I don't think poison ivy competes well with weeds to get started so it's not as invasive ...like bindweed, but it does seed and also propagate through rhizomes. It is a bad idea to allow it to become established or to not beat it back from established boundary. I'm not the first person to refuse wading through a dense thicket full of ivy.

It is severely potent when pollinating and the pollen, itself, is loaded. I've seen the bush variety get seven foot tall. I was standing downwind of it. I'm not sensitive. I had to have medical assistance. Because of my eyes. I can only imagine the horror an allergic person faces. I've seen pictures.

I kill it for their sake and will place a sign in the area where I find it.

I despise it. Found some at my new place around the flower beds. Didn't take long for me to get it sprayed and killed. Hate that stuff almost as much as Bermuda grass.

Mike

I'm with Bon on this one. I've had friends that had horrible breakouts and reactions to just catching the pollen. I think you'd feel awful if one of those niece's happened to be one of those unlucky people.

True story - one of those friend's encountered the "drift" while on a camping trip to Stroud Lake about 10 years ago. This grown man stepped out of the tent on a windy night to answer a nature call. I don't think I need to tell you "the rest of the story"...but I will say it took 3 weeks of medical attention for him to recover. (OUCH!!!!)

Paula

It is horribly invasive. The bush type that Bon mentioned get tree-sized along fencerows that aren't maintained by their owners. I hate it. We leave it alone deep in the woods where we rarely venture since some wildlife eat the berries, but kill it when it tries to creep out of the woods and into the garden which sits about 8' south of our woodland's edge. In a dry year it just holds its own and sits there. In a wet year it tries to spread very aggressively and we have to tackle it repeatedly.

I had a friend who once became very ill from inhaling the smoke from a burning brush pile that contained poison ivy vines. Apparently the poison ivy oil spores traveled on the air and got into her lungs, giving her an internal case of poison ivy. She also had it all over her body at the same time. That was about as sick as I've ever seen anybody get from poison ivy.

Only you can decide if you want to remove it or let it be. Sometimes I think people have more trouble removing it than just leaving it alone---if it is far enough away from the house that they can leave it alone.

I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she practically breaks out in a rash if she just looks at poison ivy. I am glad no one in your family appears to be that sensitive to the poison ivy.

We have poison ivy vines climbing tree trunks in our woodland where the vines are as big around as my wrist. There's no way I am venturing into the woodland to try to pull down, cut down or otherwise remove poison ivy that size. It can stay there forever as far as I am concerned.

My brother and I both react severely so I kill it where ever I see it near the house--15 acres is too big to totally eliminate it from, but I get rid of it in all the places where I might encounter it.

For me it usually will not spread unless the soil is good and there is plenty of moisture, AND it is shaded. If any of these three are lacking it does not thrive or is out-competed by other plants. It will still hang around though, but it will not spread much. One exception is areas like fencerows where it has been allowed to get started due to killing of grass with glyphosate or because of trees growing in the fencerow. It can thrive and spread then, especially if the trees are removed.

Okay, sounds like it may get worse if I don't deal with it now, so I will buy some roundup and try painting the leaves. We have a lot of wooded overgrown areas near us that I know must be full of the stuff, so getting rid of my small little vines probably won't help anyone in the neighborhood that is allergic to the pollen, I'm afraid. Thanks everyone!