I just found thread "Got Chiggers?" Now can we do something on poison ivy? Raised on a farm, I love the outdoors but never had a rash from poison ivy until about 4 years ago. Now, I get it every year. My current rash is three weeks old, and I still have some scabs! Last year, it was on my face and neck and had to go get a shot. Should have gotten one this time, but I'm pretty hard headed. Each time I get it the rash is worse than the last time...
Please - anyone out there have tried and true solutions???

We've got both chiggers and poison ivy here. Luckily I seem to be getting less sensitive to PI as time passes. Cam, if you don't already know it, PI can be very dangerous to some people. Breathing the smoke of burning PI can be lethal. I've read that if you "weed whack" it and nick yourself with the the trimmer string you can end up in the hospital.

My late FIL used to take Poison Ivy extract pills every Summer, which were supposed to de-sensitize him to it's affects. I've no idea where one would get them nowadays.

My wife gets it pretty bad when she's exposed and treats it topically with chlorox. I have done that once-twice when I had a bad case and it does dry it up (the blisters) pretty quick. Smarts pretty good, too.

I think I read somewhere, that the amount in a teaspoon was enough to make 500 people very miserable!
Our 'new' old Kubota is to blaim. (or my stupidity...) We started clearing out the brush piles left from making the pond. Hubby would hook up the logs with a chain, pull them out, and I was the 'unhitch man'. That chain got pulled through all the PI, then dummy that I am, picked it up and drug it to the next log!

pondgirl, i grew up backeast w/ PI and later moved to CA and live w/ PO (poison oak). the two grow somewhat differently but both treatment for symptons, and eradication of the plant itself, can be done similarly.

for treatment, we use tecnu soap. once you can identify the plant in summer and winter (w/ no leaves) and you know you may have been exposed to it, use cold water and tecnu soap topically to remove the oils......it works. it has to be used w/ in a couple hours of potential exposure.

for eradication, we wear long pants, long sleeve shirts and gloves and use pruning shears to manually remove large vines or bushes then spray 2-4D (brush be gone) on stems. clothes and tools need to be deconned aferwards. tecnu soap can be added to washing machine to dissolve oils from clothes. for mat or grass like infestations, simply spray round up or 2-4D in spring when leaves are soft. they harden as the summer wears on and require higher dosages (more product....more $$) if sprayed then.

good luck.

We had tons of PI on our property and last spring I used extra strength Round up (I believe it was for more "woody" plants. In essence I did what Dave is recommending above, applying it when it was just beginning to leaf and spread. It worked pretty well, getting rid of about 75% of the large patches that we had. It worked very well on large vines that had grown high into some trees. I cut the vine low and sprayed the stump with Roundup. It killed it completely.

I went through this same treatment with Poison Oak extract when I was a kid. I'm hypo allergic to PO. I was rushed to the ER as a kid when I got exposed to PO and swelled up so much my breathing was affected. Not so much fun.

In So Cal, where I grew up, PO stays actively growing all year so it's easy to spot. Fast forward to years later bought my property in Nor Cal. Decided to trim some bushes along side the road during winter. Didn't realize that is was PO that had lost it's leaves. I woke up the next day covered in PO rash, my eyes were swollen shut and my lips were huge. Fortunately my wife (an RN) was able to give me something to reverse the swelling. Went through three weeks of misery afterwards though.

The soap DIED mentions is great stuff.

IMHO the best way to get rid of it is to pay someone else to do it.

I use Tecnu as well. It works. But I also have always had success removing the oil (urushiol) using rubbing alcohol and a washcloth.

My wife looked at the lovely leafy green stuff and said, "Oh, I want to take my shoes off and run thru it!" I got exposed to PO while backpacking. 2 weeks later I was at a Nat. Forest campground. 2 week repeat exposures are the worst. Everyone looked occupied, so I jogged a half mile upstream away from the crowd, thru my clothes off in a hurry and jumped in. I then noticed my clothes were laying atop PO vines! Oh man, I blistered bad enough to pass for a burn victim. Visited a Pharmarcy and pleaded help. The stuff did make a difference but I cried some the following weeks.

That stuff can also make your vision blurry.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

My lame attempt at humor was rendered totally irrelevant by SoSauty's editing of his photo.

Where can I get tecnu soap?

Around our neck of the woods it is sold in Wal Mart and almost every drug store. Just ask them for Poison Oak (or Ivy) treatments.

Also get the clear gel creme to put on the rash. That helps tremendously also.

Jeff - You were right. I found it at Wal-Mart. Kinda lucky tho, they were selling Calagel and in the package there is a free trial size of tecnu wash (not soap). Pharmacy tech said she would get some ordered. So - my shelf is stocked, and I'm ready for the next contamination! Thanks for the info.

GW Boy did that 1st photo make 'yer eyes cross! I thought 'bout returning it but think it's gone. Anyhows, I put one of my other lame photos back in to hopefully not scuttle your humor. One of those 2 green plants is a PO, I think.

We have both poison oak and ivy. I've never looked for the difference. If it has 3 leaves, I avoid it.

I'm truly blessed. I can roll in PI and nothing happens. Not that I've tried purposely rolling in it but I've had many occasions where I've worked and kneeled with bare knees right on the stuff and never a rash. I do wonder though if that could change if I get too much of it. Can your immunity go away?

30-40% of the population is supposed to be immune to PI/PO. But I have heard of several people who get it for the first time after thinking they were exempt. I don't know if this is losing their immunity or just finally really getting a good dose.

I was pretty young when I found out that I was allergic to it. Something that was usually the size of a small peach expanded to grapefruit size.

bz, many folks think they are immune if they only have infrequent exposures. Repeated exposures causes a person to become 'hyper' sensitive. An exposure followed by a repeat exposure 2 weeks later is supposed to be optimal in causing your reaction. Of course, a 3rd exposure 2 weeks afterwards, would almost kill a guy. Some folks contact it less than once a year, have a tinie red spot that goes away after a shower, and they think they aren't allergic. Learned that in a 1980 first aid class, then later I experienced it out in the real world.

i've met folks who say they are immune. i've yet to get someone who says their immune to take a fresh greasy spring time leaf and rub it on their arm...........

"You don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind,
You don't pull the mask of the ole' Lone Ranger..."

Amen Theo. I'm not about to purposely rub any on either. I have always wondered however if perhaps I've never real been in PI. Many times ever since chidhood I've had people tell me I was in some but since I never got a reaction I've just never really cared what the stuff looks like. I tried looking it up in a book but I can find any number of plants that look like it so how does one know for sure? Anyone know of a really good source for ID?

bz, PI doesn't always climb, but sometimes it does and that could help ID it. If a vine is growing on a tree trunk and has leaves in groups of three, then you can be pretty sure it's PI. Once you can recognize the leaves then it will be simple to find it on the ground.

PI climbing vines tends to be real hairy, too - just totally covered with tiny little rootlets, as opposed to Virginia Creeper ( 5 leaves) whose climbing vine has a bark-like exterior.

I only have poison oak which I'm real sensitive to. I watch out for that stuff just like I do for rattlesnakes.

I think it varies by region but this is what it looks like at our place:

We have poison ivy here in North Florida. But, we also have something called poison sumac that will do the same thing to you as the others. It is more like a small woody type bush. I have goten it bush hogging our place right after we bought our propery. Google search it to make sure you do not get in it either.

Here's an amusing Poison Ivy website:

http://www.poison-ivy.org/

that's just not even right

Amusing? Those blisters are waaaay----to much of a reminder!!!!

I looked at the site GW posted. I'm glad I've never had a PI rash!