Poison Ivy: How to Identify, Prevent & Remove

hi this is Elle from elbow pepper comm and today I'm going to show you poison ivy how to identify it how to get rid of it and some things to keep in mind if you don't want to be getting it again yep that's it right there I have some poison ivy here right there and right there and yep for plants that have all started to creep up on my own property so how did this happen here is actually where the source of my problem began I've recently replaced this soffit fascia but at a certain point underneath here it had been all rotting away and there was a bird's nest and that bird's nest is actually what caused all of my problems because you see right underneath is right where I've been finding all of these poison ivy plants that have been springing up along with Virginia Creeper and all sorts of other foreign life-forms that are not native to this property otherwise what some people may not realize is that poison ivy is spread by birds that will eat the white berries that the plant produces and then of course they have these little seeds in their bellies and they just deposit those all over the place so that later on you find some nice surprises yeah so if you don't want to keep having that occur the first thing you need to do is think about where that's coming from once I was able to get rid of that bird's nest then I was able to eliminate the source of my problem leaves of three let it be how about leaves of three get it off of my property immediately if I let those little seedlings grow next year I'm going to have bigger plants and bigger problems so quickly identifying poison ivy is the first step in making sure it stays eradicated even if you've never had it on your property before what I have here is a poison ivy probing implement this allows me to properly identify poison ivy if I am not sure of what I'm looking at so let's look a little bit closer yes there are three leaves and this distinct pattern in the growth this is exactly what you will find with poison ivy some myths about identification that people will tell you is that the leaves should be shiny or glossy and there's just no truth to that at all it's not like the secrete and coat all sorts of oil and that's how you get poison ivy and thereby have a reaction to it that isn't what occurs those oils that people have a sensitivity to are inside of the plant so if the twigs or the leaves or punctured or damaged in any way then that oil can escape and it can come in contact with your skin thereby you have a reaction but it's not like you're going to see some sort of a waxy coating on poison ivy this three leaf grouping is something that you will find with plants other than just poison ivy there are different types of berries and even sometimes I've seen grapevines that will have a leaf growth that is in groups of three and so you may think oh is that poison ivy but once you know what to look for then it's easy to spot the things that are not probably I think one of the easiest things to confuse is a box elder tree sometimes people may look at that and think that that's poison ivy because of the way that a young box elder sapling looks something to add to the identification arsenal that I have found to be very helpful is looking at the way that the stems grow off of the primary branch of the plant if you see here each stem alternates you don't have opposing stems that come forth from the left side and the right side but rather you'll have one on the left side then there's a space then you'll have one on the right side then there's a space then those one on the left and so on so instead of having one here and then one here you'll have one here then you come down you'll have one here then you come down and you have one there that alternating pattern is a characteristic that has to be there if that's really poison ivy that you're looking at and that is an extra facet to the identification that can really help you once you've identified it the next thing is removing it a few basic precautions can go a long way and making sure that you don't have a reaction to poison ivy this oil that is contained within the plant it can get on your clothing it can get on your tools it can stay there for months at a time if those things are not washed if that oil is not broken down and any means don't just get your favorite pair of gloves that you use all the time and dig right in and just rip the stuff out and say hey I'm wearing gloves I'm going to be fine and as you're wearing the gloves you're scratching your face and doing all this stuff though instead be very careful and use things think about things that maybe you can throw away even that's what I'm going to do when I get rid of this stuff I have some plastic bags that I'm going to actually double bag this poison ivy it's one of the few things that I won't compost and when I'm pulling it out rather than using a pair of gloves that I want to hold on to and use again in the future I'm going to use some inexpensive vinyl gloves that I can just put on and pull the stuff out and then throw away I have everything I need to be able to pull this stuff out I've got my bag I have my gloves on these are disposable so in any oil that I may get on these I'm going to be taking these off and just throwing them away I don't have to worry about taking it into my house and having it in there and then getting it later on so here's the first one very carefully just pull it up and there's a poison ivy plant right there it's important to remember that it's not just the leaves that you can get that oil on you from but even the root itself can have that so be very careful when handling this and if you've noticed there's the alternating leaves that can help with identification so I'm going to put my first one in the bag and then get the rest that's all of them I want to tie this off and next take these off inside out and put this into a second bag which will be safer to handle to dispose of after I got the bag all tied up I immediately put it into the trash receptacle and went inside using cold soapy water I wash my hands wash my arms the reason why you should use cold water after handling this is because if you use warm water it will actually open up your pores in your skin and that could increase the likelihood of any oil that you did get on your skin of being absorbed into it and thereby better reacting with your skin so cold water closes up those pores and the soap can help to dissolve the oil and wash it away if you were using any types of tools or implements to pull this stuff out maybe you had a slightly bigger problem than what I had it's a good idea to wipe off all your tools with rubbing alcohol and then you can wash them as well but the rubbing alcohol is great for breaking down that oil if you were walking through it use rubbing alcohol on your shoes to wipe it off of your shoes because otherwise you know that oil can be on your shoes you can't wreck it into your house it can stick around for awhile indoors it could survive an entire year in your home maybe in a garage on a rake or something so keep that in mind if you have a really big problem well I feel bad for your friend and you may want to look into getting a professional to come and help especially if you know that you are highly sensitive to poison ivy and in regards to disposal one last thing I want to say send it out with the trash don't put it in a pile and burn it that's the last thing that you want to do is to burn poison ivy because that oil will go into the smoke and you'll have fumes of this blowing around and that's that's really bad because if you inhale any of that and get it into your lungs it can be serious a serious problem you could even possibly be looking at eyetality but observing some of those basic guidelines will go a long way to help you to minimize any type of risk and to help you to eliminate the poison ivy hopefully in the first place thanks very much for checking this video out give it a thumbs up if it was of any help to you and as always you can go to Elba pepper comm to get some different ideas about gardening and other things that you may find useful as well

Channel: AlboPepper - Drought Proof Urban Gardening

Views: 525,684

Keywords: poison ivy, how to identify poison ivy, how to remove poison ivy, how to get rid of poison ivy, how to dispose of poison ivy, what does poison ivy look like?, where does poison come from?, identification, prevention, removal, disposal, clean up, how does poison ivy spread?, should you burn poison ivy?, Urushiol, how to wash off poison ivy, poison ivy identification, poison ivy removal, poison ivy plant, safety, horticulture, botany

Id: eFeHDpeZZcQ

Length: 11min 26sec (686 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 28 2014