How To Kill Off Ivy?
Discussion
Following on mattman's thread about ridding himself (well, his veggie plot) of bindweed I thought I'd ask the PH massive the same question about ivy.
I had a crack at it with brush killer which recommended diluting it with paraffin to cut through the wax on the leaves rather than water that will run off. I snaffled a gallon of jet fuel from work and used that. Maybe applying it with a pump spray wasn't my best ever move. Stinking out the entire village was bad enough but I think I came close to creating a home made Fuel Air Bomb.
I had a crack at it with brush killer which recommended diluting it with paraffin to cut through the wax on the leaves rather than water that will run off. I snaffled a gallon of jet fuel from work and used that. Maybe applying it with a pump spray wasn't my best ever move. Stinking out the entire village was bad enough but I think I came close to creating a home made Fuel Air Bomb.
I had a lot of it on my garage when I moved in & cut it off at ground level then poisoned the trunks with Weedol or Roundup. Continued applications seemed to do the job as it hasn't come back over eight years later, the remains are still attached to the brick wall though, not sure how to get rid of those 
nobodyknows said:
I had a lot of it on my garage when I moved in & cut it off at ground level then poisoned the trunks with Weedol or Roundup. Continued applications seemed to do the job as it hasn't come back over eight years later, the remains are still attached to the brick wall though, not sure how to get rid of those
Exactly what this guy said, cut it off at the bottom and Weedol it. It's just a matter of peeling it off the wall then. There will be bits and pieces left on the wall, it's just a matter of spraying Hypochloric acid on it with a backsprayer, leaving it for an hour and powerwashing it off. Getting rid of the roots is going to be your biggest problem. I made the mistake of thinking it would look good on the side of my house so I planted some. There was places I had to dig up the roots from 20 feet away.Just spraying it doesn't work unfortunately. I did consider cutting the stems (some are 2" thick), drilling down into the cores and pouring in neat Weedol. Thing is there's tons of this stuff all around my garden, I'll be at it for days.
What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
Flintstone said:
Just spraying it doesn't work unfortunately. I did consider cutting the stems (some are 2" thick), drilling down into the cores and pouring in neat Weedol. Thing is there's tons of this stuff all around my garden, I'll be at it for days.
What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
I had the side wall of a large double garage that was covered in it, it takes a while but you can get rid of it. Some of mine was thick enough for me to swing on Tarzan style!What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
Flintstone said:
Just spraying it doesn't work unfortunately. I did consider cutting the stems (some are 2" thick), drilling down into the cores and pouring in neat Weedol. Thing is there's tons of this stuff all around my garden, I'll be at it for days.
What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
Spraying worked for me.What I really need is a bug or animal that eats the stuff.
Now, the bug thing is fine, but then when the bugs get out of hand as they are wont to do, you'll need a bigger bug, perhaps a spider or 10, then you'll need something to eat the spiders when they get out of hand. Snakes? Then you'll be getting loads of mongooses in. It escalates and before you know it, you're introducing a pride of lions into your garden. Suddenly, ivy doesn't seem so bad.
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