Poison Ivy Eradication

You come back home after having spent a long, fruitful day in the garden. Your arms and your hands are blackened with soil, and fine particulates of grit remain embedded under your nails. But all is well – you look at your garden basket and smile because the earth has rewarded your hard labors with plump and colorful vegetables. Days later, however, you scratch a red spot on the back of your hand. And then you scratch again. And again. And now you’re scratching your wrist. You look down and see a red angry rash beginning to trail its way up your arm.

That’s when you realize what that unfamiliar plant was in your garden.

Rhus radicans, better known as “poison ivy”, is an unfortunately common pest that plagues many a backyard and vegetable patch, especially in the Northeast United States. The big problem regarding this plant is the oil in its leaves, urushiol. When this compound comes into contact with membrane proteins in exposed skin cells, it binds with them and changes their structure. The body, mistaking these newly-formed proteins for foreign pathogens, incites an autoimmune response. The allergic reaction that results is usually a rash in the contact area, characterized by redness, swelling, streaks, and blisters.

However, once one learns how to identify poison ivy, it’s not difficult to avoid. Poison ivy has a leaf structure that consists of three leaflets. Each leaflet (the middle being slightly larger than the others) is about two to four inches long. They are a dull or glossy green, with pointed tips. The edges of the leaves vary from plant to plant, and can appear either toothed or smooth. Poison ivy can be found in one of three forms: an upright shrub, a trailing shrub running along the ground, or a woody vine, the last usually
growing on trees or other objects for support. Also, most mature poison ivy plants will flower and produce clusters of white or yellow fruit, which appears much like wax.

There are numerous ways to go about eradicating poison ivy from one’s garden. Most of them consist of using some type of herbicide. However, this article will avoid proposing these methods in favor of more organic, healthy approaches. The first and most obvious is manual labor – good old hand pulling. The best time to start pulling is early in the spring (when the leaves unfold) and when the soil is moist. Whenever handling poison ivy, it’s crucial to wear gloves. For added protection, wear a long sleeved  shirt and long pants. Be sure to pull up the entirety of the root, or else the runners that remain in the ground will re-grow. Do try to avoid touching the outside of the gloves – there are probably traces of urushiol on the glove surface, since the oil clings to almost everything. Do not mow the poison ivy, since fragments of the plant will just be scattered everywhere. And whatever you do, DO NOT BURN poison ivy. The smoke still contains urushiol and, if inhaled, can cause severe lung damage.

Of course, there are alternative methods of eradication. One is a household mixture that contains three pounds of salt and one gallon of soapy water (or: one cup of salt, eight drops of liquid detergent, and one gallon of vinegar). Spray this mixture on the plants and they should wilt and die within about two weeks or so. The downside to this method, however, is that the salt may be damaging to the environment – it will leach water from nearby plants and remain in the soil until washed away by enough rainfall. Another method (albeit a time-consuming one) consists of wrapping a poison ivy vine in black plastic bags for a few months. Eventually, the plant will suffocate.

And voila! A poison ivy-free garden.


 

Bibliography:

Shaughnessy, Debbie. "Poison Ivy." Home and Garden Information Center. Dec. 2006. Clemson Extension. 14 Nov. 2008