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Submitted by: Penny Hall
Date Submitted: 5/21/2003
Location: Charleston, WV
Question Asked: These were taken in my backyard in Charleston, WV. The yard is quite small, yet I have an abundance of poison ivy like plants. Some of this may be poison sumac or poison oak. Can you tell for sure?
Some of the ivy is just creeping (slithering) along the ground and some plants have grown as tall as trees. Everything was dead a couple months ago. Does it always grow so fast? Some of the leaves are about 3 inches across.
You can post any of these if you wish. I hope to spare anyone the poison ivy affliction I suffered a few weeks ago.
By the way, how can I get rid of such a large quantity of it?
Answer: Penny - sure does look like poison ivy. Yes, poison ivy does grow that fast. Just at Easter, I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't find any poison ivy leaves to take pictures of (for this site). Now it seems like the plants are everywhere! I just took pictures (soon to be up on this site) of plants with leaflets as big as 9"! So we're talking only what? 4 or 6 weeks. As a vine it will creep on the ground and also grow up host plants (trees, shrubs, etc.). I've seen branches from the main vine 10+ feet long. It can look like a tree in those cases.
Getting this under control will be tough. I would recommend using Roundup or Brush-B-Gon in a strong concentration first on all the leaves you can get to. Be careful of overspray. I believe that Roundup is a little easier on the environment. If you can get to any of the vines growing up trees, cut a chunk out (at least a foot long) and pry off the tree. Make sure you don't use any powered equipment to cut through as that can sent bits of plant and urushiol oil into the air. We have a big control section plus you can search this board for more recommendations. Once you start getting this stuff up, make sure you remove as much of the root as possible otherwise you'll be seeing it again next year. |
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