What? Poison ivy at the backyard 什么？后院有毒葛？

We moved into our new home last Nov. In our neighbor's yard, there are 2 tall Norway & Red maple trees. Part of the branch is pretty low and has reached to our yard, and part of the high branches have hit our roof. Every time when it rains, I can always hear the branch rubbing our roof in study room. We've been talking about pruning the branch on the roof for awhile, but haven't really taken into it very seriously. Few days ago, we received one letter from a landscaping company saying that they passed by our house the other day, and found some problems with the tree.

我们去年搬进新家。在我们隔壁邻居的院子里有两珠很高的挪威枫叶树。长得很茂盛。其中一棵树的枝干已经延到我们家的屋顶，每次刮风下雨的时候，我在书房都可以听到树干刮着房子的声音。另外一颗树有部分枝干很低，都伸到我们家的院子里。我们一直都想把屋顶上的树干修剪掉，可是迟迟没有行动。几天前，我们收到一家园林绿化公司的信，说他们有天路过我们的房屋，觉得我们的树有点问题。

Believe it or not, we never thought that there is poison ivy in the yard, and it's climbing up the tree and grows on the trees for at least couple years. Not sure if this is new to our neighbor, but we are lucky that we didn't touch it and didn't get allergy reaction from it, during summer time, we often did BBQ under the tree. Me and my friend was standing right beneath the poison ivy as it offered good shade.

万万没想到，他们居然在院子里发现了毒葛。而且藤已经爬到枫叶树上，长得非常旺盛。估计都不止一两年的时间了。不知道我们邻居是不是知道这一回事。树是他们家的。幸运的是，我们搬进来后一直都没有去碰那树，所以没被毒害到。真是好险，在夏天的时候，我们经常都在院子里烧烤，而且因为树干提供阴凉，我和朋友还经常站在树下纳凉。

For those whom don't know what poison ivy is. It's a climbing vine. It grows on tree as it needs support. It actual belongs to same family as cashews and pistachio. People from in contact with poison ivy would potentially have severe allergic reaction like rash, itching that develops into reddish inflammation or non colored bumps, then blistering. If the poison ivy is burnt and smoke inhaled, this rash would appear on the lining of the lungs, causing extreme pain and possible fatal respiratory difficulty according to Wikipedia. It's a pretty dangerous plant. From the picture you can see, the poison ivy is all over the maple tree and has a lot seeds which would continue to grow.

如果有不知道毒葛的朋友，这是一种爬藤。它经常爬到树上，依附着树生存。它和腰果，开心果属于同一科。对它过敏的人接触它会导致皮肤红肿瘙痒。有被火烧的感觉，最后会起水泡。依照Wikipedia的资料，如果毒葛的藤被燃烧，烟被吸到肺里，那会导致肺灼伤，严重的话会导致呼吸困难甚至丧命。真的是很危险的一种植物。从图片中，可以看到毒葛蔓延地非常茂盛，而且长了很多种子，这些种子会继续生根发芽。

Then what's next for us knowing that we've got this dangerous plant in the backyard? Of course we want to have it taken care of right away. But the situation is the tree belongs to our neighbor. If we want to prune part of the branches that hit our roof and do poison ivy treatment, we would have to get access agreement from her.

那么接下来我们该怎么办？当然我们要尽快处理掉它。可是有个情况，那就是树是我们邻居家的，不是我们的。如果我们要动到她们家的树，必须得到她的同意。

In US, if you want to pass through and walk on private property, you would need to get permission from the owner to do it. Obviously our neighbor also wants the poison ivy to be taken care of so she has signed the access agreement, but she doesn't want to pay for it. Not sure if this is the reason why she didn't take care of it if she did know the existence of poison ivy at her yard? I would rather believe she didn't know about it. She even said that the trees are actually in our property line as she believes the builder didn't put up the fan correctly. But we did check and confirm that it's on her property line. We will try to talk with her again, to show our friendliness, we would offer to pay half of it, hopefully she would be reasonable enough to cover the other half.

在美国，你要是要穿过私人家住宅，你必须要取得主人的同意。我们的邻居当然也是想处理掉毒葛，但她不愿意付钱。如果她之前就知道院里有毒葛而不去处理，不知道这是不是她一直没去处理的原因？我宁愿相信她之前都不知道。她甚至说树是我们的，她觉得建筑商在围围栏的时候没量对。可是我们查了以后，那是她们家的产业。我们会尽快和她再协商，为了表示友好，我们愿意出一半的钱。希望她能够明理出另一半。

The treatment itself as proposed by the landscaping company is to cut the root, and apply some chemistry to it so it doesn't grow again. But for the parts that have climbed to the tree, it will take up to two years to dye. Gee, imagine it feels like a bomb at your home. Hopefully we will continue to be lucky and don't get reaction from it. We have to be very careful going forward when we do yard work and hang out in the yard. Not a good feeling at all.

依照园林绿化公司的建议，要处理毒葛，他们得把跟断掉，然后用化学药品来处理这样可以不让它继续成长。可是对在树上的藤，他们说要大概2 年的时间才可以完全死去。我的天呀，这下就跟知道自己家院子里埋了颗定时炸弹。希望不要那天不小心中招了。这下以后在院里的时候都要特别小心翼翼了。好讨厌的感觉啊。