How do you get rid of English Ivy
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Anonymous
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Previous owners planted it all over their yard.
With the rain, it has gone crazy between the time we put in an offer and now. It is starting to creep up trees, the neighbor's fence, etc. Grrrrr! Help me please. What is the best way to get rid of this stuff? English Ivy belongs in pots, not running all over the back yard. |
Anonymous
| English ivy is a terribly invasive plant. There are poisons to get rid of it but it is a slow process. If the ivy has started to creep up trees. you can tie wire around the base of the tree and it will eventually kill the ivy growing up the tree and you can laboriously pull off the ivy. But the best method is to dig out the ivy, a very difficult project. |
Anonymous
| We also had this all over our front yard thanks to the previous owners and it drove me crazy. I would try to pull it up but it was not an easy task so I finally paid someone a couple hundred dollars to do it. He pulled everything up and I don't believe dug anything out and luckily it hasn't come back. However, we are diligent about pulling up anything we see coming back. We also put landscape fabric down in the spot where the ivy was heaviest and that seems to help keep it at by. The yard looks SO much better now. |
Anonymous
| Pulling it up is really the best way to get rid of it. We have a lot of it in our backyard from the prior owners, too. When ripping it out, you have to be sure to get all the roots. I typically go out to pull it up after the rain so the ground is softer. |
Anonymous
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Just pull it up. It's not that hard, especially as a PP suggested, if the ground is soft from recent rain. Then watch for regrowth and pull that up whenever you see it. I've cleared large swaths of the stuff. It's not nearly as aggravating as other invasive plants.
Definitely get it down right away from your trees and fence. It will kill the trees. |
Anonymous
| Another downside for english ivy is that it is a good place for rats to live. Get rid of it ASAP. |
Anonymous
| We have it, gift of previous owners. It is in a big shady spot where nothing else would grow. It was going wild when we moved in. We spent a couple of days pulling out the extras. Meaning, we basically pulled it all out from the area we do not want it to encroach. With regular care, it is now confined to the spot where we want it to be. |
Anonymous
| PSA -- some people (like me) have allergic reactions to English ivy. You might want to wear long sleeves, long pants and gloves while you are clearing it. |
Anonymous
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For the ground-hugging ivy, you have to pull it up and get as much of the root system as possible. When you get to the end where you think the vine is close to the starting point in the ground, take the last piece of vine and leave about 2-3 inches above ground. Strip off the outer "bark" and expose as much of the inner vine as you can. Then put a small plastic bowl/container with the roundup for vines/ivy and leave the ivy vine dipped into the bowl. The roundup is good for killing the ivy, but often cannot get through the thick skin of the ivy. Stripping the end and dipping it into the roundup will let the remaining plant "drink" the roundup and it will kill the end of the plant. But it only kills about 1-2 feet away before the plant dies and stops drinking. So if you don't get back to the root, then you'll just kill the end of the ivy and the rest will start growing again.
Also, if you have old snarled bark ivy growing on a large tree and the ivy is starting to strangle the tree, what you should do is take a saw and cut out about a 12" portion of the ivy vine somewhere in the first few feet where the ivy starts climbing up the tree. Just remove that portion of the ivy vine (it's tough and hard to saw through it and then you'll have to cut it away from the tree). Then leave it, in about a week or two, you'll see the ivy will turn brown and die. After it dies, it will be much easier to remove it from the tree. |
Anonymous
| Yup we had ivy with rats, spiders you name it. You have to yank it out by the roots and its a huge job. |
Anonymous
| Roundup? |
Anonymous
Insecticide |
Anonymous
No, roundup is a herbicide and they have one formula designed for poison ivy and other invasive plants. This product will also work on English Ivy, but only if you can get it through the woody bark. http://www.scotts.com/smg/brand/roundup/stoppoisonivy/index.jsp |
Anonymous
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Roundup (an herbicide not an insecticide) doesn't really work because English ivy has very waxy leaves. Plus it's really toxic shit that you don't want to use where your family will be or have wash into the surface or groundwater.
I pulled up English ivy and vinca (periwinkle -- hate both with a redhot passion) from several beds in front of my house last summer. It was brutal but doable. As PP said, do it when the ground is wet -- and if it doesn't rain, you can always use a hose or sprinkler to soak the ground to help loosen everything up. I put landscape fabric down and planted through it by cutting Xs in it, then mulched with pine nuggets (heavier and don't break down as fast as shredded mulch). The landscape fabric is sort of a mixed blessing -- eventually you want to pull it up and get rid of it because when it shows and gets torn up it looks bad -- but it gave me that extra certainty that I was entombing any ivy and periwinkle that I might have missed. The flowers I have growing instead are so gorgeous, I have never regretted the backbreaking work! |
Anonymous
| English Ivy is also a great habitat for mosquitoes. I hate that stuff with a passion! |