Removing Poisonous Plants: Help!

[Marybeth912]

I'm about 5 months in to my first flock and things are going well. But I want to remove some elephant ears that are taking over to corner of my yard and moving closer to my coop. I've read that they are poisonous to chickens.

So...I'm trying to get better but it's obvious that my gardening skills are lacking. I tried to remove said plants and all i managed to do is spread them.

I want the elephant ears gone.....is there an herbicide that I can use in close proximity to my flock? I don't want to poison my babies.

Anything helps-
MB

 

[coach723]

Here are a couple of articles that may help. One says glyphosate (round-up) will kill them, one says it may not. I guess it may depend on the actual type of elephant ear plant it is.
I think I would try to temporarily fence the area to keep the chickens out, and then pull and dig up what you can, mow them down, and maybe cover with plastic sheeting for several weeks to try to kill whats left in the ground. You might have to repeat all that until they are gone for sure. I'm not a fan of glyphosate so for me that would be an absolute last resort.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/herbicide-kill-elephant-ears-95118.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/98869-kill-elephant-ear-plants.html

 

[pineapple416]

You definitely don't want to use chemicals because these can harm your chickens as well as get into their eggs.
Elephant ears can be hard to deal with. A single plant can grow to be very large, and they are poisonous to chickens. They spread mainly by underground rhizomes and can get out of hand pretty quickly. Elephants ears are classified as an invasive species in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
Removing elephant ears from you yard isn't easy and requires persistence. The only advice I can give to you is to dig up the whole plant by the roots.

 

[Junochick]

I have had good luck pouring boiling water on the roots of several plants that I wanted to remove. I used about a gallon on them a couple days in a row. Just an idea

 

[nminusyplusm]

You can try torching the roots with a butane torch.