Poison Ivy Season Again
 

I've been allergic to poison ivy all my life so I've tried everything. The first time I had it, it was so bad that I had to go to the doctor and get a cortisone shot. Over the years, my reactions have gotten less severe...as if getting it over and over again helps to develop a bit of immunity? We have a small farm, so it's an everyday exposure thing for me. Here's what works for me:

Anytime I think I've been exposed, I wash all exposed skin ASAP with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Poison ivy works by depositing an oily substance on your skin, so something like Dawn to breakup the oil is critical.

Anytime I feel the slightest bit of the telltale poison ivy itch, I spray the area with cortisone spray. The spray stuff works way better than any of the creams for 2 reasons. The cream require rubbing which irritates the poison ivy. Also, the spray has an alcohol base; so it is another effective tool for breaking down the poison ivy oil.

I've been doing this religiously for years and almost never get to the point of blistering any more.

Hope this helps.....

Eric

Agree with dawn and cortisone. Seems dawn works for alot of cleaning situations. I use it to wash my oily greasy hands versus the old gasoline,paint thinner method. I've been weed wacking alot. Thought I had poison ivy around legs or bites from bugs. Went to Drs Wed am, nope 'mild'case of shingles. Luckily I got a shingles shot 8 yrs ago. On meds no more pain just redness. Now they recommended the 2 shots.

I usually discover it a little to late. I have always had good luck just giving it a good scratch
(not drawing blood)and giving it a good shot of carb cleaner/brake cleaner. Dries it right up.

I was the same way, allergic to poison ivy so bad a eye would swell shut. Twice I had to go to the doctor and get a cortisone shot.

I live on 2-acres with quite a bit it wooded area. I spent a lot of time walking around seeking the plants / vines and spraying them. If you try to dig them up and leave any root behind they can come back. I found I had to use a double concentrate of Round Up in a hose sprayer, typically two applications.

When my wife was a young child her mother gave her milk from the goats who ate the poison ivy on their property, this helped her develop a immunity to it. Today contact with it is not a issue.


Local farm has goats to cure ‘baaaad’ poison ivy

https://www.goatstogo.farm/in-the-ne...ad-poison-ivy/


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My youngest sister is horribly allergic to poison ivy( I can roll in it and have no reaction). Last year, she bought a new house and was cleaning out the fence row when she discovered she was knee deep in poison Ivy. This time, her reaction was severe necessitating a trip to the ER, steroids, antihistamines and two weeks of misery. I asked her WHY she didn’t use Roundup or another herbicide instead of pulling the weeds manually. Her response was “I don’t like Roundup”. I asked her if she liked poison Ivy...I got a very dirty look. My paternal grandfather was so allergic to poison Ivy that if someone within half a mile cut some Grandpa Ernest would show up with it. Gentlemen, you have my empathy.

The title of this thread is misleading; poison ivy does NOT have a season.

There is more of the oil in the vines than in the leaves; pull up the vines in the winter, and................................you break out, if you are sensitive to the oil.

Also, related plants : poison oak, and poison sumac.

Yes, my skin is sensitive (in a previous life, I was a redhead).

For those who did NOT grow up in around this stuff, and have moved to an area with the plants; DO NOT LISTEN TO ANY OF THE HOME REMEDIES FOR PREVENTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a prevention shot available, which helps some folks (didn't help me).

Best prevention is stay away from it, especially don't pick a bouquet of the flowers or eat the berries.

Wear gloves.

Worst case I ever got was helping a neighbor who had bulldozed a bunch of it into a brush pile (didn't tell me) and I helped him burn it (smoke). Fortunately??? I am allergic to smoke so did not breathe any of it, but my arms were a mess!

Have it on my place, cannot eradicate it, but have taught my kids, and neighbor kids to identify it.

Jon.

Arg. Yeah I got it bad about 3 months ago while cutting some trees down on a property I own. I had to go to the doctor for a cortisone script. And yes, it doesn’t have to be “in season “. I got it before anything was growing, and the grass wasn’t even green yet.

I've had poison ivy a few times. Once was on a construction job in the high grass taking out a fence. Grass was wasn't green either. This one was really bad. My arms were covered. Tecnu for poison ivy got rid of it in 2 days. Oak-N-Ivy CalaGel is another brand that works really well. 2 days with it got rid of another case of it. I only used the Oak-N-Ivy CalaGel because the drugstore was out of the Tecnu. Tecnu was a 2 stage application. 1st was to kill the oil, and 2nd was the medication.

It's funny tho. Poison oak doesn't bother me. And I'm messing with that all the time in the garden I work in.

It got me really bad too when I first moved to indiana. I had no experience with it and didnt know any better. I still have a hard time identifying it. Mostly I just stay out of brush in the summer.

The crazy thing about it is, like the next day after getting the poison ivy I got a staff infection on my other leg (or a recluse bite, hard to tell the difference). So I got the embarrassing honor of going to the doctor with a different malady on each of my legs.

A lot of good thoughts here and if you need med. attention get it. I mix 6 ounces RoundUp to a gal of water in my sprayer. Spray, and you have dead poison ivy right to the root. It doesnt bother me any more since I am old, But if you get poison ivy wet Octagon soap and rub it on and let it dry. It will be gone the next day.

I just remembered something a product that was given to me 20 yrs ago. It was for electric lineman for treating poison ivy, sumac etc it worked very well. I cant remember the product. The only other thing that worked when I was young is swimming at community pool the chlorine worked.

In my younger days, I've dried up the blisters using bleach or gasoline. Burns, but works.

Old age and wisdom makes me want to get on top of it before it blisters.

Eric

Old school white gas(coleman lanterns and stoves)
Works good to. Was always around when camping.

Never got it. I make it my bitch. I feel for whoever gets it. A buddy took a piss on it one time and got it on his junk...was not fun for him.

He's got pretty poor aim if he had to get that close.. LoL

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He must have touched some of the poison ivy with his hands before relieving himself, or he got some of the oil on his clothes.

It's not like covid, unless your burning the plant in a fire, it doesn't travel through the air................LOL

Inhaled smoke from the plant can deposit the oil in your lungs, they caution you to never burn it though.

I have it in the hedgerow behind my house which abuts a field. I spray the leaves with herbicide for killing brush, and plants, it kills it right down to the roots. The stuff you buy in a concentrate and mix with water and then spray it on the leaves. Round Up isn't as potent as this stuff is. Within a week the plants are all shriveled up and I just leave them alone until the oils dissipate. I need to do it again this year, but we'll be moving within a month to the new house, the next guy can take care of it.

The bad thing is in this part of the country birds eat the berries/seeds. and spread it everywhere. I've had it growing next to the foundation of the house a few times, deposited by the birds. Just cutting the top off the plants doesn't stop it, the roots will still grow.

We have a state park not far from us with lots of trails, if you don't stay on the trails where they mow regularly, and wander off, it's growing on damn near every tree, and bush in the whole woods. I lived in PA for close to 50 years and Ohio has a bumper crop of it compared to PA.

I had a house built for me in PA, and I cleared a spot in the woods for the home, and garage. I never saw anywhere near as much poison ivy as we have here clearing and thinning that acre and a half in PA, as a matter of fact, I don't remember even seeing any during that clearing of the property.

My neighbor used to have a dog that would frequently run out to the field behind our houses through the hedgerow, he told me that his kids picked it up from petting the dog after she had run through the poison ivy in the hedgerow. Evidently the oil had gotten on her fur.

I hate the stuff.
Poison oak. Poison ivy.
Eats me alive.
I think the only "season" it has is, during the summer it puts out leaves. I can get a case in the dead of winter if I handle the plant/vine and during the winter you can't tell by the leaves what you're messing with. Right after we moved into our house 30 something years ago I cleared the property across the creek in the backyard. Machete, string trimmer and a chainsaw. I wore welding length gloves, blue jeans, work boots with 2 pair of socks and a tshirt, long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. A couple of days later I had the worst case of poison ivy I'd ever had. My arms and the tops of my feet were the worst, but legs, back, chest and even my butt had some rash. Strangely, my face, which was only protected by the glasses I wear, had no rash. I can glance off through the "woods" now during the summer and for the most part there is a low carpet of poison oak everywhere you can see. Makes me shudder........

I can confirm that as that is what happened to me. When I got it, I hadnt even been in the brush, but my husky was prone to going off in it before I built a fence.

He has a thick double coat and likely never noticed, but he got it on me.

my treatment for it is rough, but i am quite allergic and getting a night's sleep when you have it is hard. So this is what I do, and it wont itch for a good 6-8 hours.

I learned the hot water trick from a local farmer:

Run warm water over where it itches. It will itch worse. Keep making the water hotter and hotter. Really get it to where you are gonna go out of your mind. Make it hotter some more. Then....... turn on the cold water, or put the area into ice water. Once again, takes your breath away. give it a few minutes of the cold water.

The hot water flushes out the crap, and the cold water closes the pores back up. Two days tops, and its gone completely. I can sleep all night without itching, then do the treatment again when I wake up. No creams, no shots, no Dr visits. And I am quite allergic.

Rock... if you are bitten by a recluse spider you'll know it. Best to get to a doctor ASAP. Their venom can and will kill you. A friend was bitten by one and didn't pay attention to it. By the time he got to an ER he was in really bad shape and almost died from it. Could have lost his leg too, but fortunately for him they they saved his life and leg.