Tell me how to keep from getting ate up with poison ivy everytime I walk through it please.

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anymanusa

anymanusa

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Long pants, long socks, and tall boots laced all the way up doesn't seem to offer enough protection for even a short walk through a little of the stuff. I have some areas of my property that me and the wife feel the need to traverse through occasionally, and although my outbreaks are very minor and minimal, I'm still really scared of the stuff because some poison oak did me in for about 3 weeks earlier this year.

Does barrier cream work? I'll walk through the stuff and then wash with Dawn soap a couple hours later, but I still get the little bumps on my lower legs. Like I said, nothing near as bad as poison oak, but I want to be able to walk through the stuff with impunity.

Any tips?
 
https://www.verywellfit.com/best-poison-ivy-and-poison-oak-prevention-3436294

The trick is to clean as soon as possible, if your exerting yourself, your pores open and oil mixes with sweat and covers a greater area.
And don’t scratch as that rips pores open, use Zanfel cream (Best) or a mild cortisone cream for pain and inflammation.

Pepcid & Zantac can help with that, as they are (H2)histamine blockers along with Benadryl (at night, sleepy) or Claritin (Day, not sleepy)
Pre-wipes can work, just don’t cover yourself as they are a pore
“Blocker”

Other things: or at least interesting things that work for others
https://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/medicine.html


Erik
 
+1 on Benadryl if you get the rash. Stopping the histamines early helps prevent a feedback loop of itch/inflammation.

Other than that, using Fels Naphtha soap helps wash off the urushiol...if I'm in it, I try to jump on it ASAP to wash it off. Good luck.

"Little bumps" ... are you sure they aren't chiggers? If so, permethrin on the bottom of your pants works wonders. I get zero chiggers with permethrin, but without it they tear me up.
 
Also use a rag and scrub real good. Friction is key. The oils have a consistency similar to axle grease. You know how you can wash your hands with soap and they'll still be black in spots unless you use a rag or scrub brush.
 
Best not to walk through poison ivy at all. Its oil readily transfers to whatever it touches: your pants legs, your boots and bootlaces, whatever. And it transfers from one material to another. If you're in it at all, it'll find a way to make you miserable.

When you have no choice but to walk thru a poison ivy patch, step carefully, make sure you touch it only with the soles of your boots, and then don't touch those boots in the next hour of walking.
 
Canyon Angler said:
+1 on Benadryl if you get the rash. Stopping the histamines early helps prevent a feedback loop of itch/inflammation.

Other than that, using Fels Naphtha soap helps wash off the urushiol...if I'm in it, I try to jump on it ASAP to wash it off. Good luck.

"Little bumps" ... are you sure they aren't chiggers? If so, permethrin on the bottom of your pants works wonders. I get zero chiggers with permethrin, but without it they tear me up.
Click to expand...

Woot Woot !!
493c5ab5c8ff512c02abdecf79254c19.jpg

Out west Paradise RoadSoap Co makes a Oak soap with mugwort in it. Handed out like prized candy on forest fires out hear
54c2a4c399704e4d57c642d162b1d0b3.gif

http://www.smashtherash.com


Erik
 
Generally you can find jewel weed nearby where poison ivy grows. It's a delicate plant, easy to recognize once you know it (Google it, and go to "images"). You find it most in damp areas, stream banks, drainage, etc. Rub jewel weed on any affected area--it will reduce the rash.
 
I'm highly allergic and have found everything out there to be a gimmick....nothing has worked for me except staying away from it.
 
Thanks for folks he replies. I'm not really asking how to treat it tho, I'm asking if a pre-treatment is possible. Can barrier cream prevent a rash? Will wearing trash bags around my lower legs prevent contact?
 
Don't know anything about barrier cream.

Trash bags might work . . . but how will you remove them without contacting the bags that now have oil on them?

The absolute best prevention of poison ivy rash is to know the plant and stay away from it.
 
old CB said:
Don't know anything about barrier cream.

Trash bags might work . . . but how will you remove them without contacting the bags that now have oil on them?

The absolute best prevention of poison ivy rash is to know the plant and stay away from it.
Click to expand...
Well it never gets on my hands or arms. It's gotten on my neck before, and repeatedly on my lower legs. So there is that.
 
I've used pre-treatment with some success. But my standard is to wash with Technu within 3 hours of heavy contact with great success. I have done hand pull removal or dump trailer loads wearing tyvek suits with rubber gloves duct taped to the suit with no outbreaks. I think the trash bag idea would work along the same lines, its very possible your getting secondary contact from your cloths.
 
I'll just second Jewelweed as a treatment if you've already gotten the beginnings of a rash. It's free, easy to find and it's juicy enough that all you need to do is grab a section of stem and smoosh it against the affected spot and rub it around. I don't know about the claims that it somehow will "cancel" the oil itself if you rub it on after exposure, but it is a lab tested and proven antipruritic (anti-itch) for anything that's got your skin itching.
 
I spent last Saturday on the second phase of clearing an old road through the redwoods, the road hasn't been used for at least 20 years. of course poison oak was everywhere. I had bucked a 28" blow down and was trying to roll a 12'6" onto the choker with a peavey. As was pulling my hardest the sapwood let go and the peavey and I landed on my butt in a patch of poison oak. We ended up having to dig under the log. BTW my partner doesn't get oak so all he did was laugh. Thanks Matt.

The story should have ended there but we decided to hike up the road a bit. I went over to check out an old stump while Matt went straight up the road. I should have followed him. It was an interesting stump but I kicked up a yellowjacket nest. They were pissed off at me, chased me back to the truck and followed me inside. I got stung seven times including one on my left temple. As it turned out I only got a small spot of poison oak on my left wrist but that is where I got three stings. Such is life in the woods. Hey, at least it wasn't hornets!
 
2dogs said:
I spent last Saturday on the second phase of clearing an old road through the redwoods, the road hasn't been used for at least 20 years. of course poison oak was everywhere. I had bucked a 28" blow down and was trying to roll a 12'6" onto the choker with a peavey. As was pulling my hardest the sapwood let go and the peavey and I landed on my butt in a patch of poison oak. We ended up having to dig under the log. BTW my partner doesn't get oak so all he did was laugh. Thanks Matt.

The story should have ended there but we decided to hike up the road a bit. I went over to check out an old stump while Matt went straight up the road. I should have followed him. It was an interesting stump but I kicked up a yellowjacket nest. They were pissed off at me, chased me back to the truck and followed me inside. I got stung seven times including one on my left temple. As it turned out I only got a small spot of poison oak on my left wrist but that is where I got three stings. Such is life in the woods. Hey, at least it wasn't hornets!
Click to expand...

I actually had my first ever experience with yellow jackets a couple weeks ago. I was using a pole saw and they didn't like me doing that. I was stung several times before I even knew I was being stung. This quick little effer ended up getting the losing end of it once I figured out what he was doing. Anyway, my senses were quite dulled by the power equipment, and they got me when I was focused on something else.
 
I got lit up by yellowjackets on a fire this season... in the dark, hiking out. Never saw them, just kept running until the stinging stopped. That was an unpleasant experience. The fire before that we were in heavy poison-oak for about a week and I only got a couple of spots around my wrists and ankles. I guess I spent all my good luck for the season.
 
'Jackets...lol.
There are some you can run from and some, you have keep working in the middle of them.
I hit the choke and smogged 'em.

on the poison oak, you could be a ***** like me and avoid it entirely.
 
jrider said:
I'm highly allergic and have found everything out there to be a gimmick....nothing has worked for me except staying away from it.
Click to expand...

I used to do a lot of kayaking and got it really bad a few times. A buddy that does right of way tree work told me to try "Oral Ivy". I was skeptical about it, but after using it, I'm a believer. As long as I start using it a few weeks before exposure I don't have any problems. It's cheap enough that it might be worth trying.
Charles

https://www.amazon.com/Prevents-Sym...=UTF8&qid=1542132288&sr=8-3&keywords=oral+ivy
 

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