Trash it.

It bears repeating even if you've heard it: don't burn it. The smoke can get in someone's lungs and do real damage.

The debris piled up and left to decompose thru the winter will render it harmless by spring.

I bag mine and put it into the garbage for pickup. I also don't want it around for further contact chances.

I have been fighting poison ivy for many many years. The absolute best way to get rid of it is to use a brush killer. Ordinary weed killers just are not strong enough.
Just about every summer for the past 30 years I have broken out in the most horrible poison ivy rash that itches worst than anything imaginable. I've gotten shots, pills and creams from my doctor, which eventually clears it up, but the itching is still pretty bad. Last summer I discovered a product called Zanfel (www.zanfel.com) that claimed to stop the itch in 30 seconds. It's quite expensive, about $30 for a tube that is about the size of a travel sized tube of toothpaste. I asked the pharmacist if it was any good and she told me that she and her family had been using it for the last couple of years and that it was very effective. I bought it, went home and tried it according to the package directions. I couldn't believe it, for the first time in 30 years I actually had total relief from the itching. Absolutely works better than anything I have ever gotten from the doctor, and it cleared up the rash in record time. The website indicates that only one application is necessary for most exposures, but I needed to use it a number of times. This was no big deal, as it continued to relieve the itching, and did clear up the rash in record time. If that little tube was double in price, I'd still buy it, it's that good!
Good luch with your poison ivy. Just keep spraying until it's gone!

Chris

Be really careful with that stuff - even when dried up and a couple of years old, the urushiol oil is still present and will mess you up.

If possible, I'd kill the plant with brush killer (triclopyr-based herbicides), then leave the plant remains alone, if you can. If it really has to be taken down, I'd get into an EPA suit, cut it up into manageable size pieces, bag it, and send it to the landfill.

Bad stuff, that poison ivy. Really bad stuff....

Zanafel has saved my twice this spring already. Worth every penny.
The urushiol oil will continue to rise from a badly exposed area on the skin for up to a month, if not treated. The urushiol oil will continue to be active in dried vines for up to 5 years.

Wicked stuff that Poison Ivy. :(

sujiwan,
I can't see cutting the stuff into smaller pieces unless you really are forced to. Contact your local waste hauler. Ask them if they will deliver a dumpster for yard debris. Yes, it will cost money, but less than if you were to fill that dumpster with trash. You will only be able to put yard debris in it. No lumber, no fence pieces, nadda. (At least, this is what happens where I live in the Pacific NW. Not sure what options you have there.)

Also, look up several products: TecNu, Calagel, and IvyBlock. They may be of use.

I removed a dozen or so, 2 inch thick trees of poison oak. So, I understand your pain.... ;-)

I wouldn't mess with the debris. If the poison ivy is dead, it may be better to declare victory and go home.

Is that THE leslies that Alfie and Annp were looking for?

I wouldn't recommend putting in a yard waste dumpster - it would go to a municipal composting operation, wouldn't it? I would bag it and landfill it. Or if you have the space, you could bag it and leave it until it's definitely dead, then make a compost pile out in your woods somewhere.

I'm a hunted woman now....:-)

They miss you - some might consider that hunting or stalking...

I noticed that you had been on at the other place, but you had disappeared for a while.

Its good to know that you are still around...

I noticed someone said something about poison ivy discards and municipal composting. On that note, is it possible for poison ivy to survive the composting process?

We use composted material from our city in our planting beds, and I was kneeling in it last week while weeding. When I stood up, my shins were covered with dirt. I took a shower. The next day, my shins -- in the same spot -- were covered with an itchy rash... and 7 days later, it still itches wickedly. I looked at photos and if I have it, it's a very mild case comparatively but my red bumps are also accompanied by some tiny blister-like bumps.

Which leads me to highly suspect that the compost is tainted with poison ivy remains...

Oooohhhhh... poison ivy is the worst! We have a wooded area in our back yard that is infested with it! Several of the most disgusting, hairy vines required a chainsaw to cut they were that thick. Still, they remain hanging from the trees as I also didn't know what to do with them. Not to mention, the ground is covered in a massive web of the stuff that, although now killed with brush killer, has to be collected and disposed of.

In any case, my best suggestion would be to chop it up into pieces and either bag it for the garbage men or take it to a landfill. I don't have access to a truck right now so I'm bagging the ground cover and will deal with the monster vines later.

Best of luck to you. The stuff is nasty!

My opinion had been that the urushiol breaks down fairly quickly (within a year) in the normal rotting process, but the person with the municipal compost clearly got P.I from it. Of course, all plant material breaks down fairly quickly here in Georgia. Thick pieces take a couple of years or so. I put P.I. in some out of the way place in the back yard, but that doesn't seem to work for everyone.

I've found that the underground stems remain viable for at least a couple of years. Very pesky. I've also found very large plants die quickly when cut at the base and brush killer applied to the cut.

Hello all, How about bathing poison ivy clippings in a rain barrel full of schrub killer liquid? Am I right to guess that the poison ivy's oil should be wiped out after being continuously bathed in schrub killer for many months. Rain barrel would be closed tight with a lid. My question is: a barrel full of scrub killer could end up being very expensive ( my rain barrel holds up 55 gallons). So how about watering it down? (half shrub killer/half water?)

Gee, frenchy, and THEN what is he supposed to do with a rain barrel full of toxic chemicals?

I have successfully killed the 4" diameter poison ivy vine growing against and throughout a tall tree by severing the vine near the ground and painting the stub with herbicide. Now I have a tree full of dead poison ivy leaves and branches. I understand that the poison oils remain in dead leaves/branches/trunks/roots. Must I rent a cherry picker and remove every last scrap from throughout the tree? Or if I don't.... when the dead leaves fall to the ground must I gather each one and dispose of them nuclear accident style? Will bits of dried dead branches loosened by storms that fall from the top of the tree (which I imagine could continue for years) need to be gathered and disposed of as above? Help!

I was wondering if that would be a future problem for me. My village offers free mulch which I am happily going to accept, but I'm now worried about how to make sure I'm not bringing in pests, insects and poison ivy. anyone have suggestions?

Poison ivy will rapidly break down once chipped and blown into a pile of a bunch of other woody debris that has likewise been chipped. Those piles generate a lot of heat. What's more, numerous species of fungi and bacteria work over the stuff and change it. The thought that somehow, poison ivy can come through all of that process is wrong, period.

One other point: I don't begrudge anyone not wanting to contract a case of poison ivy dermatitis. I've had it and it's miserable. But this plant is a native species, serves a number of useful roles to certain wildlife species, and is a part of the scene. It's not "the worst"......not by a long shot. Where it can be left alone, that is the route that should be taken. In fact-and I'm not going to remember the species just now-there is a butterfly which must have poison ivy present to complete its life cycle.

Even mosquitoes play a role in nature. If I had to eliminate one species from the earth......well, you don't want to know!

At least around here, once the public mulch starts getting chipped, everyone and their brother starts to show up to get free mulch. It doesn't hang around long enough to break down so is in a pretty raw state. You can get contact rash from that. When using public mulch sources, you should not unnecessarily expose your bare skin to it. People have gotten dermatitis from such mulch. I do use it for walkways. As far as composting--the jury is still out on a definitive answer. Here's a good explanation:

How long is P.I. potent?

Thanks for linking that up, sujiwan. And you make a fair point where lots of poison ivy is showing up in these piles of chipped yardwaste. Maybe it's just down to where an individual lives. We've got the plant here-sometimes in large numbers-but I would never load up mulch and think I was exposing myself to poison ivy. That would be a freak thing indeed which I guess in all fairness can happen. Just not something I'd ever worry about.

The article does support what I said though-that in the heat of a large pile of chipped up material, the chemical breaks down. At 160 degrees F, lots of things start to come undone!

This is a little off the question, but there is a good way to stop itching for a few hours without medication. Put the affected area under hot water, not so hot as to burn you, but as hot as you can tolerate it. Gradually increase the water temperature until you have reached your tolerance limit. The itching is caused by release of histamine from your body's cells. If you put hot water on, that will cause the histamine to be released from the cells very fast. In fact, when you do this, it will cause an intense itching in the area. And if you can rub the area while the hot water is running on it, it will give off an even more intense itching. But you won't mind, in fact, you will actually enjoy the intense itching. That is because you know that after you do it, as soon as you take the area out from the heat, it will immediately stop the itching, and it will remain that way for up to 8 hours. This is because you have released most of the histamine from the cells, and it takes time for that to build up again.

I know it sounds like an old wive's tale, but this was included in a medical self-help book authored by two M.D.s, and distributed to all the employees of the Fortune 50 company I worked for.