Poison Oak

[EddieWalker]

When I lived in CA, I got Poison Oak all the time, now that I'm in Texas, I get to deal with Poison Ivy all the time. As mentioned before, it's the oil that causes all the problems, and an old dead branch can still have the oil on it for years. If you touch anything out in the woods, you have a chance of getting the oil on your hands, and then if you touch another part of your body, you risk spreading the oil. Covering up and being careful to never scratch or touch your face is very important. Washing with soap as often as possible, and especially when you are done working is critical.

As for the OP and how to get rid of his plants, I personally use a backhoe to dig them up, and a grapple to carry them to the burn pile. I burn it all the time. It's not hard to remain on the upwind side of the burn pile, even is there isn't any poison ivy in the burn pile, I still don't stand on the side where the smoke is blowing. I also make it a point to never burn when it's windy, only when it's fairly calm.

I'm not worried about getting 100% of it, just the vast majority so that I can mow the area after that and let grass take over. I've never gotten poison ivy from mowing, so I have no fear of what might get left behind from the grapple.

Goats are also a great option, but require fencing and you really don't know what they will eat, or when they will get around to the offending plants. My goats love blackberry bushes, but so far, I haven't seen any sign of them eating poison ivy.

 

[DavesTractor]

I think a grapple would do well if you have a pile of any sort of brush, vines or prunings. Some small stuff may fall through the teeth, but if it is pushed into piles I'd think most of it should stay together? I've done this with blackberry vines, but they tend to grab each other and stay in a pile. Not sure about poison oak.

We sell quite a few grapples and that is one implement that folks never regret. The Terra Force grapple is sized nicely for compact tractors. And I see that Everything Attachments has a nice variety as well.

I burned poison oak once, very bad deal. I thought I was staying upwind and all of that, and I still got a bad case of poison oak.

 

[ultrarunner]

I must by ultra sensitive because just Dozing through it when it is dry and dusty is enough to get it on all exposed skin...

Over the years I have learned never to do this when it's dusty and problem adverted.

It is not as bad as direct contact.

The oil looks just like someone has taken a Black Sharpie pen... no difference.

I had white socks with "Pen" marks... they were laundered and never gave it a second thought... a few month later I put them on to work around the house and sure enough... got poison oak on my ankles...

 

[ericm979]

I tried out the EA two lid grapple on PO today. It works better than I expected. Maybe I had low expectations but it wasn't too hard to pull it out of the ground and out of a tree, then carry it to my dump site. The only problem was when I made a turn and a dangling vine went under a front tire and pulled some PO out of the grapple.