Poison Ivy

[JamesReed]

I just got over 4 weeks of sure torture to both my forearms cutting through that stuff that grew on a pine tree. I thought it was poison oak rather than ivy. Using the hydrocortosone cream plus calamine lotion seem to help but I thought my arms were going to itch me to death and never heal. Scratched so much my dog felt sorry for me and offered me her flea collar!

If you do cut it, wear a long sleeve shirt and gloves. If you think you get any on you, STOP immediately and rinse off with water "no soap" though per my doctor.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Get some Tecnu poison ivy soap and as soon as you are done with the ivy, go take a shower and scrub down asap, they say within 2 hours from time of exposure. It's supposed to wash the oils off that cause the rash. It would seem like one advantage to dealing with in the winter is that it's less likely that you will be sweating as much so your pores won't soak it in as fast.

The ingredients listed on the bottle in order of percentage are: odorless mineral spirits, water, propylene glycol, octylphenoxy-polyethoxyethanol, mixed fatty acid soap, and fragrance.

I don't know what that long hyphenated chemical is but the major ingredient is mineral spirits, so maybe a can of mineral spirits would work just as well on your arms.. wouldn't try it in other "more tender" areas tho. I do know the soap isn't irritating but straight mineral spirits might be. It does say not to use it on a raw or oozing rash, or if you are using hydrocortisone ointments.

Ian

Edit: the long chemical is a surfactant

 

[John Ellison]

I am around it regularly. Used to get it pretty bad at least once a year. Dont know what happened but now I just get mild cases once in a while.
That Tecnu stuff is good, also I carry rubbing alcohol in the truck and wash off with it when feeling sticky.

 

[woodshop]

When I first started working in the woods I used to get poison ivy all over the inside of my arms. Couldn't figure it out, because I wasn't in the habit of hugging trees full of ivy vines. Then it dawned on me one day while taking off my boots, that when doing so the inside of my arms would rub on my pant legs. Bingo. The oil can stay on clothing and tools a LONG time I found out. It eventually kinof evaporates, but in some cases can stay on tools you don't use though the winter, and you can get poison in the spring just from handling them again. Also easy to get poison from your dog who runs through it and loads up with oil. The oil is in the leaves, AND bark and inner bark, but not the actual heartwood itself. I have sliced up 3-4 inch poison ivy vines on the bandsaw to get the very beautiful greenish multicolored wood. Caution: if you are nuts enough to do this, wear a respirator and do not use your dust collector if you have one hooked to the saw. I have some spalted multicolored poison ivy wood though that would knock your socks off, and is just waiting for the right jewelry box or small item. Definitely a unique gift. The heartwood is indeed safe. I get poison easily, and can rub in on my face will no effect. Still would seal the wood with couple coats of finish to be safe though.

 

[John Ellison]

Besides poison ivy, I have got a skin rash from what I think is pine sawdust. Usually in the spring when the sap is running. Mainly on my wrists where sawdust collects. In SE AK. there wasn't any poison ivy but some people would get poison hemlock from western hemlock sawdust.
On the bright side if it were not for poison, briar's,thorns, and man eating critters the woods would probably be overrun with people.

 

[Frank Boyer]

I have done tractor work for years and clearing poison oak is a common job. Any time that I work near poison oak I always wash my hands, arms, and face with mechanics hand cleaner. It seems to help.

 

[John Ellison]

Woodshop, shame on you for harvesting that old growth poison ivy. That stuff should be protected. Just kidding. I bet it does look unusual. Didnt know that the inside wood itself was not poison.

 

[computeruser]

Here's a nice bit of poison ivy we took care of in the fall of 2005. I made it out OK, but my buddy was messed up and had to do the whole medical treatment - pills, shots, etc. - twice. Much of the vine debris is still sitting in a pile to be chipped. It should finally be relatively inert by this coming spring.

The tree, or what was left of it, was roughly 36"x24" at chest height. The vines were better than 5" at the ground.

Nasty lookin' bugger once it was on the ground.

 

[John Ellison]

AAkk. Makes you itchy just looking at it. That would have been more fun in the spring.

 

[FourMoCajuns]

I just went through this yesterday. Large 4-5 inch vines around a couple of large pin oaks. I usually get poison ivy if you show me a picture of it! I covered my entire body except my face and as soon as I got home I took a cool shower. I hear hot water opens the pores and lets the urushiol ( that is the name of the oil) enter the skin.
This link might be helpful............... http://poisonivy.aesir.com/

 

[PA Plumber]

Get some Tecnu poison ivy soap and as soon as you are done with the ivy, go take a shower and scrub down asap, they say within 2 hours from time of exposure. It's supposed to wash the oils off that cause the rash. It would seem like one advantage to dealing with in the winter is that it's less likely that you will be sweating as much so your pores won't soak it in as fast.

The ingredients listed on the bottle in order of percentage are: odorless mineral spirits, water, propylene glycol, octylphenoxy-polyethoxyethanol, mixed fatty acid soap, and fragrance.

I don't know what that long hyphenated chemical is but the major ingredient is mineral spirits, so maybe a can of mineral spirits would work just as well on your arms.. wouldn't try it in other "more tender" areas tho. I do know the soap isn't irritating but straight mineral spirits might be. It does say not to use it on a raw or oozing rash, or if you are using hydrocortisone ointments.

Ian

Edit: the long chemical is a surfactant

Good call on the Tecnu. We have it on hand. I have been completely engulfed in poison ivy in short sleeves and used Tecnu and no problems. I have also been exposed and used creek water to rinse off. It doesn't work as well as Tecnu but definitely helps.

 

[kevinj]

And remember, never burn the stuff either. Years ago, a friend of mine did so, he didn't show up for work for a couple days. When he did show up, he was barely recognizable. His whole body was swollen from inhaling the smoke. It's like I wanted to take a pin and pop him.

 

[Gearhead1]

Those pictures make me cringe! I have very bad reactions to poison ivy, going back to at least age 12. Thankfully, I've trained myself to be always on the lookout for that cursed plant when in the woods and haven't suffered a severe case for several, several years. Winter identification is an easy matter--just look for those tell-tale hair-like fibers that the vine uses to attach itself to the tree trunk. And by no means is cold or snow some sort of protection from the reaction. My Father found that out the hard way just over 10 years ago while cutting some stone dead elm. The chainsaw flung that fine sawdust all over him, and he wound up in such a sorry condition that his eyes were almost swollen shut.

 

[Ed*L]

It looks like you guys have been sneaking around my woods admiring my poison ivy. :hmm3grin2orange:
It's all over the place in our woods, big little, it grows on the gound just like a carpet.
Damn glad I have to work pretty hard to "catch" it. For the most part I wont fall a tree thats got it until the ivy's dead & falling off. When I see the stuff I'll usually cut it with the top of the chain to throw the sawdust away from me. A hatchet takes care of the smaller stuff.

Ed

 

[drogueman]

Hay guys, posion ivy is nasty stuff and can work on your nervous system. I am 59 yrs old and still allergic to it. When I was a kid I had it all the time ,even in the winter time. I got it in my eye one time and it was pure torture, the only thing that helped me there was a hot bath of baking soda and dunking my eye in the water.I had it so bad on my arm one time it drove me nuts ,to the point that I went to the basement and grabbed a piece of sand paper and sanded it off, at that point it was a pain-pleasure feeling. Now I had all this posion juice running down my arm so I poured gasoline on it,lots of pain there but this is not over yet ! I got scared of blood posion so I poured alcohol on it, almost passed out from that and then I poured peroxide on it and it foamed up, I kepted doing this until there was no more foam then I had to put baby powder on it to keep the dripping to a minimum. Well needless to say the poison was gone the very next day,lol. I have had it over my entire body numerous times and when it gets on your thingy and in your butt you tend to want to shoot yourself,lol.I get it from weed wacking, wood cutting, people burning it and also from dogs that have been in it. Please becareful of this stuff, it can take you down for a few days and in my case a few weeks, its nothing to fool around with. Oh and the people who say they don't get it, it can happen, I have seen it first hand , they say they never get it but if you get a good dose of this stuff you can get it.Its a junge out there,lol.:angry2:

 

[Jim Mesthene]

I'm not allergic to it. As a child, my friends and I sat down to rest while hiking in a canyon. Turns out we rested in a bed of poison ivy, they were all in bed for a week.
Any doctor will tell you that immunity like mine can disappear with my next exposure. Every exposure makes me more susceptible to it, my next contact could be the one that ends my immunity.
As a result, I treat it as though I'm as allergic to it as my wife (who gets it by looking at it as we drive by, it seems).
In other words, nobody is really immune, some of us just haven't gotten it yet.
Sort of like sea-sickness.

 

[SRT-Tech]

poison ivy in a blackthorn hedge, the ultimate security fence

 

[RiverRat2]

Great Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a vine, not quite that big. I cut a small notch in it, put in a cotton ball soaked with straight Roundup, then covered it in duct tape. A year later, the vine is dead, the tree is fine.

That why I like this place,,, A veritable Plethora of knowledge,,, it is,,, and handy too!!!!

 

[gasman]

Get some Tecnu poison ivy soap and as soon as you are done with the ivy, go take a shower and scrub down asap, they say within 2 hours from time of exposure. It's supposed to wash the oils off that cause the rash. It would seem like one advantage to dealing with in the winter is that it's less likely that you will be sweating as much so your pores won't soak it in as fast.

The ingredients listed on the bottle in order of percentage are: odorless mineral spirits, water, propylene glycol, octylphenoxy-polyethoxyethanol, mixed fatty acid soap, and fragrance.

I don't know what that long hyphenated chemical is but the major ingredient is mineral spirits, so maybe a can of mineral spirits would work just as well on your arms.. wouldn't try it in other "more tender" areas tho. I do know the soap isn't irritating but straight mineral spirits might be. It does say not to use it on a raw or oozing rash, or if you are using hydrocortisone ointments.

Ian

Edit: the long chemical is a surfactant

The poisen ivy on my property is rampant and I get the rash not infreqeuntly. About the technu stuff. It works fine but, I strongly believe more important than what soap you use is to wash off like a madman when you can. They say two hours but if that is not possible washing after several hours will reduce the severity of the rash. I've used lava soap, fels-naptha, and octagon. They all work well and are cheap. Some people swear by dawn dish soap. really wash well. clean under or clip your nails if necessary because if you scratch with contaminated nails, that will spread it too.

 

[Greenthorn]

Funny remidy I found... BUDWEISER!!!!
Oh well... if ya don't drink...gotta be a good reason to start