Ivy growing from my roof!

Q: I’m told I have poison ivy growing out of my roof/attic! We’ve been fighting these vines for over a year now. We used a salt, water, and vinegar spray that seemed to only fuel the vines. They’d die off, then regrow more aggressively. Then we installed filter guards and removed the vines. Less than a month later, we have foliage again.

A: I believe this is Boston ivy, not poison ivy.

My guess is that it is hiding and growing behind your siding or maybe the gutter downspout before emerging up high.

This is not an unknown situation. I once saw where a bamboo sprout got behind a home’s siding and only emerged two stories up, beside the bathroom window.

Instead of your salt /vinegar concoction, spray the leaves with glyphosate (Roundup, etc). This herbicide is taken in by the leaves and transported down the vine stem. Repeat if the leaves come out again.