What's your best cure for PI??

[Jakers]

DO NOT DO THIS....

the company i worked for, prior to becoming a full time tree service owner, had a guy try to dry out the oil from his skin with gasoline. this was in the late 80's or so. still had leaded gas laying around. he spent a few days in the hospital being treated for severe PI and LEAD POISONING....

 

[066blaster]

i had some luck with prescription strength cortisone cream. seemed to take away the itch and redness. i have heard if you catch it early benidryl can help. i use to get it once in awhile when i did landscaping. i learned to wash my hands before i took a leak. also scrubbed real good in the shower each night. i guess your body sends white blood cells to the area to heal it, similar to a burn, thats what the blisters are. i dont think there is any magic pill or cream once you got it though. good luck

 

[Rburg44]

I use gasoline best thing for posion ivy next best ive found is bleach but gas is best find i dont use it as much now its $3.50 a gallon but it works!!

 

[hseII]

I use starting fluid. Works every time

Ted

Be careful with starting fluid.

Uncle Lucky used to clean up w/ starting fluid all the time, until it caused a very serious skin condition.

 

[hseII]

In the Late Spring when the leaves are full of oil I harvest a half bushel or so, fry them up in butter and salt and have them as an appetizer does the trick.

FO REAL?!!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Now the thread is getting stoopid...

Drink thirty, I 'spect?

 

[woodchuck357]

Bathe with Fels-Naptha bar soap after exposure. If you have an outbreak wash area several times a day w Fels and HOT water. Sharing that remedy has helped alot of people over the years.

Ticks and chiggers don't care much for it either if you use it in the bath/shower immediately upon coming home .

Not all bath bars are soap, most are detergents. Naptha soaps are made from a fraction of petroleum. The oil part of real soap can be from many sources, animal, vegetable, or mineral.

 

[woodchuck357]

DO NOT DO THIS....

the company i worked for, prior to becoming a full time tree service owner, had a guy try to dry out the oil from his skin with gasoline. this was in the late 80's or so. still had leaded gas laying around. he spent a few days in the hospital being treated for severe PI and LEAD POISONING....

I don't think his lead poisoning had anything to do with gasoline.

 

[haveawoody]

For prevention I use a little bit of butter, on face, neck and arms.
Just enough to get a very light film of butter so it doesn't take much.
Something about the oil in the butter wont allow poison ivy oil to migrate to your skin.
Just be careful that the parts without butter don't come in contact with clothes that did, shower asap after your done working when you suspect PI was on anything you cut or walked through.
Treat your saw, clothes, chaps etc as if they are contaminated, while you still have butter film on your hands/arms give your saw, chaps, boots etc a quick clean, put your pi clothes in for a wash and then go shower.

Cure, I think showers and suffering for a week or two is about all I have heard of.
If things don't start to get better after a few days a trip to the doctors for a shot is in order.
PI is a PIA.

 

[Whitespider]

The rashes started about 10 days ago or so, a day or two after I mowed the woodlot roads, trails and paths.
It was pretty warm and windy when I mowed, wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans with a large hole in the left knee (hence, the rashes on the left leg and foot)... all I can figure is I hit some and sent it airborne. Normally I shower right after that job just because I'm half-covered in crap... but I had a couple other "dirty" jobs to do and didn't bother with the shower until late afternoon, just blew myself off with compressed air.

Next time I'll shower ‼ Even if it means showering three friggin' times that day ‼
Like I said, I've always got a couple little spots of rash this time of year, usually on my forearms, but never anything like this... either I'm losing my tolerance or it's been a mighty good growing year for it. Likely it's the tolerance thing; dad never had problems until about 15 years ago or so... now all he needs to do is walk down-wind from the stuff and he'll be seein' a doctor. Still, I'm gonna' walk the woodlot this coming weekend and see if I can spot a significant sized patch of it (never really went lookin' for it along the trails)... if'n I find it... it's gonna' pay the Round-Up price for my misery.
*

 

[lone wolf]

The rashes started about 10 days ago or so, a day or two after I mowed the woodlot roads, trails and paths.
It was pretty warm and windy when I mowed, wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans with a large hole in the left knee (hence, the rashes on the left leg and foot)... all I can figure is I hit some and sent it airborne. Normally I shower right after that job just because I'm half-covered in crap... but I had a couple other "dirty" jobs to do and didn't bother with the shower until late afternoon, just blew myself off with compressed air.

Next time I'll shower ‼ Even if it means showering three friggin' times that day ‼
Like I said, I've always got a couple little spots of rash this time of year, usually on my forearms, but never anything like this... either I'm losing my tolerance or it's been a mighty good growing year for it. Likely it's the tolerance thing; dad never had problems until about 15 years ago or so... now all he needs to do is walk down-wind from the stuff and he'll be seein' a doctor. Still, I'm gonna' walk the woodlot this coming weekend and see if I can spot a significant sized patch of it (never really went lookin' for it along the trails)... if'n I find it... it's gonna' pay the Round-Up price for my misery.
*

You aint gonna mow that spot again are you?

 

[Red Elm]

If you will use Crossbow it will kill the PI plant, but not your grasses. It should be readily available in farm stores in your part of Iowa.

 

[Oxford]

Good evening-

I have many differences with you, but I hate to see anyone suffer.

First, are you sure it's poison ivy? I had a very similar experience recently after mowing thistles in a pasture where there was no poison ivy. Blisters, itching, and so on. It was poison parsnip, not poison ivy, and that stuff is full on nasty. There is precious little to do for it other than endurance.

If it's really poison ivy, a blacksmith friend of mine swore to me that the water from a quench tank was the cure for poison ivy, and after trying it I completely agree. If you have a local weld shop, blacksmith, or just some steel you can heat up and quench a few times, then bathe the rash in that water, I urge you to do it. I did (do), and it works overnight, like a miracle.

good luck-

 

[lone wolf]

Good evening-

I have many differences with you, but I hate to see anyone suffer.

First, are you sure it's poison ivy? I had a very similar experience recently after mowing thistles in a pasture where there was no poison ivy. Blisters, itching, and so on. It was poison parsnip, not poison ivy, and that stuff is full on nasty. There is precious little to do for it other than endurance.

If it's really poison ivy, a blacksmith friend of mine swore to me that the water from a quench tank was the cure for poison ivy, and after trying it I completely agree. If you have a local weld shop, blacksmith, or just some steel you can heat up and quench a few times, then bathe the rash in that water, I urge you to do it. I did (do), and it works overnight, like a miracle.

good luck-

Any idea why that works?

 

[Whitespider]

Well, no Oxford, I can't be 100% sure it's Poison Ivy as I didn't really see it... just going on the appearance of the rash.
But the quench tank water is something I've never heard... ever... and it has me curious about what it would contain to alleviate PI symptoms (iron oxides maybe??)
*

 

[lone wolf]

Well, no Oxford, I can't be 100% sure it's Poison Ivy as I didn't really see it... just going on the appearance of the rash.
But the quench tank water is something I've never heard... ever... and it has me curious about what it would contain to alleviate PI symptoms (iron oxides maybe??)
*

I can say if you scratch open a real itchy blister then clean with Hydrogen peroxide it stops itching.

 

[haveawoody]

Whitespider,

I bet the combination of heat, airborne PI and open skin is the reason it's much worse than a normal reaction for you.
You were probably mildly reactive to PT on the skin but when you breathed in some fine particles from mowing then had it stay on the skin your getting a full on reaction.

Watch the stuff now though, once you have a first full on reaction things can get pretty serious on all encounters with PI for you now.
Have seen guys go from lumberjacks to nearly house bound because of PI.

Get yourself a mulch cover for the mower, a dust mask wouldn't hurt while mowing , mow only on cool days and shower even if the wife thinks your to clean. LOL

PI is growing gangbuster here in Ontario Canada.
Everything else is 1/2 dead from the brutal winter and cool spring/summer but PI has taken up the slack.

 

[haveawoody]

Oxford,

Poison parsnip might just be water hemlock.
If it's growing in a always damp area it's probably water hemlock.
Parsnip no red stem no powdery cover on it, water hemlock red stem powdery covered stem.

Really nasty stuff and rated the most poison plant in NA.
I had some growing in a damp spot and was finding all sorts of critters dead in that area.

Went about finding out about the stuff and discovered small ingestions of it kills all mamals, even skin contact can be quite dangerous, airborne from mowing can be just as dangerous.
Bleached the area and added more soil and mine is gone.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Watch out for this
http://www.invadingspecies.com/invaders/plants-terrestrial/giant-hogweed/

 

[olyman]

I don't think his lead poisoning had anything to do with gasoline.

the old lead in gas,, would be absorbed into your body near instant....