GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Is there a better way to remove a poison oak plant than with achainsaw?

Brooklyn1 · 08-01-2013, 06:52 PM posted to alt.home.repair,rec.gardens,ba.gardens

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:42:29 -0600, wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jan 2013 09:31:31 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote:

This weekend, I needed to remove a poison oak plant along
my property but the plant was too big and too much on a hill
for spraying; so I cut it with an 18" chainsaw and packed
it up for proper disposal.

After just two hours, I was covered in the poison oak oil
(my clothes came out of the wash all streaked black as if
the kids had taken a black marker to them) - but I had to
stop as the two recyling bins were jam packed to the brim.

Since I still have a few more poison oak plants to remove,
I'm wondering if you outdoor experts have a better way than
what I'm doing for removal of a poison oak plant from your
property? (The last picture is of me washing up!)

I didn't measure it, but this one plant is about 20 feet long
(or so), by about 20 feet deep down a hill - but I only removed
about 5 feet along the curb as I ran out of room in the bins.

I have a problem with multi-flora rose. Giant nasty rose bushes that
dont die from roundup or other herbicides. Although they are not
poisonous, so they could be cut with a chainsaw, but to do so would mean
getting under them, and becomeing all torn up from the thorns. I
designed a chain that has a loop in the end that I lay around the and
hook to my farm tractor. When the tractor moves, the chain tightens
around their base, and they will be ripped out of the ground. Then they
go to my burn pile. However any roots left over will sprout again. But
on the small young ones, roundup works.

I've had some huge ones that would stop my tractor. Either the tires
slip, or the engine kills. I found that the only way to get rid of
those is to burn them. Dump brush and some smaller logs around them,
then a gallon of diesel fuel, and ignite. They do not come back once
they are burned.

The OP said he can not burn the poison oak. How about soaking the base
of them around the roots with diesel fuel. That almost surely will kill
them. Then just let them rot. I dont know how long it takes for that
oil that causes the skin irritation to go away after the plant is dead.
You'd have to do research on that.

Maybe your local County Extension office can help too. They seem to
have info on most local problem plants.

I'm sure someone will state that diesel fuel is harmful to the
environment. Yes it is, but probably does less harm than many of the
commercial chemicals that are used to kill plants and insects.

A lot of farmers in this rural community kill poison ivy and poison
sumac by applying a goodly quantity of rock salt at their base. The
plant dies and within a year of rain and snow the salt washes away.
I've gotten rid of rugosa rose with water softener salt.