7 Best Weed Killers For Poison Ivy – No More Unwanted Weeds

“How to kill poison ivy for your lawns, gardens, and similar surfaces?” might be a lingering question. Lucky for you, in this post, we will recommend to you the best weed killer for poison ivy with a detailed buying guide.

The Bonide weed killer is, hands down, the best multipurpose product on our list. It is a selective herbicide that can effectively eliminate unwanted poison ivy and other weeds and grasses without harming the nearby flowers, vegetables, and shrubs.

Moreover, it also shows its ultimate potency as a preventative measure.

Top 7 Weed Killers For Poison Ivy Detailed Review

Preen Garden Weed Preventer – Best For Gardens

Features:

• Organic pre-emergent herbicide that prevents the weed from appearing or re-growing for three months
• Different available coverage options, ranging from 900 to 5000 square feet
• Can get rid of nearly 30 weed types and grasses
• Selectively kill the weed without affecting benign plants, vegetables, shrubs, and flowers

What We Love

While most weed preventers only focus on the prevention aspect, the Preen 245083 herbicide gets underway to improve the product’s weed-killing ability.

Besides putting a stop to weed germination for three months, this product can also kill up to 27 kinds of broadleaf weeds and grasses.

What Could Be Improved

Due to the simplicity of the ingredients, this formula is specifically created for bare-weed, free-soil gardens. If you are looking for a multipurpose weed killer that can also be used for poison ivy control on lawns, this product might not be the best option.

Espoma Organic Weed Preventer – Best For Easy Application

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Features:

• Environmentally-friendly due to its corn gluten meal ingredient
• 9% of water nitrogen for easy application while keeping the lawn green and healthy
• Non-toxic ingredient that causes no harm to human and animals
• Prevent dandelions and crabgrass besides poison ivy

What We Love

Many weed preventers require the weed leaves to be moisturized enough for the product to glue on the surface. The Espoma product, with a high percentage of water nitrogen of nearly 10%, can make the applying process time-saving and enjoyable.

Additionally, the spray is developed in the granulated form, enabling the product to stick more firmly after the application.

What Could Be Improved

The product has no ingredients to protect itself against the rain. Therefore, determining the exact applying time should be your priority when opting for this weed killer.

Spectracide Weed Stop – Best For Lawns

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Features:

• Controlling the weed growth for up to 5 months
• Can be applied directly on lawns to quickly get rid of poison ivy without harming the desirable plants
• Have a built-in spreader for the most even coverage
• Covering up to 3000 square feet of lawn with one 10.8-pound bag

What We Love

Looking at the active ingredients, we can see a dedicated mixture of both pre-emergent and post-emergent compounds. They work side by side to provide prevention and treatment for your lawn.

The Spectracide Weed Stop is a selective herbicide, meaning that they only aim for the harmful weeds without damaging your flowers, shrubs, or ornamental plants.

What Could Be Improved

Since this product is a contact weed stop, you have to ensure the spray stick evenly throughout the weed surfaces. However, this formula can’t adhere firmly to the leaves in a single application.

For that reason, you have to quickly run the sprinkler for a few minutes to wet the lawn before applying the product, which can be considerably time-consuming.

Avenger Organics Weed Killer – Best Non-toxic Herbicide

Features:

• Fast-acting post-emergent herbicide that can produce visible result within 2 hours of application
• Completely organic, non-toxic ingredients that do not harm the environment and animals
• Using the emulsion technology for visual references while spraying
• Potent active ingredient for effective killing

What We Love

This Avenger weed killer will measure up to the expectation of every environmentally-conscious user. The formulation consists of multiple citrus-fruit ingredients, such as oranges and lemons.

D-limonene, the active ingredient in the product, is also developed from natural citrus oil. This compound kills the poison ivy by stripping away the cuticle layers, leading to severe dehydration and killing the weeds.

What Could Be Improved?

While using this weed killer, only a careless overspray can already ruin your flowers or plants since this is a non-selective herbicide. Also, there is no spreader or applicator to help with the spraying process, which can inconvenience some people.

Roundup Landscape Weed Preventer – Best For Prevention

Features:

• An organic pre-emergent herbicide that prevents the poison ivy from appearing or re-growing for 6 months
• Have a built-in applicator to evenly cover any desired area
• Working solely as a preventer without harming desirable vegetables and plants
• Convenient packaging design with in-bag handle for easy holding

What We Love

This product is developed with a strong preventative compound called Pendimethalin, accounting for 3-5% of the formulation. Therefore, this Roundup weed preventer can handle the poison ivy situation neatly before it becomes a real problem.

What Could Be Improved

“Does roundup kill poison ivy” is the common question that many purchasers have asked since they notice the product’s inefficiency while being used to kill already grown undesired weeds.

This inefficiency is because there are no active compounds for eliminating existing poison ivy in the ingredient.

The Roundup Landscape herbicide only works as a preventative option and can not knock the unwanted grasses and weeds out.

Bonide Weed Killer – Best For Versatility

Features:

• More than 5000 square feet of land coverage with a 10-pound package
• A potent mixture between pre-emergent and post-emergent ingredients for versatile uses
• Can eliminate multiple weed types, varying from ground ivy, crabgrass, nutsedge, goosegrass, etc.
• Developed in the granular application form for both warm and cool-season grasses

What We Love

The Bonide weed killer contains some of the most potent active ingredients when it comes to poison ivy control, sulfentrazone and prodiamine.

It selectively uptakes the undesirable roots and shoots of existing weeds and prevents the regrowth of newly emerged weed seedlings.

What Could Be Improved

Many Bonide herbicide users have raised some issues about the amount of time it takes to notice visible results on the lawn. Typically, it might take about one or two weeks before the chemicals eventually sink in, and the efficacy is shown.

Lilly Miller Noxall Ready to Use– Best Non-selective Herbicide

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Features:

• Developed in the granular form for easy application
• Kills all weeds and existing vegetation in an instant
• Effective coverage area of up to 1000 square feet with one 10-pound package
• One application per year for regrowth prevention

What We Love

This non-selective weed killer from Bonide is the top pick for an annual backyard, sidewalks, walkways, and driveways cleaning-up.

The active ingredient of NOXALL vegetation killer, Dichlobenil, is considered one of the best chemical compounds for root killing. It can remove all kinds of plants from a specific surface and prevent regrowth for more than one year.

What Could Be Improved

When applied to gardens used for growing vegetables, it might take a long time for the soil to recover from the chemical invasion fully. You should wait at least 5 to 9 months before replanting vegetables on the said soil for safety.

Buying Guide For Weed Killer For Poison Ivy

Organic vs. Inorganic

A weed killer can be defined as an organic or an inorganic herbicide based on the chemical components included in the formulation.

Organic poison ivy control

This weed killer is made using only compounds originating from nature.

The perk of using natural weed killers is that you can safely store them in household spaces since they don’t produce any toxic substances. Organic poison ivy control is the perfect answer for anyone wondering how to get rid of poison ivy plants without chemicals.

The main constituent ingredients are salt, corn gluten, lemon, plant oils, cinnamon, and vinegar; thus, this type of weed killer is more environmentally-friendly.

However, organic herbicides can’t compete with inorganic herbicides in terms of efficiency. The required coverage area is more humble, and the spraying time is extremely dependable on the weather conditions.

Chemical poison ivy control

On the other hand, inorganic herbicides contain only human-made ingredients that are synthetically developed in the lab.

Chemical weed killers can produce noticeably quicker results within a larger coverage area. Moreover, since most chemical sprays are formulated with waterproof elements, you have more control over the spraying time.

The downside of chemical poison ivy killers is their negative effect on the environment. When wrongly applied, they can also harm more than just the weeds that you intend to kill.

Concentrate vs. Ready-to-spray

Concentrate herbicides

This product line comes in the intensely condensed form. It tends to be small in size since it must be diluted before use.

Applying the concentrated compounds directly on the weeds will be extremely harmful to the neighbor plants and damage the land. They will take away all the nutrients on the ground for the plants.

Generally, a 15- to 30-ounce concentrated bottle, when adding water, can produce 4 to 8 gallons of diluted compounds.

They can cover an extended area of 1500 to 40000 square feet depending on the concentrated level. However, you should not under-do or overdo the dilution process.

Once the formula gets too watery, it won’t be as effective as it is supposed to be. Besides, if you don’t dilute the herbicide well enough, chances are they will do more harm than good for your lawns.

Ready-to-spray herbicides

These herbicides are specifically formulated for instant usage. After purchasing the ready-to-use bottles, slightly shake them, and you are ready to spray them on the poison ivy directly from the container.

With this type of herbicide, the spraying tubes that transfer the poison should be paid extra attention to. We recommend the battery-operated spray nozzles for strong and even flows.

However, ready-to-use sprays are on the more expensive side of the spectrum since you don’t have to estimate the herbicide-water ratio and dilute the formula before use.

Contact vs. Systemic

Contact herbicides

This weed killer for poison ivy directly breaks down the biological tissues of any plant surface they are exposed to. It works only on the areas that are sufficiently applied.

The results can be observed shortly after the application since they are considerably rapid-acting. However, since the coverage is limited, it requires a few more applications to knock off the whole plant.

Systemic herbicides

In contrast to its counterpart, this product has an acting mechanism based on absorption. The poison applied at one spot will spread throughout the whole plant.

From the roots, the poison infuses into the entire weed body to weaken its vascular system. Therefore, the weeds can be blown away in just one single application.

The Active Ingredients

Does weed killer kill poison ivy? That question can be answered by looking at the ingredient list of a weed killer.

The active ingredients refer to the main substance that will kill the poison ivy. Without that specific ingredient, the formula will no longer be effective.

With poison ivy killer, one of the required ingredients is called Triclopyr, a human-made compound that can selectively kill the unwanted weeds without negatively affecting your undesirable plants.

However, Triclopyr-contained herbicides can threaten the long-term health of birds. If you are concerned about their effect on the wildlife, paying attention to the ingredient list before purchasing any herbicide is highly suggested.

Features To Look Out For When Buying Weed Killer For Poison Ivy

Water Resistance

The best time to kill poison ivy depends on the climate conditions. Though herbicides can deal with high or low temperatures, they usually can not withstand heavy rain.

The rain will likely wash away the spray if it does not contain any rainproof compound. Therefore you should ensure the herbicide is rainproof for more control over the spraying time.

Capacity

Depending on the consistency and purpose of use, you can opt for the most compatible capacity. There’s no need to purchase a huge bottle of weed killers if you have only noticed early signs of poison ivy weed in your garden.

However, if we’re talking about the industrial scale like landscaping or gardening, adding to your shopping list a large amount of poison ivy herbicide control might be a good idea.

Timing

You should go with the pre-emergent herbicides if you have only seen the poison ivy’s very early signs.

On the other hand, when the weed situation is getting out of your control, the post-emergent will effectively eliminate the undesirable plants.

Get to know more about how to choose the most suitable weed killer for your garden:

The Bottom Line

Our best weed killer for poison ivy review has eventually drawn to an end. If you are new to this field, we highly suggest you check out the weed killer from Bonide since it is the best weed killer based on our research.

It is essential to go through all the key factors, like whether the product is organic, inorganic, concentrated, or ready-to-use to pick out the most compatible weed killer for your needs.

Or you just need use a weed puller for the most organic possible way!

Last update on 2024-06-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API