Poison ivy

[nyslowhand]

Fasteddie has another topic about the oak variety & I didn't want to hijack it, so.....

My property is an abandoned farm that is totally overgrown with poison ivy. Not just ground cover, but up to 4" diameter vines growing 30' up the trees and occasionaly to adjacent trees. At times I have to look closely to make sure it isn't simply grapevines. This crap is nasty, but I have no way to avoid it. Thought I'd pass on some of these lessons, nothing scientific just things I've learnt the hard way. Itch, itch, scratch, scratch, ....

It's basically the oil from the vines or leaves that cause the skin irritations. I've also gotten it from the pollen while ripping vines off the trees. After any suspected contact, you have (up to) a couple of hours to get it off the skin before it enters the pores. If I'm sure I've come in contact with it, I'll immediately wash hands or arms with a rag & gasoline. Afterwards, dispose of the rag!! When you have water available - wash skin area with a strong detergent (like Dawn) in cold water, repeatedly. Warm water opens the pores & forces the oils into the body. One of my favorite all time bloppers - swatting mosquitoes with my work gloves on! That's about it for the obvious skin contact!

What everyone forgets is the not so obvious places or things that contact & hold the oils. Your pant legs & socks are prime candidates. Laundry needs to be done in a STRONG detergent in warm water, otherwise the oils are simply spread over the entire wash load AND the inside of the washing machine. Gives me nightmares, so I'm overly careful - don't wash your Fruit of the Looms or Tee shirts with the contaminated pants. Your boots/shoes and the laces are another place the oils easily collect. Not much you can do about that, other than wash hands after putting on or unlacing boots or any footwear. Sure, rubber boots. Last thing I want to put on when it's 80+ deg & bone dry.

Now for the items I generally get my skin rashes from that most people don't think about. Any cutting tools, clippers, chainsaw chains. rakes, trimmers, mowers (and blades), pole saws, etc. Guy that sharpens my chainsaw chains routinely gets it off the customer's chains. Typically get 3-4 mild cases a year on my wrists from removing & putting on my work gloves. If I weren't so frugal, I'd change out gloves more frequently.

Think everyone has heard the horror stories of burning the crap & what the smoke will do to your lungs, eyes and skin! Don't burn it, unless you light the fire and then retreat quickly a substantial distance upwind AND stay away from burn pile while there is still smoke..

Sure the oil from the plants/vines will eventually dry up and not be caustic. Haven't read anything about the time requirement... If I contaminate a new pair of leather work gloves, I set them aside and use the following year. The leather palmed, cloth gloves are a different story. Not sure how long before the oil trapped in the cloth takes to dry up..?

It's a lot like the Dr. Seuss book where the characters are chasing a spot from place to place. Only for us it's the irritating oil! Oh yeah, if you think you dodged the bullet - wait! My outbreaks don't show up a couple of days.

So you have a skin rash - the pink calamine works pretty good on milder cases. FYI - for whatever reason or difference in ingredients, the clear calamine doesn't work as well. The intent is to dry it up, so medicated lotions (anti-itch) aren't much help. Ok, I'll admit I've tried the $15 Tecnu products. At least for me they were a waste of money! More severe case? Prescription Prednisone (cortisone) works great, within a couple of days its' getting better!!! Usually every other (severe) outbreak my physician will call in a prescription for me. Even w/o drug co-pay, it's fairly cheap. You decide if it's worth the office visit, $$.

Getting rid of it - a losing battle!!!!! Bought that $25/bottle brush killer that makes a few gallons of spray, works great. Problem is it's a vine with runners and it reemerges the following year. You'd probably have to plow, disc, disc, spray, re-disc, respray to have any chance of controlling it - if at all. Wish the deer liked the damned stuff like they do the corn fields...

[joe12]

One product that works pretty good for poison ivy/oak/sumac is Zanfel. They sell it at drug stores and walmart. It is a cream that you scrub on the affected area. Stops the itch almost immediatly and the rash begins to heal fairly quickly. Its about $30 for a small tube, but well worth it. Only think that I have found to work.

[fasteddie]

A tree had fallen at my mother's house . It was on the border of a neighbor's overgrown property . It had poison ivy vines on it . My sister sprayed some sort of Ivy killer on it as well as the roots . I was able to pull the vines off and cut the tree up without any problem .

My sister had a quart bottle of the ivy killer so it could be quite pricy covering a large area .

[WNYBuckHunter]

I love finding a spot with poison ivy, as Im not allergic to it at all and usually have that spot to myself. Ive made some good money on dares to rub it on my skin as well.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

and for an FYI.....NEVER BURN IT. to someone that is very sensative to it ...it can be deadly.

[fasteddie]

My dad worked with a guy who chewed the leaves and said it helped him build up his immune system . The man could rub the leaves on himself and lay in it and never caught it . I have heard of people doing this and dying when their throat became swollen / constricted . Like Mama used to say , Stupid is as Stupid does !

[Doc]

Also, remember that allergic reactions to poison ivy can change with age. When I was a youngster, I used to walk through it with shorts on and never got even one itch. Then as I got older, I would get a few little blisters that would last a day or so and then go away. Well, this year I found out that thedamn stuff can get in your blood and and start a general over-all rash that marches across the body. Not a nice thing .... and I used to boast that I couldn't get it ..... WRONG!

[WNYBuckHunter]

thats what people have been telling me since I was 10.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I use to get it easily as a kid. I basically had it every summer. I don't seem to get it now.

[Big Indian]

One product that works pretty good for poison ivy/oak/sumac is Zanfel. They sell it at drug stores and walmart. It is a cream that you scrub on the affected area. Stops the itch almost immediatly and the rash begins to heal fairly quickly. Its about $30 for a small tube, but well worth it. Only think that I have found to work.

amen to that !

the stuff is like gold if u get a case of poison ivy, and when u do scrub w/ this stuff which has the consisency of sand it feels good because it's like scratching the affected area.

Usually clears within a day or two

Edited September 13, 2012 by Big Indian

[biggamefish]

There is another product that if you think you get into it it is like a prewash. It is called Technu and you get it at your local drugstore. I have use it and it does work. I have washed up to my wrists and then two day later I have a line just above my wrists but none on my hands. Now I wash my whole arms and sometimes I bring it right in the shower with me.

[Fletch]

I use the Tecnu as well. It is a scrub and i leave it right in the shower. I come in from woods work and wash my wrists and face with it as instructed. Also use it if the rash shows up. It is the best I have found with a little calamine on the worse spots.

I never got it as a kid and then started getting it multiple times a year, and a few time real bad just about whole body. I hate the stuff and have tried it all.

My wife tried a jewelweed tea she made and washed the rash with it and had some luck with that as well. This one I have not tried. I have tried every product in the store as well as lye soap, bleach, gasoline....... when you have it bad believe me you will try anything!

Edited September 14, 2012 by Fletch

[nyantler]

I love finding a spot with poison ivy, as Im not allergic to it at all and usually have that spot to myself. Ive made some good money on dares to rub it on my skin as well.

Be careful.. because there is no known case of anyone being completely immune to poison ivy ... one time you just might rub it on yourself and end up really not liking it.

[mxsmitz201]

a pin head of poison ivy is enough to infect 500 people. say you kill a vine of poison ivy, the leaves are dead the wood is dried... ITS STILL POISONOUS, urishol (spelling) oil will still be in the wood the leaves and just as effective as if it was alive and well. that blade you used to cut the vine to kill it, its been sitting in your shed for 30 yrs with no use.... yea the oil on it from the vine is still good to mess your day up.

i get poison ivy every year, i swear its inevitable. best way to fight it is just go to your doctor and theyll prescribe you an antibiotic.

the simplest most cost effective way ive ever found to deal with it is to right after i feel like i have come in contact with it is to take a saw dust bath in the areas of suspect followed by a cold ass shower. no dawn, no soap, grease cutters seam to help it spread.

but hey, if you get it, scratch to your hearts content, cuz once its in your skin its there and there is nothing you can do about it and you cant spread it on yourself or to anyone.

[mxsmitz201]

I love finding a spot with poison ivy, as Im not allergic to it at all and usually have that spot to myself. Ive made some good money on dares to rub it on my skin as well.

its just like being allergy free one spring and the next spring you cant step outside without your face falling off. be careful because one day, maybe not tomorrow or 10 years from now id be willing to bet you end up just like me if i were to roll in the shyt

[nyslowhand]

Yes & No....

Cut vines, etc still have the irritating oil, but after a few months it dries up.

Same goes for any equipment that has come in contact w/the oil.

This is a plant oil, not a nuclear isotope with a half life ..........LOL

Do what you want, but $30 for something OTC is comparable to the out-of-pocket Dr visit & generic drug (cortisone).

My neighbor swears by a paste made of vinegar & baking powder as a poultice.

Some believe your immunity wears off over time as you get older.

Others say they build up an immunity....but chewing the leaves???

Is it mystical or evil, or both??

Is this stuff the "boggeyman" of the outdoorsman????????????

Makes me itch just thinking about it!

[BillJohnson]

in 84 years of being outdoors I have never yet had a reaction to poison oak, ivy, sumac, or any other rash creating foliage.

deer, and squirrels, make good use of poison ivy, and I like it as it turns red in fall and is very colorful.

where I lived most of my life there isn't any poison ivy, but here in vermont and this part of new york I see it everywhere.

jewelweed was mentioned and it works but not as a tea, simply cut off a few stems of jewelweed and roll the entire plant up in your hands making a mush of it, then put that on the rash, it works but must be applied often .

one of my kids used to get into poison oak and ivy very often fishing the AuSable, the banks in places are covered with it.

to remove the vine, go to the source, find the largest vines and at the ground make a deep cut with a hatchet or axe but do not sever the vine, in the cut pour kerosene, do this to all vines where they enter the ground, apply each day and you will see the vine take in the kerosene and kill itself, keep in mind birds love the berries and will spread ivy and oak all over your land if you dont keep up on the vine killing which limits berries.

good luck and sorry about your luck.

Bill

[steve863]

in 84 years of being outdoors I have never yet had a reaction to poison oak, ivy, sumac, or any other rash creating foliage.

Wow, you are 84?? God bless you man!! You've got to be the elder statesman here at that age!!

[mxsmitz201]

Yes & No....

Cut vines, etc still have the irritating oil, but after a few months it dries up.

Same goes for any equipment that has come in contact w/the oil.

This is a plant oil, not a nuclear isotope with a half life ..........LOL

Do what you want, but $30 for something OTC is comparable to the out-of-pocket Dr visit & generic drug (cortisone).

My neighbor swears by a paste made of vinegar & baking powder as a poultice.

Some believe your immunity wears off over time as you get older.

Others say they build up an immunity....but chewing the leaves???

Is it mystical or evil, or both??

Is this stuff the "boggeyman" of the outdoorsman????????????

Makes me itch just thinking about it!

http://poisonivy.aes.../fastfacts.html

http://suite101.com/...vy-rash-a136277

first link says up to 5 yrs, second link says "Urushiol can remain on objects for a long time, sometimes even years or decades"

so either way im not going to take my chances

Edited September 14, 2012 by mxsmitz201

[catskillkid]

i believe that I can get a bad case by just looking at poison ivy. I am extremely careful not to even get near it. A couple of years back I got a bad case on my hands and lower arms and could not imagine how I got it. Then my wife told me that our Lab was romping in a patch of it. I guess I got it from petting the dog!

Edited September 14, 2012 by catskillkid

[WNYBuckHunter]

Be careful.. because there is no known case of anyone being completely immune to poison ivy ... one time you just might rub it on yourself and end up really not liking it.

I test myself every now and again. I also dont go to the Dr unless something is really wrong, so maybe Im the first case, and they just dont know it lol.

[nyslowhand]

Where do you donate blood? I want some with that great "anti-ivy" strain! LOL

[WNYBuckHunter]

I dont, Im stingy lol