his Q&A blog is open for all to participate. Feel free to ask your own questions and answer questions posted by others. I know all of you have a wealth of information and experience on healthy living and you are welcome to share it here. 
Poison Ivy
Hi Debra, My boyfriend and I have just moved into a new house, and as my botfriend discovered after mowing the lawn for the first time, it seems there are several poison ivy plants around the house (resulting in three--going on four--weeks of blisters and rashes for him). We rent the house, but we're in charge of landscaping, so it's up to us to kill it.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to kill it. I have Borax and white vinegar on hand, which I've read some have used to kill plants, but I was wondering if you had a other suggestions. I'm not concerned about killing some of the surrounding plants in the process (they're mostly weeds, anyway), so anything would be helpful. Thanks! Adica
Annie Berthold-Bond has a homemade Poison Ivy Killer using salt and vinegar, but my husband says if you use salt, it will be a while before anything grows there again.\
My husband recommends trying steaming the plant and leaves with a steam cleaner. He's never tried this, but his logic says it would kill the plant (I myself am not sure it would kill the roots).
Readers, any experience with this to share?
About using a steam cleaner....sounds like a bad idea, I think.
Wouldn't the steam vapor run over the plant then get in the air so you would inhale poison ivy droplets? I know someone who nearly died from inhaling smoke form burning off the poison ivy in her back yard. She was in the hospital for ages, in the burn unit, till the blisters in her mouth and throat healed.
Maybe pouring boiling water around the base of the plants would be better? Or covering them with black plastic till they're dead? Being very careful not to distrub the plants and also being especially careful when you remove the plastic, roll it up with the underside in.
Good luck and be careful!
The suggestion to steam the plant alarms me, because if the steam went onto the steamer's skin, or God-forbid got inhaled, things could get ugly.
I would cut the plant (wearing gloves and long sleeves, etc.) and then place thick cardboard or a piece of wood over where the roots were. If you then lay enough dirt on top of the sheet covering you could even plant something there without removing the cover.
I do this all of the time with grass/weeds etc. and it works well. In Permaculture, we call it "sheet mulching". I usually just use cardboard, but in this case, wood might last longer as a barrier.
Poison Ivy can be killed by covering it so it can not get sunlight or water. A black tarp or plastic contractor bags work good. Use rocks to hold down the tarp from summer to over the winter, and if you have mulch you can throw that on top. The longer you can leave it covered and the larger you cover around it the better. It may try and spread underground, but if you cover a big enough area it won't survive. Someone once told me that you can't get a rash from poison Ivy in the winter because the plants oils are dormant. Don't beleive that. I got the worst rash from trying to pull up the dead looking vines after it snowed.
I think if you're really allergic like it sounds you are getting close enough to steam might not be good.
also you can get poison ivy from burning it and being in the smoke-not sure about steam so bee careful.
I was conserned about spraying toxic poisons around our yard, so I had my husband try St Gabriel Organics Poison Ivy Defoliant. We were suprised how fast it works. And I didnt have to worry about any overspray accidently getting on his skin or clothing. Any larger plants will need a second application but other wise your done.
These are things that I have found on the internet for poison ivy control.
Mix the following ingredients together:
4 cups (1 Litre) of white vinegar
1/4 cup (50 ml) of table salt
2 tsp (10 ml) of your favorite liquid dish soap
Put this mixture into a spray bottle and spray it on your poison ivy when it is hot and sunny.
We did this repeatedly everytime we would see a piece start to sprout up for 3 years and it is finally gone.
We have not tried these below:
Also, Clean Air Gardening sells all sorts of lawn and yard care products that are natural and/or organic. They sell a weed killer called BurnOut in spray bottles or 4-5 gallon jugs. We haven't tried this but the ingredients look fine...cloves, etc. I'm allergic to cloves so we didn't try this one.
For non toxic bio degradeable GREEN weed control try www.apollosearth.com a good product with a good cause.
Go to the liquor store and tell the clerk that you want the cheapest rotgut gin (1/2 gal); mix this in a sprayer with 2 qts of white vinegar and 1 pint of dishwasher liquid, add about 1 pint of water and wait about 3 days for results after spraying.
You could also try smothering with 10-12 newspapers and 6 inches of mulch on top if the poison ivy is on flat ground like below and around a tree or use a pond liner to cover it. I don't know if ithis will kill the tree though.
If a poison ivy vine is running up a tree then sever the vine about 6 inches from the ground. Be sure to clean yourself and your tools off afterward. Poison ivy roots, leaves etc still have oil in them and can cause a rash for up to 5 years after being sprayed, cut, etc. I also would not burn or boil water and pour over it because you could breath it in as others have said.
Good luck. We have a lot of poison ivy in our yard off a wooded area also.
Colleen
I had a very mateur poison ivy vine intertwined with a crape murtle tree on my property line border. I tried spraying the leaves every year when it was sunny right before the flowers bloomed. It killed the foilage but not the vine. It would grow back every year. Last year on a very hot summer day I drilled holes at a downward angle in the vine as closs to the base as I could. I used an old drill bit and pushed it through a zip lock bag to protect my hands and threw away the bit with the ziplock bag. I then put straight white vinegar in a weed spayer bottle and spray it into all the holes. Some black looking stuff came out of some black looking tar stuff spilled out of the holes. Last week I took a shovel and pushed on the vine and it was falling apart. It was actually dead! I was able to finally cut it out of the tree saving the tree. But... still be careful I did get a slight bit of poison ivy (not near as bad as I usually get). I hear the oils from the poison ivy leaves can still be on the outside vine for up to five year.