Go see what the person who gave you that idea did to his or her garden with that concoction first.

white spirit evaporates and im sure if you mixed lots of salt with it it would help but it wont help your other plants .

Although, as NP said, white spirit evaporates quite quickly, it's still not a good idea to go spraying it about outside as it's not too environmentally friendly, especially for wildlife.

Hmm, well, as the others imply, I'm sure if you added bleach, salt, white spirit or any other poison it would work better, mostly because it poisons the soil, which means it kills everything else as well and won't be alright again for at least 4 months or up to 4 years, depending on the quantity and particular noxious substance. Quite possibly the ivy, if its mature enough, would survive the onslaught and be growing away merrily within a few months of any such treatment anyway - but nothing else will grow. I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

In my experience, no weedkiller gets rid of ivy anyway - there's only one way to get rid of it, which is to cut it all down, reveal the woody roots, drill or cut into them and use neat SBK brushwood killer, sparingly applied only to the cut areas.

I wouldn't mix any chemical with another if you don't know the chemistry of the component. not safe my friends.

SBG beat me to it - not a good idea to be mixing "chemicals" unless you want to attract the attention of Special Branch (not the twiggy, leafed variety)

Yes, being a new member I attempted to be proper with my first answer. What I really wanted to say was, who's the idiot that gave you that advice?

as did I urbanite lol

I think that everybody that has given their opinions and answered this question is thinking the same as you Boggybottor. Just that they have been a bit more diplomatic in answering it instead of saying what they really want to say like you have, LOL. Nice one.

lol

Thanks for all your answers I now know what not to do with this ivy it is not on my property so I am stuck. Thanks again

have a word with your nieghber and see if you can both help each other pull it down maybe .

If it's not on your property then this is another reason not to use it, in fact this goes for anything that you do to try and kill it. You might find yourself in trouble with the law as it's classed as criminal damage.