if its well set on a wall or tree even cutting the stems doesn't kill it and you cant kill it with any weed killer so its elbow grease time . a little advice . start at the top and work your way down as gravity helps . I had a huge amount on my house which is on my blogs as it goes and I kind of liked it till it started going under the roof tiles and filled the gutter .

thanks

Handling ivy can cause mild but annoying skin problems. May also cause breathing problems (in New Zealand the advice is not to take it indoors). It is certainly worth wearing gloves and a mask might be worthwhile.

I don't know about breathing problems but it certainly stinks if you leave it in the car instead of taking it straight to the tip! If its on the ground rather than a wall it's surprising how much you can remove just by pulling up the long stems by hand.(Might need to wear gloves if you're sensitive) Then at least you can see where the roots are to dig out. (This isn't theory, we've removed a bed of the stuff so deep we found a wheelbarrow and a rotary clothes line buried under it)

Hi, just ask her to go!!!, but seriously, the only way is to dig out and pull as much as you can,again and again, Derek.

Well, there is another way; it isn't any easier to carry out, but is more effective. You get rid of as much topgrowth as you can till you've revealed the base, then dig around - remove what roots you can, but those you can't, leave them exposed, if they're big enough, drill into them, if not, make cuts to expose the inner tissue, apply SBK (a brushwood killer), sparingly and only to the cuts, put an inverted flower pot or something over the top, push the soil back into place. Continue until all the roots you can find are either removed or poisoned in this way. If you spill the SBK where it shouldn't be, and spill a fair amount, you must wait to replant for 3-6 months. Leave the pots in place for at least a year - its much easier to find regrowth if it occurs because the pots indicate where the roots are.

I'm intrigued by Poisongardener's comments - I now have a problem with ivy, but only if I cut the leaves (so when I'm shearing it back or hedgetrimming it) - it makes me wheeze and gives me a terrible tickly cough. I do wear a mask, which helps a bit, but I thought it was probably just the dust off the ivy growth rather than the ivy itself. Clearly it's the ivy, oh hunky dory, yet another thing I'm reacting to.