I'd suit up and just bite the bullet and pull it...

I'd pick up some disposable coverall suits first.

What about cutting back the growth and covering what remains so that it doesn't get any light? Then it will shrivel and die, and maybe the roots will be easier to pull out once they're dead.

I think burning it is a no-no as it will spread the oils in the air.

Sensitivity to poison ivy is a genetic thing. My father, sister and I are all pretty immune to it. I have pulled up many a poison ivy plant for friends. I'll be at their house and they will say "oh, be careful over there" and I will just fix the problem for them. I still ask for gloves and hopefully am wearing clothes that cover, just in case, but I've never had an issue that didn't go away in an hour or so. Ask around. You may have an equally genetically-blessed friend who is willing to trade yard work.

When we bought our house, we had an arborist come out to assess some of the trees on our property. We had dead fruit trees that prior owners did not care for properly. One of our 50 ft trees had a huge amount of poison ivy that had grown up and around it. They cut the poison ivy low at the bottom of the tree trunk and then, as much as I hated it, he had us spray the open cuts with Round Up.It killed it completely. He did tell us there would be dead branches of poison ivy up the tree. So now and then I pull some down, you should wear a mask, or they fall off.

You could try using vinegar in a spray bottle on a very sunny day. The acid in the vinegar combined with the sun should start killing the weed. You'll probably need to do this multiple times before the plant is totally dead.

I'd get some elbow length kitchen gloves and go to town pulling.

I have a friend at work just got done courses of steroid shots from a nasty run in with the stuff. If you're really concerned, hire a gardening co. to come get it out safely.

Vinegar, salt, and dishwashing soap mixed together. Do this right before the sun is brightest and hottest and the leaves will die. Don't burn it because then you will get the distinct pleasure of poison ivy in your throat, lungs, eyes, etc.... the oils will travel with the smoke.

When pulling poison ivy, cover yourself in lotion to limit how much oil can get on you. Buy the paper disposable coveralls and hair should be under a cap. Leave your gloves on when taking the coveralls off. Wash body with soap ASAP.

SpannerSoundKate - Any idea on the ratio to use of those three ingredients?

Don't forget to shower in COOL water afterwards. I learned that lesson the hard way.

I'd also cut it to the ground, then cover the area completely with black trash bags or something heavy and light-proof.

Goats love poison ivy. plus everything else green and leafy in your yard.

My patented method: Use a plastic shopping bag over your hand to pull the plant by the roots, then invert the bag over the plant, tie it up, and dispose of it in the trash.

I believe it was a cup of salt mixed with 2 quarts of vinegar and then 1/4 cup of detergent. I found it on a website when I was trying to get rid of our weeds prior to planting. When I am trying to rid an area of growing something for the next 15 years, I generally salt the earth as well.

Awesome thanks!

I'm super highly allergic and had it growing through our massive wisteria. I wound up wrapping myself up, cutting it carefully into segments to control it from whipping around while I'm removing it, and then pulling out all of the roots. It is the only thing that worked.

cut it just above the ground... and then cut again 3 feet from the ground.... ie so there is a gap that has no ivy between the ground and 3feet up. Then just wait for it to die and pull it down.... even when it's dead you can still be allergic...

as for the bottom part, get a shovel and dig it out, put it in the sun, and wait for it to bake and die.

I'll third the vinegar suggestion with a slight addendum. You can use a spray mixture on the leaves in advance of direct sunlight to knock down the foliage, but pour straight vinegar (some groceries sell 9%) onto the plant's base to knock out the roots and kill the plant. Vinegar breaks down in the soil within 48 hours, so it's green, as well.

I don't have Stalking the Wild Asparagus on me right now, but it has some instructions on how to build up poison ivy immunity in it. I've never done it myself, but here's a blogger's summary of Euell Gibbons' instructions:

"Another cure, though I've not personally known anyone to try it, came from an old Euell Gibbons book I once had. He recommended that people who live in highly infested areas of poison-ivy and need to work around them all summer long should build up an immunity to them by:

"(If I remember right).... when the very first signs of poison-ivy leaves appear in spring, just out of bud-stage, you should eat 3 of the leaves. Then in (was it the next day? 3 days later?...) you need to eat three more leaves which have now grown a bit larger. Basically, you eat three leaves each day (I think) as the leaves grow, until you are actually eating three grown leaves. Eat them as the plant grows them. By the time you've eaten a grown leaf, you are immune, but ONLY for that year."

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1995/poison-ivy-4.html

There is some immunological evidence that ingestion of something that is an external allergen turns off the IgE (itchy) response. Native Americans did this. However, there is a chance that if you are severely allergic that you could trigger a really bad response.

I've done the vinegar, dish washing soap and salt mix sprayed on the leaves and it worked! The plant did come back the next year, but we sprayed again and it went buh-bye.

Is it interfering with daily life? Is there any way to simply walk around it and / or put up orange tape to warn visitors?

Hire some goats! Where I live, you can hire someone to come to your house with some temporary fence and a herd of goats -- they will fence off the area, and then let the goats eat your poison ivy (or english ivy, or anything else you want removed). And they deposit natural fertilizer while they eat. And it's not too expensive, either. We're having them come next month to deal with our english ivy invasion.

hipcheck, please... please take pictures and send them in!!

Fels-Naptha soap (doesn't contain naptha) works wonders if you think you've been exposed. It will also stop the early signs of a rash. It's actually a laundry-bar-soap so look for it in the laundry detergent section. I shower with it all summer long as I've got P.I. all over my property. If I do happen to get a P.I. rash I will wash the effected area a few times a day until the area clears up.

The summer after I bought my house, I went to Soil Service on Troost and asked them the same question. They said the only way to get rid of poison ivy is to go toxic, and they sold me a little bottle of red poison. I slather my body with ivy block, use a plastic bag like the other commenter mentioned, and then snip off the ivy at the root and wrap it up for disposal. Before I walk away, I drip several drops of the poison onto the part of the stem that is still sticking out of the ground. This kills the roots (but the oils stick around for years, so be careful where you are digging). The plant is very good at surviving (it's one of the first colonizers in a disturbed area, as archaeologists well know), so you can't kill it with tamer methods.
Be sure to shower and wash your clothes with Technu or a good soap/detergent like those other commenters have mentioned. Oh, and a dermatological study done in the 80s didn't find any truth to the build-immunity-to-urashiol theory. In fact, your sensitivity to it may increase with exposure... so I wouldn't recommend eating it. Goats, on the other hand... that would be great!

Definetely do not burn!! Can set the oils airborne causing serious problems if you breathe them in. Just get some Tecnu (soap that removes the urushiols before the rash sets in) and pull as much of it out as you can. Then bathe yourself in Tecnu and rinse off in a cold shower. Wash whatever clothes you were wearing in the stuff too.

@talllean78 -- I had no idea that Fels-Naptha soap could prevent against poison ivy! I use my bar all the time for stains and such, but didn't realize it had additional properties. Thanks!

Wear two plastic bags like mittens—one for each hand. Pull the plant out of the ground, very slowly and carefully, grasping it at the base (when the ground is wet from rain or watering is best). Use hand #2 to pull the top edge of the bag down all the way and enclose the poison ivy. Then, using hand #1, pull the top of the second bag all the way down to cover the first bag. Drop into trash can. Suit up with two more bags for the next plant. Rinse your hands in cold water afterwards. Always remember to clean your face, too, in case you touched it without realizing it!