Question: We bought a home last spring. It's brick and wood on the exterior, and there is some kind of ivy growing up on the side of the house. We love the way the ivy looks, but we've been told that we should remove it because it could damage the brick. Is this true? If so, how should we go about removing it?

Answer: There are several different ivies and ivy-like plants whose aerial roots are capable of clinging to buildings. English ivy is among the most notorious, but you could also have Virginia creeper or Boston ivy growing up your home. Unlike other vining plants, such as wisteria and bittersweet, that climb by twining around an object, ivies climb by producing aerial roots or little, suction cup-like pads along their roots and stems that “grab” onto surfaces in order to climb them.

Ivies have long been said to damage mortar and bricks as they climb, but this isn't necessarily so. For the most part, ivy damage can be attributed to mortar that was already in poor shape prior to the ivy's presence. Ivy roots can penetrate into small fissures and cracks in the mortar, but they aren't strong enough to make new cracks of their own. Once those small, existing cracks have been invaded by ivy roots, they expand and that's where the damage comes from.

If your home was recently constructed or the mortar and bricks are in good shape, no significant damage should occur. In fact, a handful of studies at Oxford University found that ivy actually helps protect buildings. Researchers there found that the presence of ivy protected structures from water damage and helped insulate them from both cold and hot temperature extremes.

Ivy can, however, easily damage old bricks, wood, stucco and even vinyl siding. The roots easily find siding seams and small cracks in stucco, growing into them and causing damage. With stucco, when ivy is pulled off, the stucco may be pulled off as well.

Ivy is occasionally responsible for moisture issues with older homes because covered exterior walls can hold moisture in. It's also sometimes blamed for insect and rodent damage, though termites cannot climb up ivy to invade a house. Carpenter ants, however, can climb ivy to find damp wood to feed on.

All of this means that there are both pros and cons to leaving the ivy grow on your home. You'll have to make the call for yourself. But, if you do decide to remove the ivy, use caution when doing so. Pulling large, established ivy vines off of buildings could also pull out any broken mortar or loose bricks.

I recommend cutting the ivy vines off at their base and letting them die in place. Over the course of a season or two, the vines will dry up and naturally fall away from the house, limiting any potential damage their removal could cause.

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners” at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio with Doug Oster. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden,” “Good Bug, Bad Bug,” and her newest title “Container Gardening Complete.” Her website is jessicawalliser.com. Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 622 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601.

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