid of my unwanted weeds (poison ivy and poison oak included) by taking my farmers application license down to Tractor Supply, buying commercial grade weed killer and spraying it with my 200 gallon boom sprayer mounted on my 100hp diesel tractor 3pt hitch while wearing appropriate Personal Protection. Lets get real and talk preparation and survival not new age holistic communal living. You are not exposing yourself to these chemicals 365 days a year for 30 years straight like the lawn care people who got cancer were. At least someone should recommend “planting” poison plants around the perimeter of their property to deter interlopers. I will be happy to raid the farm supply houses for all the pesticides and fertilizers I can get to sustain my family and have food to barter with while you pick bugs off of plants one at a time.
Shows what you know… we don’t pick bugs one at a time – we order in ladybugs and other predator bugs for our gardens… lol
Ozark Hilbilly;
When SHTF, chemicals may not be so important in the overall scheme of things. But for now I’m careful because I’m very chemical sensitive. I was in my in-laws home when it was sprayed across the narrow country road from a potato field. Ariel spraying wasn’t too carefully done in 1969. Thanksgiving week. We all got sick. 6 adults and 4 kids. A few weeks later I lost a little boy that looked absolutely perfect. I almost died. It was pretty bad. Now if I’m exposed to chemicals my face starts peeling and turns red or around my mouth turns numb and white and sometimes my chest has a hard time breathing. It feels like I’m being strangled but in the chest. I get by with soaps and some thing ok. Weed killers, defoliants, preservatives all get me. Some worse than others so I’m very careful about using those things.
I’m not a strange greeny. I’m a survivor of severe chemical poisioning.
If I can get help from my neighbor I’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of the tree trying to grow under a corner of my mobile home. The rest of the trees are in places I want to be careful of. Trees are growing among my grapes, in the middle of my wild yellow roses where I gather flowers, rose hips and roots for tea, in the middle of my wild gooseberrys, young ones all over my yard where we cook and eat outside. The smaller ones would probably die if cut and recut. I can’t use my trimmers yet. Hand and bones too weak yet where cut and put together with metal and screws. Husband has Alzheimer’s and mostly sits and watches me work now. I can actually us my electric chainsaw on bigger trees but still can’t use pruners. I can’t handle the gas chainsaws yet. I’m healing but at 72 its slower than if I were younger.
Southern nationalist I’ll try salt but that doesn’t kill it ill try a commercial stump killer on the one most important to kill stump.
Salt will do the trick, I’ve used this method before to get rid of a tree.
Drill some good sized holes or several if your drill bit is not very big and down about 3 to 4 inches or as deep as you can.
Pour the salt in (use the cheap stuff) then pour in some water.
You will start to see the leaves curl up in about ten minutes or so.
Salt is worth a try. I have multiple sizes and styles of drill bits and a large bag of ice cream salt. ” Cheap”! I use it also for melting ice on walking areas where I don’t want things growing.
To kill most any plant: A mixture of REMEDY and 4 parts diesel fuel, applied with a cheap bristle brush to the stem/stalk/trunk of a plant will normally work. Paint all the way around in a band of at least six inches. Use normal personal protection. Doesn’t general a mist. If not careful and trying to work too fast, a drop or two may flip from the brush.