Killing Ivy on a house

[jingles]

I have moved into a new (old) house and there is an ivy plant that is infesting most of the front of the house and part of the side. We will be re-rendering the whole house so the ivy needs to come down.

I have sawn through all the 'trunks' of ivy going into the ground (the biggest being about 5 inches across) in the idea of making the rest of the plant die through lack of nutrients. That was about 3 weeks ago. result... not a sausage! I think it is actually sneering at me when I enter the house now .

Does anyone have any good ways of killing the monster as I don't want to pull it off before it is dead as it is likely to make the house very unsightly with render holes (we will re-render in the summer).

 

[nstreet]

Since you have cut the roots it will be a bit more difficult. Ivy will continue to grow from the smallest fragments as each piece will grow its own roots and feed on whatever moisture it can. If it was still intact you could have used one of the systemic weed killer.

When we moved into our property we had a concrete sectional garage that was covered in Ivy, so much so you couldn't see the garge. It had actually forced its was through the sections and started to push the garage apart and the weight on the roof was crushing it.

The only way to solve the problems was to totally remove all of the ivy, a very messy job as the dead leaves had formed more compost for the ivy to feed on. Once removed we then had to strabilse the garage. Ivy can be very destructive.

 

[andrew5235]

It will die eventually, it may take 12-18 months before it does. Even then it will be a begger to get it off the wall as it attaches itself to the wall and that it where is gets some of its moisture from. Basically when the better warmer weather starts it will begin to not have enough moisture to continue to grow. If it is very dense it may be an idea to trim it back to the wall a bit to let the moisture out and spead up the process.

A little bit of patience is required here, sorry

I have just noticed that you said you are re-rendering, are you taking the old render off first? As if you are you could just take some of the ivy away to get started and then it will come off with the old render as you go across the wall.

Andrew

 

[mrgrumpy]

Agree with 'nstreet' and 'jingles', the only way to remove Ivy from rendering is with a wire brush and elbow grease. Even then don't expect to remove it completely


"Poison ivy, poison ivy" (sorry got carried away )

 

[jingles]

Cheers for that. I am tempted to take a damn flame thrower to it... but then the house could suffer

Looks like elbow grease is called for. I have started spraying it with one of those 'absorb through leaves' systemic poisons in the hope of at least stunting it. By the way, when the can says use of a dry and still day.... take their advice... dry but a little windy gets you a really nasty taste in your mouth, but at least no plants should grow in there now

 

[loublou]

You say you cut it off at the roots, what you must do is cut a section of trunk out, as much as possible, in order to kill it in time.

I've just removed a jungle of ivy and would say that the bottom section should come away without too much agro. However the growing tips tend to mesh and that can be the a real problem round gutters and down pipes.

Wear gloves, mask and eye protection. I missed out the glasses and suffered badly while removing above my head.