Ivy growing up the side of a house

[quirkas]

Can anyone assist, my neighbour who has little interest in her property has ivy covering most of the back of her house. It is now encroaching on my house particularly high up around the guttering.I am able to enter the garden and chop away but only as far as I can reach. Is there a product I can paint on the stalks to kill the stuff? I have found a product that you paint on the leaves but I am not impressed with it. Any ideas?

[Marken]

If you do find a product then you will still need to pull the dead stems away from the wall. Why not simply cut the stems at ground level and everything above will die. You're simply cutting out the poisoning part of the process.
Then you can poison any new shoots as they emerge or chop them down.
Hope this helps...

[quirkas]

Thanks for the reply, I have cut through some of the lower growth and the growth above has not died. I have been told that ivy can survive easily even when it has been severed from its roots.

[Johnboy]

Hi Quirkas,
What you say is certainly true. I have a very large Apple Tree and the Ivy got into it and I cut out all shoots going to the ground and it made absolutely no difference. I then stripped all the Ivy from the bark for about 10ft and it still made no difference. It is such a very large tree that to strip it all needs a double ladder and some. Approaching senility prevents me having a crack at it any further. Double ladders and me are no longer compatible.
JB.

[Primrose]

I heartily agree that neighbours' ivy encroachment is a real problem and nobody should be forced to have to poison their own land to try and deal with the intruding problem. We have it coming through our fence panels from next door and however much I snip it back it keeps on growing and it's ruining the fence. I think we need an extension to the Lleyandi Hedge law to include ivy. This legislation is a farce anyway because Councils don't want to get involved and the innocent party is usually forced to cough up huge sums of money as part of the process when they are the innocent victims. Typical British justice where the offender gets away lightly and the innocent either suffer or end up out of pocket! Neighbour problems of one kind or another are high on the list of things which cause grief to the population as a whole yet it seems that our legislative process, or the means of enforcing it, is totally inaequate or impotent.

[Elaine]

Hi Primrose. That is spot on regarding councils lack of interest and requiring money from the victim. My friend called them in after years of problems with her neighbours conifers (..not leylandii but as tall as the house) when said trees started causing problems to her conservatory. The Council wanted something like £200 for their man to survey it!!

I completely agree, regarding Ivy. We have been trying to get rid of the stuff from the fence in our back garden for a couple of years and I hadn't realised, until then, how indestructible it is. Cheers.

[silverbirch]

If there is one thing I hate its IVY, sticks to brickwork like glue and a nightmare to get off, and its even worse when it comes through your fence panel or entwines itself in your trellis. Argghhhh !!!