A poison ivy killer like Brush-B-Gone is systemic so you'll have to wait longer for it to be absorbed and do it's job. It's a good time of year to be dealing with them - while the leaves are young. For thick vines, cut them off and paint the stump with the poison. If you want more immediate results, you can save bread wrappers and put them over your arms and hands, pull up the PI and turn the bags inside-out over the vines and tie them. Be careful of the stems and roots as they also contain the urushiol that causes the skin reaction. After the PI killer does its job the dead plant material still is potent too. Nasty stuff PI! If you have touched any, immediately wash with soap and water and then swap down with alcohol. Don't use hot water, it will open your pores.
Deb

Round-up poison ivy and tough brush killer works much better and faster than the brush be gone.

Water or rain will not dilute the roundup. The last time I looked at it brush b gone had to be on for quite a while before it could get wet.

Can understand your desire to get rid of it, but as Deb said, even with dead leaves the stuff is nasty.

I've been using the roundup since by daughter was about 4. She's 24 now and deadly allergic to the stuff. Almost died twice from exposure to it.

The roundup stuff works really well but will take till next year for all evidence of it to be gone. It kills it though and will not return next year.

Fran

the home we moved into last yr..has posion ivy vines about 5" or more thick, and plants go all the way up the trees.. my family has been covered with it since we moved in..

anyone deal with the "big" vines ?? I am going to try the round up...we have been spraying them like crazy.. some died from the spraying last spring...but it is all over !

f4e - cut the vines off (cut a chunk out low and as high as you can reach) and paint the stump with a concentrated solution of a PI killer. Be on the look out for the vines that die and fall out of the trees - they need to be disposed of properly when the time comes.

Those thick vines going up trees can be tough to deal with.
We found a few of them a couple of years ago.

All I did was get the roundup poison ivy and brush killer. Turned the nozzle to the stream out put and very carefully soaked some of the leaves at ground level and moved up the vine and got a few more as far as we could reach. Do your best to not get it on the tree leaves.
Remember though that the roundup works by getting leaves wet with it and it then goes into the roots, so if some of the roundup gets on the bark of the tree it won't do the tree any harm.
Also remember that even dead poison ivy has the stuff in it to cause skin reaction.

It took one year from time of spraying to have no evidence of the poison ivy and once those vine poison ivy where gone we have never seen it come back.

Fran

Thank you for the advice.. right after I posted.. I found spots on my legs..UGH !! itch..itch..LOL

I will be going out again this weekend to try and do some more "killing" of the poison.. a year huh..I think I am taking the family to the Dr for the shots.

Fran:
You give me hope. If I can really be free from this in a year, I will be so happy. Right now, it seems that poison ivy is a fact of life I have to deal and live with...and it is awful.

The neighbors were quite amused tonight with my head- to-toe-covering costume on this 80 degree day (complete with face mask and goggles) while I proceeded to carry out my mission with the Round-up and everyone on this forum's great advice. Since I have dogs, I not only had to spray, but I had to put up little cheap wire fences around the areas that I intended to spray so they would not lick it off or lay in it.
Whether it got rid of it or not, is still a question and we will wait and see (thanks for letting me know that it was a systematic kind of thing.) And the vines I sprayed last week and looking sickly, but still there darnit.
I will keep you all posted, but I feel like going out there and spraying it every day - I just want it gone.
But the greatest news after this day of ivy killing - I am typing this and not itching! I don't think I got it!!!
But of course the whole time I was spraying, I just knew that I was going to get it. Tomorrow, I will spray with a vengeance and a lot more courage!
Thank you all!
(oh...and I painted it on my big thick vine too. It better work - oooh that awful awful vine!

weedsmakemecrazy,
Glad to give you hope about the poison ivy. It is the nastiest thing going.
Just be sure you are using the roundup poison ivy and brush not just the regular roundup. Regular doesn't work well.

As for fencing in the area to keep the dog away, try having to fence in one whole side of a yard to keep a 5 year old away from it because she was so severely allergic to it she almost died twice after getting it.

One problem I've found after I finally got every bit of poison ivy gone from my yard was this. It started showing up in new places a few years later. I turned green and had to start getting rid of it again.

That fall I went for a walk down the street with my young daughter and found poison ivy on the side of the road and red berries on it. Then it hit me, new poison ivy was growing in my yard courtesy of the birds. So I started using the roundup stuff on the side of the road. Neighbors started helping me get rid of it and we keep after it all the time. Now all 10 houses on my street have had no poison ivy growing for 10 years.
My little girl is 24 now, still badly allergic to poison ivy, but knows to be careful where ever she goes. She was an athlete all through school, varsity sports in high school and college and never got poison ivy playing. She'd walk the fields and side lines before a game and learned where to stay away if needed.

Just keep after it and remember it takes a year but then it will be gone. Walk around the neighborhood and check the side of the road too. the birds will be very happy to seed more for you all the time.

Fran

for the future, you will use your time most efficintly if you roundup the wshoots as they are JUST beginning to leaf out- small red leaves. that's when pi is most succeptible.

mindy same w aegopodium- my nemesis of nemeses.

This thread has already mentioned that birds love poison ivy fruits. I will add that grazing animals such as sheep, goats, and cattle enjoy eating poison ivy leaves. Most of my poison ivy has been controlled or eliminated by my sheep and goats.

Chervil2

Thank you all for this great advice. I see a lot of poison ivy in my neighbors yard - in fact, I think Grandaddy weed lives over there from what I can see. I've been wondering what to do about it as I can see it coming closer and closer to my fence. So, tomorrow - with Fran's advice about the roadside and control - I am going to ask the neighbors if they mind if I spray their side. It's a tricky situation which I almost thought I would avoid, but after reading tonight, I am going to ask. I am not sure they even know that they have poison ivy over most of their yard and that it is trickling into my yard - it is definitely the source as there is sooooo much over there! Unbelievably, they almost never use their yard - and we live on a beautiful pond - so maybe they don't know!
So, send me your blessings. They are nice people but you never want to offend the neighbors - and I don't know how this conversation will go. Tomorrow I will see if I can spray the source!
thank you all for your advice - it has definitely been helpful to this fairly new gardener!
Kathy