Cohousing-L Mailing List: Poison Ivy - need advise

[Pablo Halpern (phalpern]

Hi all,

Our site in Acton, MA is infested with poison Ivy. Now that foundations are 
going in, we are in a hurry to do something about it. We're looking for 
advise and experiences.

A quick overview:

* About half the houses in New View have a lot of poison ivy in what will be 
  their front and/or back yards and surrounding woods.

* Nobody things we should just "live with" the problem. Some people got 
  quite sick last year from poison ivy exposure.

* We are researching some natural means of control including

  - Pulling out the plants by hand
  - Goats and sheep (really!)
  - Planting competing ground-cover
  - Non-toxic or low-toxic chemicals
  - Combinations of the above
  - Others

* We are researching various chemical means of eradication. Our 
  understanding of this method are as follows:

  - The chemical must be applied directly to the plants in (June).
  - It must be applied annually for three years.
  - The chemicals have a half-life in the ground of around 100 days.
  - There is at least some evidence that at least some of the chemicals
    cause health problems, including cancer.
  - The dead roots of the poison ivy are also poisonous. We have conflicting 
    information about whether it is necessary to manually remove the dead
    plants after treatment.
  - We have at least one member who categorically states that she will not  
   tolerate the use of these chemicals.

Questions (Please EMAIL directly to me. I will summarize for the list):

Have you had any experience controlling poison ivy by any means?
What worked? What didn't? What did you need to do to keep the poison ivy 
from returning?

About chemicals: Please don't send unsubstantiated information about the 
safety or danger of certain chemicals. If you have references, though, 
please send them. We will follow them up.

Thanks in advance.

- Pablo

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Pablo Halpern              (508) 435-5274         phalpern [at] world.std.com

New View Neighborhood Development, Acton, MA, U.S.A.
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