Brush hog where poison ivy is???

[nch209]

Perhaps the wrong category, but was wondering if I'm making a mistake brush hogging where I know poison ivy is. My plan, bundle up, wear a mask, and wait till a wet day, and brush hog 1/4 acre under pine trees where there is brush, weeds, and poison ivy. I am asking for trouble???

 

[jeff9366]

You are asking for trouble. Even with a mask you may have a severe lung reaction to Poison Ivy in the air.

The are many Poison Ivy specific herbicides. Poison the stuff, let it decay, then mow six months later.

 

[newbury]

Even better - get someone who is not allergic to it to do the job.

 

[gwdixon]

Best idea:

Get a HAZMAT suit like the ones the Ebola doctors wear.

There is so much debris from mowing that it will somehow find a way through whatever you are wearing short of such a suit.

Then there is the problem that your tractor and implement will be contaminated.

Well, I guess the bottom line is that I wouldn't do it. If that makes me a wuss then so be it. At least I wouldn't be an itchy wuss!

 

[nch209]

^ I actually have one of those suits and a good respirator, but like you said, that doesn't do jack for the tractor and mower. Man I hate this poison ivy stuff!!!!

Option B is this spring I need to rent a dozer, and it would be prime to spring for a cab model, dig a pit, and push all the junk in it!!!

 

[yomax4]

Never had a problem mowing poison ivy. Do it all the time and am allergic. The problem with breathing it is if you burn it. Plus the oils from mowing it will stay around for a long long time. All over the mower and other plants in the mowing area,. I hate Ivy !

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I've got a couple of patches of it. Or, should I say, HAD a couple of patches of it. I sprayed the heck out of it last summer with Roundup Poison Ivy spray.

I'll spray it again this spring to get any stragglers. Then, when it's completely dead and dried up and no new growth, I'll mow it or dig a pit nearby and push the dead poison ivy into the pit.

 

[MoPops]

Never had a problem mowing poison ivy. Do it all the time and am allergic. The problem with breathing it is if you burn it. Plus the oils from mowing it will stay around for a long long time. All over the mower and other plants in the mowing area,. I hate Ivy !

I used to get poison ivy, but haven't had a bad case in several years.
I mowed poison ivy at least twice last year (brush hog) without a problem.
One thing I tried to do, and I'm not sure it helped, but I mowed a bunch without a problem. I tried to mow it with the wind coming straight at me from the front. Obviously the plan was to have it getting chewed up behind me, and getting blown away from me.

 

[breadtrk]

Go to Home Depot at 6 am and show one of those guys how to drive the tractor.

 

[Looking4new]

Wouldn't mowing it just cut it up into little pieces and spread it around so it will can root somewhere else, making/helping it spread?