Are you peppered with peppervine? It’s the time of year when this obnoxious, invasive vine seems to be growing everywhere.
But it’s actually not that hard to eradicate. In fact, almost any weed or grass killer will work on it. But I’m an old-guard type of peppervine killer, so I do it with a brush killer or vine killer.
I get a lot of calls and emails from listeners wanting to know a couple of things about this vine:
1. Is this poison ivy or poison oak?
2. Is this like a wild grape vine?
The answer to both is NO!
The best way to identify poison ivy is to remember “leaves of three, let 'em be.” The clusters at the tips of peppervine are usually made up of five leaves, although they can also seem sort of random. The leaves also look a lot like those of Virginia creeper.
Interestingly, peppervine is actually a close cousin of the grape, but this vine gives you whine, not wine. And the whine is for real - peppervine is also called “cow itch” vine and, while the itch it produces isn’t as nasty as poison ivy’s itch, it can be really bothersome for several moments if you brush up against it.
So, let’s look at some tips for getting rid of peppervine:
- The simplest way is just pulling it out, but only if you have just a sprig or two here and there. This method requires persistence, and you need to get the tap root out.
- Broadleaf weed killers have been known to work on peppervine in yards. That’s important because everything else I’ll recommend will kill the grass, too. Liquid atrazine is also well-known for knocking out peppervines that crop up in lawns.
- Glyphosate-based herbicides such as Eraser, Killzall, KleenUp and Roundup can knock out peppervine, but only if you can avoid getting the spray on the leaves of nearby plants. So, my advice would be to sponge, rub or paint it on as many peppervine leaves as possible.
- And if you’re going to sponge, paint, rub on a herbicide, you might as well use a brush, stump or vine killer that you’re certain contains triclopyr or imazapyr as the active ingredient.
- I use a V-shaped piece of cardboard to protect any plants in the area I don’t want touched by the herbicide. But, there’s also the “baggie method.” I have used it for years on peppervine, and it works like a charm. Just fill the bottom tenth of a resealable plastic bag with undiluted brush killer, shove as much of the vine into the baggie as you can, seal it, and secure it to the branch with a clothespin. In under two weeks, voila … the vine will be dead. Then, you can clip away the vine and attached bag and throw the whole thing away.
- Add a surfactant to any liquid herbicide you use.
PHOTOS: University of North Carolina, Texas A&M University