Here is a tip on the eradication of English ivy, if the plant are the size of the ones I killed on my mother's acreage. The main vines were 4 to 5 inches through and went to the top of 100 foot trees. I took a portable drill and drilled a couple holes in the vine, about 3/8 of an inch in diameter and about 2 to 3 inches deep, at a downward angle. I then squirted straight Roundup in the holes. With the sun out, you could see the vine suck the Roundup into the vine. It kills the whole vine from top to root.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
How do I permanently destroy English ivy on my trees and on the ground?
Basically the only way to do this is to dig it out and get rid of the roots. You will need to dig deep and get all the roots out of the ground to stop it from coming back again. This is very difficult and can take along time to get rid of this.
If you Google your question you will probably receive several hundred ways to do this and each may be good for a different amount of ivy or where your ivy is located.
There is herbicide called glycophosphate that is recommended by some master gardeners but this is a strong chemical and I do not like to use this type of killer.
There are some very good YouTube videos about how to kill ivy on trees and I believe these would be good to watch as you do not state how severe your ivy is on your trees.
www.youtube.com/
www.wikihow.com/
Interesting fact: Cost to remove ivy averages $500 nationwide....
The very best way to remove English ivy , is to dig up by the root. English Ivy is very strong. Even when you remove, you have to be careful where you discard. Do not mulch it with your regular clippings. The roots may survive and grow again. Maybe you can advertise free Ivy and someone would take it off your hands. There are so many people that love the look of Ivy cover.
I have read all the info on getting rid of English ivy and the salt, vinegar and soap sound good. My problem is, is that I can get rid of the ivy surrounding my fence but beyond my fence is what is called "common ground" between my house and the house below me and there is a lot of common ground that is completely full of the ivy. Since it is common ground, no one wants to take care of it but it is in my view. What do I do with that much ivy so that it doesn't keep coming onto my property?
Do I spray the whole thing or just spray what is surrounding my house? I have a beautiful view of the mountains beyond the common ground but the ivy keeps climbing up the trees and hangs from tree limb to limb and looks terrible. Do I just spray the salt/vinegar solution around the trees so the ivy doesn't grow there anymore or will it hurt the trees (these are big trees) What do I do?I don't know your situation, I don't have great answers for you, but I just want to say you're on the right track! English Ivy is terrible, I don't see why they still sell it in stores for the gullible. Please hang in there and save your trees! you can use a sharp machete and cut as much as you can, to keep it from having any green leaves. Sooner or later, by preventing it from getting any sunlight on the leaves, the roots will go bankrupt from trying to make more leaves and will die, but it will take years. You have a worthy opponent in that ivy! --Fellow sympathizer. PS: my girlfriend was pulling ivy down from her trees and fell off the ladder, is still in a coma, so be safe!
PS. You might take a look at 'bamboo barrier', and consider installing it to stop the ivy from coming your way. Just put 'bamboo barrier' into your search browser.
Edie, Get together with you neighbors and discuss the English Ivy. Many people don't understand the dangers and problems with this plant. There is a great video made for Ecovisions. Inc. Look them up on the internet. You could have a video party or tea and enlist your neighbors into saving their trees and the trees in the common area.
As for the trees in the common area behind your house use physical labor and cut the vines on the trees and shoulder height and ankle level. Don't pull vines off of trees as you can damage bark. The vines will die (on the trees) and fall off on their own.
In order to keep them off the trees you need to clear the area around the trees in a 6 foot circle. I know this is a lot of work but setting an example may nudge your neighbors to join the fight. Live trees are much nicer to look at than dead ones.
Bambo worse than the ivy don't do that you'll hate yourself
I've been told to cut as much as I can top and bottom. Then drill into the roots and add salt. This is supposed to dehydrate the roots and kill them.
We recently bought our house, and a retaining wall separates our back yard from our neighbor's yard below. We had to replace our fence, because English Ivy had taken it over and was weighing it down. We had to take a chainsaw to the vine to cut it back.
My question is what is the best way to get rid of it? The roots are growing into the retaining wall on our neighbor's side so I cannot pull it. I know a regular weed killer will not do and there is so much of it. I do not want it to come back and ruin our new fence. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Hardiness Zone: 7b
By Kristen from Bellingham, WA
Pour gas on it, good luck.
We cut all along the bottom of the plant (quite an expanse) and pulled off what we could. We left the rest to wither and die. We then had to dig out the roots:-(( Hard work, I'm afraid!
Ok, I did a test 4 weeks ago and I spent a couple hundred dollars on all kinds of products and mapped out the spray areas and documented the results. I have a huge area of english ivy. The best , fastest, and permanent solution was a back hoe. But the next best was Roundup for Poison Ivy and brush. I dosed it double dose and then 2 weeks later came back and repeated it. But I still have to get it out of there so I'll be back to the backhoe since I just have too much to pull up.
I spent less on the backhoe guy to come up than I did on the poisons. So there's the results of my scientific experiment. Next time I am going to rent a mini excavator for $175.00 a day and rip the rest of it out for less than the chemicals! By the way no other chemicals or other solutions I tried such as Ortho for brush, vinegar, Borax, crossbow, or Ortho Max worked. They all failed miserably. Roundup for Poison Ivy has a surfacent to break down the water molecules which makes it easier to absorb into the waxy leaf. Hope that helps.
Cut back ivy leaves with a weed-eater and then spray a 25% solution of glyphosate (roundup) directly onto the cut leaf and stems of the ivy. Glyphosate will kill anything it comes in contact with so be sure not to spray anything you want to keep. This is pretty effective . Nothing is 100%. A follow up spray on new growth as it emerges and gets a couple of leaves and also some hand removal of remaining root mass would do best. This will work anytime of year . So you could wait until the stuff you like is dormant to reduce inadvertent damage to desirables.
We and the neighbor to the south of us got rid of all of our English ivy. The neighbor to the east did not, and it keeps climbing under and over the fence into our yard. The city says there is no ordinance to make him take out his ivy or prevent it from coming over and under the fence. Any ideas on how I can prevent it, as a one time solution, from coming over and under the fence. We are looking for a permanent solution, not something we have to do all of the time. The way we got rid of it was to pull it out completely roots and all, which was very labor intensive.
By Karen AB
I'm assuming you've spoken with the neighbour about his/her unruly ivy, and he/she was unconcerned?
If your city isn't going to help you out with this, you are going to have to resign yourself to a lifelong routine of trimming it back every time you see it popping over/through/under the common fence.
You can't hit it with an herbicide like RoundUp because even though it would permanently take care of the problem (by killing the ivy back to the roots) your neighbour would likely sue you for killing their plants.
Spray it with hot salt water on your side of the fence
I have a challenge for anyone, I planted the "English ivy" type vine for ground cover and it's taking over my house and choking out my plants. We did pull it out by the roots at one time, but it's back and now I want to get rid of it without hurting my plants which I might just dig some of those up and relocate. Can anyone help me? Thanks for your consideration in advance.
By Patsy from Salem, MO
Choose areas away from your plants you want to keep. Spray Round-up on Ivy, it kills the roots. So it will eventually kill all of the ivy.
I had a large expanse of ivy taking over. I used the lawn mower and weed wacker to cut it as short as possible. Then I laid landscape material and landscape rock over it. No more ivy!!!
Please can any one help we have just bought our house and half the house and all the wall is covered with ivy. The trouble is the ivy stems are so thick they have grown into the wall. I have tried to pull it out, but the wall is coming away with it. Please what can I do?
By Helen
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
We have just moved to a new home and English Ivy has covered the ground and trees like kudzu. I am in the process of cutting it from the trees near the ground and am wondering how to kill it. I am thinking that I need to cut it low with a lawn mower and then spray it.
