Poison ivy - what to do with it

[troutsqueezer]

When I want a burn pile to burn fast, I start it with some diesel fuel and get out my Echo leaf blower. I control the direction and speed of the burn, which is usually pretty darn fast with 180 mph wind blowing into it.

 

[Dingeryote]

Yeah, that didn't come out right. By downwind I was meaning downwind of egress route, to avoid smoke and the whoof.

Our Blackberry goes fully dormant in the winter here. The Blackberry you guys have in the PNW is a slightly different critter, but just as much of a PITA. Velpar,pramitol applied in the fall makes bramble patches look like the moon come spring.
I just wish something would get developed, that only affected the brambles. No point in killing trees in the process.

 

[mudcat47537]

I use to get poison ivy terrible seemingly by just walking past it. When I met my wife her dad is a logger and I would help him on weekends when I was around and get ate up with it. He told me to eat some of it and I would not get it again. I asked a doc and he said it was similar to getting the shot for it but he could not reccomend me doing it. But if I did to let him know how it worked out. lol. I was sitting and scratching while eating lunch one day and decided to give it a shot. I picked up a nice handful and ate it chomped it up and swallowed it. After that last outbreak I was having at the time dried up I have not gotten any poison ivy since. I worked in the timber industry after getting out of the Army for 7 years and still hunt and work in the woods all the time and if get a tree that is covered in it and i pull it off with my bare hands I may get a few little bumps between my fingers. But no more shots from the doc to dry it up no more bleach and I don't have to constantly watch out for it. Don't know if it would work for anyone else but it sure worked for me and has for the last 22 years.
On a note of how to get rid of it I know our goats love the stuff and will eat the blackberry briars, rose bushes and them poison ivy in that order when we turn them out on a fence row or new patch of woods. You may be able to find someone with a herd of goats to eat the ivy down or even pick up a few yourself.

 

[rswyan]

My dilemma is how to proceed. I've read all the horror stories about burning. It would not be practical to attempt to bury that much material. Taking to landfill/composter would take a number of semi-trailers and probably cost as much as the land did.

There you have it. Would appreciate any guidance how to proceed. How can I dispose, reduce, clean up or otherwise get rid of these poisonous, monster brush piles?

Depends on how big of a hurry you are in ...

I have a number of brush piles around the place here. The biggest one is probably 6' high, 8' wide, and 50' long ... that one gets a lot of large brush, saplings, small trees, prunings, etc. - this year I dumped a bunch of old fire wood (ash and maple) that we hadn't used into it - it was cut long ago and was going south (rotting) Probably another year or two on that pile until it's ready.

Another one is last year's compost pile, which is just about ready - another month two and it could be used, but I'll probably let it set until next spring. This pile is about 4' high, 5' wide, and 30' long. And there's another 3 or 4 smaller ones up in the woods.

But my most favorite one is year before last's compost pile, which was made mostly with leaves, prunings, and grass clippings - it's a beautiful black rich soil probably very similar to high quality potting soil you'd pay good money for.

If you're not in a big hurry it sure sounds to me like you have the makings of a great compost pile.

 

[jim_wilson]

Wait for everything to dry then burn it. The poisonous part of Poison Ivy is the oil on the leaves. When the oil dries up the plant becomes non-poisonous. I'd let the piles dry for a year, that way also the wood will be much easier to burn.

I don't think that is true. I read thru a couple of the big poison ivy threads last year because I had it growing up a number of trees that I wanted to cut down - and after taking an axe to the vines, cutting down the trees - and then this year going back and digging up a bunch of roots and stumps from those trees I cut down last year .....................

I still got poison ivy earlier this year after pulling those roots out on a warm day - then wiping my face with the gloves I had just used to pull stuff out of the ground.


Poison ivy is poison ivy - root, branch - leaf and stem. If you're susceptible to it - I would treat it like biological waste until it's rotted in the ground.

 

[rekees4300]

I stand corrected. Didn't know the roots also are poisonous.

 

[fordmantpw]

I don't think that is true. I read thru a couple of the big poison ivy threads last year because I had it growing up a number of trees that I wanted to cut down - and after taking an axe to the vines, cutting down the trees - and then this year going back and digging up a bunch of roots and stumps from those trees I cut down last year .....................

I still got poison ivy earlier this year after pulling those roots out on a warm day - then wiping my face with the gloves I had just used to pull stuff out of the ground.


Poison ivy is poison ivy - root, branch - leaf and stem. If you're susceptible to it - I would treat it like biological waste until it's rotted in the ground.

Yep, you are correct. The oils are the parts that are "poisonous", but that oil is throughout the plant, not just on the leaves. Many folks get poison ivy much worse in the fall/winter because you can't identify due to it having lost its leaves.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Urishoil is an allergen. Which is one reason why some people don't get a reaction to it for most of their lives. Your immune system changes throughout your lifetime; so you may be able to roll around in poison ivy for years with no reaction, or have a life threatening reaction the next time.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

To quickly burn a brush pile, pour the accelerant all the way around the base of the pile, not on top. Then the burn pattern sets up an updraft in the middle and pulls air in from all directions, minimizing the smoke at the lower elevations. You will also get a more complete burn of the material.

 

[jim_wilson]

To quickly burn a brush pile, pour the accelerant all the way around the base of the pile, not on top. Then the burn pattern sets up an updraft in the middle and pulls air in from all directions, minimizing the smoke at the lower elevations. You will also get a more complete burn of the material.

How about doing something like using a burn barrel?

I've seen burn barrel setups where they "turbocharge" the burn by using a leaf blower or something similar to pump air into the barrel. You probably would not want to burn an entire brush pile this way - but if you could separate the poison ivy from the rest of the brush - then you could burn the ivy at least and then be sure your brush pile wasn't going to kill somebody downstream.

I'm guessing that burning poison ivy in the typical brush pile just doesn't burn hot enough to completely burn up the oil that people are allergic to.