Eradicating English Ivy

I have spent the better part of this past week pulling ivy from my 150+ year old stacked stone walls and what I could reach stuck to the cedar trees.  It feels like I will never win.  Has anyone been successful eradicating this beast and, if so, how?  It's nothing but a cover for rodents, and has displaced many spots in the walls.  *sigh*

Tactical nuclear weapons are reputed to be effective. Even then you need to remove seed sources in the vicinity.

All seriousness aside, this stuff is truly horrible here. We have neighbours on two sides who let it run rampant, so it has climbed up their fences and trees. This induces seed production, and then the birds do the rest. On average, I estimate that we get a few thousand ivy seedlings sprouting on our property each year. The implications for our native forest are dire, as when it runs up trees and covers them it can collapse the entire canopy.

Just saw that Shetland sheep would eat it.  Especially in late fall/winter when it is the only thing green.

My suggestion would be to cut it to ground level, and top it with cardboard then 6" to 12" wood chips or mulch of some kind.

To accomplish this a person must be persistent.

(insert Al Pacino doing a Cuban accent)
If you pay me to pull scotch broom, I will pull scotch room. Pay me to pull himalayan blackberry, I will pull himalayan blackberry…but I will pull english ivy for f$@king free.

I think this is a plant the calls for the use of profanity. Seriously though, it is one of the few invasives that can kill mature old growth trees and prevent their reestablishment. This includes coast redwoods, which are generally impervious to every disturbance otherwise. It kills them by either rotting the cambium beneath its tarp of toxic foliage, or by helping fire climb it like a ladder to the tree canopy. This is one pernicious plant and I am amazed it is still allowed to be sold anywhere.

I have successfully knocked it back on a 1/4acre plus scale by:
- cutting every vine around trees at least 3ft up
- removing every ground vine by following them as far as possible, pulling just gently enough to not break the bastards (any little segment with ground contact will root and grow)
- getting the pulled ivy at least a foot off the ground to dry, using fencing, pallets, or stacks of sticks to elevate it (it will send roots down looking for soil)
- getting something else planted or mulching the ground deeply ASAP after pulling
-offering to do this for the neighbor, as theirs will spread
- this is a rope a dope game, where you have to go back every few months and remove any regrowth to eventually exhaust the root system
- it produces very toxic smoke, so that would be my last choice for disposal. I have killed it in a barrel of water after over week, but this seems inefficient and I do not know how safe that water would be for plants and animals thereafter.

Unfortunately, it seems like the berries are a favorite food of many birds, which then will replant the seeds. Still I will try to give these birds habitat, and try to encourage the other things they deposit in my hedgerows, like cascara. Nothing native in North America can eat the foliage apparently, so this is our burden to bear. I have found no use for it, as the vines are too weak for cordage. It is satisfying to pull though, just where gloves as it is a skin irritant.

Thank you all for the suggestions.  If I cut to the ground and smother the roots, will the ivy that's stuck to the cedar still grow (stealing nutrients from the tree) or will it eventually die?  Die, die, die!  Between it and what I think is trifoliate orange, I am feeling a little defeated at the moment.

Pull up as much of the along the ground underground plant as you can, and cut along trunks at 3ft to prevent adventitious roots regrowing and reaching soil.

Theresa Garrison wrote:will the ivy that's stuck to the cedar still grow (stealing nutrients from the tree) or will it eventually die?

It should die back and shrivel. It pulls nutrients from its roots not on the bark.

Timothy Norton wrote:

Theresa Garrison wrote:will the ivy that's stuck to the cedar still grow (stealing nutrients from the tree) or will it eventually die?

It should die back and shrivel. It pulls nutrients from its roots not on the bark.

It took 6 months for some of the fatter bastard vines to fully die on my trees. It was absurd. They were a thick as my arm!  

I wonder about those roots, too. I've cut big ivy vines that were growing up some old poplar trees down by our community orchard. A year later, some of them were hanging on. They didn't look healthy, but they weren't dead either...in spite of having no conduit to the ground. I assumed that they were either parasitically drawing on the trees' sap, or maybe harvesting moisture in the buildup of litter in the nooks and crannies. I'm not fond of zombies.

It's common practice over here to cut a 30cm/1 ft chunk out of ivy stems that are growing up trees, making sure to go all around the trunk. That is enough of a gap to prevent the ivy regrowing and grafting itself to the existing growth. It wont kill the roots but it will weaken it. The ivy in the trees will die and, eventually, rot and fall. In the meantime it makes for pretty good habitat - dead or alive.

There is a debate about whether ivy is actually damaging to healthy trees. The belief used to be that it was not, hence the practice of cutting it. Most now believe that the only threat is the extra wind load (force exerted on the ivy/leaves during winter storms) that could cause more trees to fall. Healthy trees should be strong enough to cope with this, however.

Is ivy invasive in your area? It's vigorous in our woodlands, hedges and damp, dark places but it rarely gets out of control.

Theresa Garrison wrote:I have spent the better part of this past week pulling ivy from my 150+ year old stacked stone walls and what I could reach stuck to the cedar trees.  It feels like I will never win.  Has anyone been successful eradicating this beast and, if so, how?  It's nothing but a cover for rodents, and has displaced many spots in the walls.  *sigh*

English and Baltic Ivy are evil, I bought a place from an older man who was in an old folks home.  Him and his wife built this house in 1979 and they planted Baltic Ivy.  It took over the entire yard, I am fighting the same fight as you.  Everything I read said to cut it back and dig out the roots by hand and after that block it from getting any sunlight for an extended period of time.