Vinegar for Poison Ivy

The land around our home is overrun with poison ivy. It is
everywhere; a vine has even wrapped abundantly around the tree
that holds the end of the clothesline so we can’t fix the rope pulley that is broken there. After a few years of passively
accepting that I can’t hang clothes on the line, or that
various family members get terrible rashes every summer, I’ve
decided to do something about the scourge.

I won’t ever use herbicides out of concern for health and the environment, so I’ve been trying out various “down home” remedies. This one really works.

Before I tell you about what I’ve found that works, let me
tell you of another alternative solution to herbides: Goats!
For some reason, Spanish and Angora goat breeds absolutely love
poison ivy. Make sure you get those particular breeds; most
others don’t like poison ivy for their main meal. I would
love to have goats, but my family won’t let me… !

Here is the homemade poison ivy vegetation killer spray
that I’ve found is safe and effective:

Poison Ivy Vegetation Killer
1 cup salt
8 drops liquid detergent
1 gallon vinegar

Combine the salt and vinegar in a pan and heat to dissolve the
salt. Cool the vinegar, add the detergent, and pour some of the
liquid into a large spray bottle. Spray the vegetation. (You can
also just pour the mixture onto the weeds.) Refill the spray
bottle as necessary. Note that this formula will kill all the
vegetation, so make sure that you are only spraying the plants
you want to kill. If you need to use a lot of this spray, avoid
spraying it near wells, as the salt can leach into your water
supply.

Read more: Nature, Natural Pest Control

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sue M.

8:57PM PST on Jan 15, 2012

thanks

send a green star

Robert O.

12:51AM PDT on Jul 21, 2011

Vinegar has many helpful uses.

Dennis B.

7:03PM PDT on Jul 10, 2011

@ Len R. Roundup is POISON!!!!!! I hope you don't let your children or grandchildren run around in that crap! It does not break down in the environment! Please visit www.safelawns.org or look up "Paul Tukey" online. Please!!! DO NOT SPREAD THIS WRONG INFORMATION!
ROUNDUP IS POISON!!!! kills frogs toads fish etc. EXTREMELY BAD FOR ENVIRONMENT!!

Len R.

11:36AM PDT on May 30, 2011

I'm concerned about putting a lot of salt into the ground, then nothing else will grow and the trees might be harmed. I'd rather use Roundup which will break down in the soil very quickly.

Alice D.

8:26PM PDT on Jul 17, 2010

Good to know ! Thank you : )

Alet C.

9:01AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

Good info, thanks for sharing.

7:55AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

Thanks for the information.

Lori A.

3:34AM PDT on Jun 15, 2010

Great article, thanks for sharing!

Tom R.