Poison Ivy ????

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Bob Wright

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How do you pro's work with poison ivy? I had to give up my part time cutting jobs because of poison ivy growing up and around trees. How does everyone else deal with it. The morons i work for now had a company mow down all the ivy and weeds and they think they killed it. Now i have it on my fingers from tying my work boots from walking thru the clippings. Just curious...Bob
 
I am resistant to it's affect but a former client of mine suggested that if exposed, spay skin with Simple Green. Let us know if it works for you.
 
Two products worth considering; "Oral Ivy" and "Ivy Complete". They work.
 
Elmore, I have also heard of using Simple Green on poison ivy, but by and large I don't react to it. However, there is a lady that I work for who had an infestation of poison ivy in one of her trees and wanted it removed. No problem for someone who doesn't react to it, right? Well, this customer has a bed of azaleas under the tree and they get fertilized. Right along with the poison ivy. That was my first and only reaction to it, man it was potent stuff.
 
If you think that you've contacted poison ivy, wash the area with alcohol. That breaks the bind which the poison ivy oils make on your skin. Do this within a half hour (15 minutes is best). I carry alcohol wipes (from the drugstore) for this purpose. I have also, in a pinch, used beer (anything with an alcohol content)! I get a very nasty reaction from the stuff, and this is the only thing that has helped. I find that the only thing which kills the plant is Round Up.
 
My next job will put me in contact with poison ivy. I was thinking I could kill it off with Round-up first, then come back in a few days and do the job. Will dead Ivy still pose a threat?

NebClimber
 
Good question, I am not sure about not getting it after killed with a chemical. I know i have gotten PI in the dead of winter out of hay bales that were cut in June. I also have got it on my fingers from sharpening chainsaw chains off the saw....Bob
 
YES! Urushiol, the oil in poison ivy, remains active well after the plant is dead. Don't waste time and money spraying it if you are simply doing so to avoid exposure.

Sensitivity supposedly increases over time, and I found that to be the case. However, it seems that after awhile, it kind of decreases, so maybe there is an ebb and flow to sensitivity. Don't know for sure. But, just plain water won't typically get it off. You need something that will cut the oil. Bleach on your skin, even diluted is not a good idea. Something like Citra-Solv or another mild degreaser should work well. I have used those on clothing/boots to try to get rid of the stuff since you can spread the oil around. Beware that those things can be harsh on leather boots.

If I am working with the stuff I will wear long sleeves/pants and tape my cuffs to my gloves w/ duct tape (use # 1,253 for duct tape). And just remember not to wipe your face and smear around sweat. Wash ASAP when done, even if just exposed areas, and wash all of the clothes seperately from your regular wash.
 
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hmm

well that pretty much says that everyone can get it there are no immune people .... i hardly ever get it but mycrew leader get swollen eyes and cant come to work if exposed ... last week i buried a chainsaw into a huge vine and also cut all the leaders off of the vines the poison ivy juice and saw dust plus shredded leaves got all over my skin i went home and took a hot shower within one hour and got zero rash ??? :Eye:
 
Lately I've been using using just regular old hand cleaner, GoJo or Pumice , it can clean up pine sap, car oil and a million other things why not Poison ivy? Was elbow deep in it a couple times last week and didn't get a spot of rash.
I wonder if the ingredients of Tecnu are similar and just marketed for this specific purpose?
 
Just to bring this back up, no the MSDS show they are NOT the same. And , the pumice don't work! Covered in poison ivy right now even after washing off and showering within 30 minutes, oh well, back to the drawing board :eek:
 
Prevention being better than cure, wear long sleeves, etc. and try to prevent the exposure in the first place...
 
pbtree said:
Prevention being better than cure, wear long sleeves, etc. and try to prevent the exposure in the first place...

The environmental department at work said as long as i wear my gloves and long sleeve shirt i can't get poison ivy. I asked him how do i untie my boots at the end of the day after walking thru it? I don't wear gloves to do that.
My neighbor guy tore some ivy off a tree for me because he didn't get it, he then threw the vine in the trash and wiped his hands on his pants. A few days later i saw his wife putting some cream on the bottom of her foot. She got poison ivy off of her husbands pants playing "footsie" at the dinner table. Bad thing here is she never saw the vine. Yes i agree try to avoid it, so far it has worked for me. But i quit cutting trees also. Tough problem to avoid for tree guys. I have gotten it from hay bales in Febuary that were cut in June. Also from customers chain saw just working on them...Bob
 
No one is immune forever, there will always be cases of ivy problems. Many a ranger explained that one to me when we would be camping in the woods with the boys scouts. One year it was so bad on long island, that the camp area we went to had all 3 main varieties of the stuff, we made the boys chant though the woods, leaves of 3, leave them be until they would inspect every area they went into before they got into trouble. We had Ground, Bush and climbing. He said that some people will not always have a reaction, but that doesnt mean you never will. When we helped my son on his Eagle project, which was to clear out an area of garbage, overgrown stuff and dead trees so we could plant new ones 10 years ago, we got those environmental suits donated to us. Even if not donated, they were not horribly expensive, were not hot to work in, and you threw them away at the end of the day. We had massive poison ivy to go through, and no one had a problem. It is sort of nylon fibrous paper. Strong, although you would not have thought so when you saw the suits. Everyone who worked in the ivy area had to don one, made a big difference-it even covered your shoes. If you guys are encountering it in the trees however, I dont know how wonderful it is to climb with. We were also encountering poison oak, nasty stuff as well-and it did not get through these suits. As only the climing stuff gets into the trees, it is usually the most intense, at least that is what I found here.
 

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