How to Kill Poison Sumac or Poison Ivy in Your Yard

Leaves of poison ivy vines are grouped into leaflets of three.

An encounter with poison ivy or poison sumac can turn a pleasant day in your yard into an uncomfortable experience at best, and a trip to the hospital at worst. The sap in poison ivy and sumac contains urushiol oil, which will cause itching, blisters and a rash when it contacts human skin. Getting rid of these plants is a little difficult, since it is almost impossible to cut them down without contacting the sap, and burning them will only release the sap into the air where it can be inhaled.

Things You'll Need

• Shears

Instructions

1. Identify the plants to make sure you are killing poison sumac or ivy, and not other plants. Poison sumac is a woody shrub around 5 feet in height. The leaves on the poison sumac shrub are paired with a single leaf on the end of the branch. Poison sumac also has white or green fruit that hang in small clusters. Poison ivy is a vine that has leaf groupings consisting of three leaflets; it also has small clusters of flowers and white fruit growing between the leaves.

2. Wait until the plants have full, large leaves before applying control methods. This will normally happen in May or June.

3. Purchase a weed killer that contains the chemical glyphosate. Solutions with this chemical are sold under the brands of Roundup, Kleenup, Buccaneer and others.

4. Cut the climbing vines of poison ivy to about 6 inches above the ground.

5. Spray the herbicide onto the plants. Coat the leaves of the poison ivy or poison sumac, but don't get them so saturated that the herbicide drips off of them. Coat the stumps of any climbing vines that you cut down.

6. Return to the area two weeks later and check for further growth. Reapply the herbicide if you see any growth. Continue to check for growth and apply the herbicide until the poison ivy or sumac stops growing.

Tips & Warnings

• The urushoil oil on the poison ivy and poison sumac plants is present regrdless of whether the plant is alive or dead, so always take care when you are near these plants.

• Glyphosate will kill almost any plant with which it comes in contact, so be careful when you are spraying it.

References

• Texas Department of Insurance: Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac Factsheet
• Alabama Coorperative Extension System: Don't Let Itching Ivy Poison Your Summer
• North Dakota State University Extension: Questions on Poison Ivy
• University of Florida Extension: Poisonous Plants