Poison Ivy vines the size of my forearm...

[IHDiesel73L]

I've got a whole mess of locust trees (about 15 or 20) on my property just like the one pictured below that I am eventually going to have cut down. One group is clustered around my barn and another around my house. The trees around the barn are about 70' tall and the ones around the house 50'-60' so I'll be having a pro come in with a crane. He will chip up the tops onsite and cut the logs into eight foot lengths as he removes them and will stack them over by my firewood processing area. The question is what can I do to get as much of the poison ivy off of the wood prior to that? If I just cut the vine at the base will the rest of it begin to die and lose its grip on the tree and start to fall off? Or should I cut them, tie a rope to them and try to yank them off with the tractor? Whatever I do I've got to suit up in protective gear head to toe and then straight into the shower with Tecnu because I'm pretty allergic. Some of these trees are nearly 36" in diameter-I'm not just going to leave that much good firewood to rot. For those of you who have never burned locust, in my opinion its second only to anthracite coal in terms of total BTUs and burn time:

 

[noodlewalker]

Even killing it won't eliminate the risk of getting it on you. Poison ivy is tough to get rid of. It sounds like you already know what to do when you come into contact with it, so just go that route. I would honestly say not to worry about getting it off of the tree as it is standing. I have several situations like that around my property where the ivy has consumed the tree. What I do is just cut the tree up as I typically would with the vines still on the tree and burn it right along with the wood. It is the urushiol oil inside of the vine that you are allergic to so burning it won't cause a rash. But every 20 minutes you need to wash whatever bare skin is exposed while you're cutting and when you are done wash your clothing and boots with dish soap. I have been using this method for a couple of years now and been fine. I would think trying to remove it from the tree before you cut it down is more of an exposure risk than anything.

 

[farmer steve]

Depends on how soon you are taking the trees down. I cut the vines a good while before taking trees down. The vine dies and then comes off pretty easy when dead. You Stihl need to be careful if you are really allergic to it.

 

[IHDiesel73L]

Even killing it won't eliminate the risk of getting it on you...What I do is just cut the tree up as I typically would with the vines still on the tree and burn it right along with the wood....

Trust me I'm well aware that dead poison ivy is still potent! I hear you on the exposure risk, but I just feel like if I leave it on there I'm going to get exposed over and over-bucking the log, splitting the round, stacking the splits, moving the splits inside to burn, whereas if I just yank the vine off to begin with, hopefully with enough sitting outside in the rain take care of the residual.

Depends on how soon you are taking the trees down. I cut the vines a good while before taking trees down. The vine dies and then comes off pretty easy when dead.

Probably won't be taking these down for about a year or so, that's why I'm thinking of doing it now. Maybe if I cut the vines now they will just fall off as the tree crew is sectioning the logs and lowering them to the ground/moving them to the stacking area.

 

[Wye Oak Tree]

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/poison-ivy-and-firewood.39113/

 

[farmer steve]

Trust me I'm well aware that dead poison ivy is still potent! I hear you on the exposure risk, but I just feel like if I leave it on there I'm going to get exposed over and over-bucking the log, splitting the round, stacking the splits, moving the splits inside to burn, whereas if I just yank the vine off to begin with, hopefully with enough sitting outside in the rain take care of the residual.



Probably won't be taking these down for about a year or so, that's why I'm thinking of doing it now. Maybe if I cut the vines now they will just fall off as the tree crew is sectioning the logs and lowering them to the ground/moving them to the stacking area.

If it is gonna be a year I would cut them now. Yes they should just about fall off when you have the trees dropped. Being dead should also help lessen your risk as the sap will be dry. I don't get it but I hate it and grape vines. I cut em when I see em.

 

[Ronaldo]

Definitely cut em now. That'll give it a chance to dry some and much of the oil will dry up.

Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

 

[H-Ranch]

You could just cut the logs to length and stack them for a year. Then the bark (and the PI vines with it) will just about fall off when you move the logs. Might stack away from your normal splitting area and move the bare logs when ready to buck and split. Black locust will still be solid for years. That may only work if you have equipment to move the logs. Can still do it with the stack in your normal splitting area but then you'll have vines and bark to deal with there.

This also applies if you can't get all the vines off now anyway. Seems to me the vines hold on pretty good even after they are dead.

 

[kevin j]

definitely don’t burn it Either in a bonfire or in your stove. The oil in the smoke can get inside your lungs and it’s a chemical burn in a very slow way to die so I’ve read. I am very allergic to contact and the technu soap helps but apparently the key is a lot of mechanical scrubbing with a washrag no matter what kind of soap you use

 

[rarefish383]

If I can I put it somewhere out of the way, let it sit for a year or more. Then the leaves are all gone. Like mentioned above, the bark starts to come off easy with the vines still on it. I get it bad also. For 40 years I've been washing with a dish soap like Palmolive. It's made to cut grease. The oil in PI is about the same viscosity as 10 weight motor oil. Being clear, you have to scrub a lot to make sure you get it all. If I start scrubbing within 8 hours I usually wind up with little to no break out. I had a friend that it would start breaking out with in a couple hours of exposure. It would put him in the hospital.

 

[CentaurG2]

I have heard tales of folks making small boxes and wooden pens out of large poison ivy vines. I guess you let them dry out and stabilize them in epoxy/acrylic and it is then workable. The grain pattern is very nice/unique. Not for me. I HATE that stuff and I have a good stiff resistance to it. We usually just cut the vine at the base, cut again 3ft up, remove vine with a peavey and fell.

 

[noodlewalker]

If it is gonna be a year I would cut them now. Yes they should just about fall off when you have the trees dropped. Being dead should also help lessen your risk as the sap will be dry. I don't get it but I hate it and grape vines. I cut em when I see em.

I completely agree with this, however even dead poison ivy 10 yrs old can still get you. Especially if it is as big as you are describing. The problem I can foresee though is that it WILL grow after you cut it. So cut a big gap in the vine at the ground all the way around the tree. Then monitor it so that the vine coming from the ground doesn't regrow back up the tree. That crap is horrible and relentless.

 

[noodlewalker]

definitely don’t burn it Either in a bonfire or in your stove. The oil in the smoke can get inside your lungs and it’s a chemical burn in a very slow way to die so I’ve read. I am very allergic to contact and the technu soap helps but apparently the key is a lot of mechanical scrubbing with a washrag no matter what kind of soap you use

I never knew this about burning it, but I researched it after your post and what you say is very much true. I will have to reconsider burning it on the logs. Thank you

 

[John Lyngdal]

I would hack and squirt the vines with Tordon RTU or Garlon and kill off the vines and roots.
Let them dry out and pull them of the tree with a tractor and choker, and drag the poison ivy vines to a remote area where they can be burned or left to rot.

 

[SS396driver]

Or could come down and cut it now for you . I'm not allergic to it, I only charge half of the locust

I'm in my 60s never had it

 

[mountainguyed67]

I would treat the tree and vines as hazardous waste, and get rid of all of it.

I cut an oak once, that must have had poison oak growing on it at one time. The first I knew was when I woke up at 3 am like I was on fire. My forehead, forearms, and belly were thick with red rash. I used my shirt sleeves to wipe the sweat off my brow, and carried the logs against my belly. I still processed it, thinking it would go away. Three years later I still got a rash when I handled it, I ended up throwing it away.

 

[muddstopper]

I used to get PI pretty bad but I must have built up an immunity to it. I found the best method to get rid of it was a Clorox bath. I would fill the tub with water as hot as I could stand, pour in about a cup of Clorox and then just set in the hot water and soak. When the water in the tub cooled, I would then stand and take a hot shower with regular bar soap and then rinse with cold water. It works, is all I can say about that.

For your tree, I would cut the vine now, and probably follow up with roundup on the root end of the vine, just incase it tried to grow back. When you get ready to cut the trees, hook a rope to the vine and pull it out of the tree. You wont get it all, but using gloves and protective clothing, you can pull the small stuff off once the tree is on the ground.

 

[IHDiesel73L]

I would treat the tree and vines as hazardous waste, and get rid of all of it.I cut an oak once, that must have had poison oak growing on it at one time. The first I knew was when I woke up at 3 am like I was on fire. My forehead, forearms, and belly were thick with red rash. I used my shirt sleeves to wipe the sweat off my brow, and carried the logs against my belly. I still processed it, thinking it would go away. Three years later I still got a rash when I handled it, I ended up throwing it away.

There is probably as much as 15 cords tied up in these trees. Can't justify wasting it. Plus once they're down that's a big pile of logs taking up a lot of space doing nothing. Lots of other good suggestions here, but I wonder what would happen if I hit each log with the pressure washer loaded up with simple green before I buck it? As someone mentioned before, urushiol, at its core, is just an oil, so any degreaser will take care of it. I have cut a lot of locust in the past and in my experience the bark does peel completely off once it sits for a time, so that might work too.

 

[LT100]

Even killing it won't eliminate the risk of getting it on you. Poison ivy is tough to get rid of. It sounds like you already know what to do when you come into contact with it, so just go that route. I would honestly say not to worry about getting it off of the tree as it is standing. I have several situations like that around my property where the ivy has consumed the tree. What I do is just cut the tree up as I typically would with the vines still on the tree and burn it right along with the wood. It is the urushiol oil inside of the vine that you are allergic to so burning it won't cause a rash. But every 20 minutes you need to wash whatever bare skin is exposed while you're cutting and when you are done wash your clothing and boots with dish soap. I have been using this method for a couple of years now and been fine. I would think trying to remove it from the tree before you cut it down is more of an exposure risk than anything.

Please don’t burn it with the vines still on. The smoke will carry it and if it gets into your or your families lungs it’s going to get really bad for all.

 

[IHDiesel73L]

Please don’t burn it with the vines still on. The smoke will carry it and if it gets into your or your families lungs it’s going to get really bad for all.

I've always been told that burning poison ivy is no good. Would never do it myself.