Note: Not recommended for use within 3 feet of the cabin...
Expensive, but it works for me when I have to fight the PI which sneaks over from my neighbor's jungle.
If you suspect you have contacted poison ivy/oak with your skin, wash the area immediately. Watch out for chiggers — they are the worst....
Oh man...had to dig a footer by hand. The ground had already been cleared so I had no idea the kind of plants had been there. Anyway, was digging the footer, rubbing against lots of roots. Had poison ivy from chin to toes—everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.
I had a friend call me to complain that he got poison ivy on the farm where I was living at the time. I thought, "that's interesting," and didn't think of it again until I put on the jeans (unwashed) I was wearing a few days later, getting poison ivy on my legs.
Once when I was a kid I found this friendly old dog wandering around in a nearby park, so I petted it, hugged it - and next day I get the horrible water blisters all up my forearms and neck. The dog must have been strolling through a poison ivy patch some time before. I am extremely allergic to poison ivy and have been since I was a kid. And of course this particular incident occurred in summer, when your sewat makes every itch ten times worse.
Lots of calamine and oatmeal baths were the order for me.
Also, when a kid, I was at a picnic and told by my parent to “just pee in those bushes over there.” You guess the result.
My Son gets poison ivy every year and he has found that “Cortaid Poison Ivy Care” treatment kit works well. It’s a two step kit that contains a removal scrub and a treatment spray.
Also the doctor has prescribed Elocon .1% cream when he got it really bad a couple of years ago.
I don't have any natural remedies but I hope this helps!
Chiggers are far worse, I’ve been fairly covered with them before.
Anything with DEET in it keeps them away.
Wash thoroughly anytime you even think you may be exposed. I am very susceptible to it as well. I had heard years ago of a vaccine being developed at the University of Mississippi, I think it was. I have a cabin in the Trinity river bottom and poison ivy is everywhere. Good Luck.
All I can say is, whatever you do, don’t clear that path with a weed-eater.
Casual presence with poison Ivy usually doesnt bother me.
I was working cutting wood one day the vines were on the wood I was cutting,I pulled them off and ent on. Being in the woods and being male I eventually had to discharge some of the fluids I had taken in. I just did it.
Next day I had a rash on my,well you know, but I didnt give poison Ivy a thought, After all I seldom was bothered by it and it had never touched me there. Unfortunately my unwashed hand had touched me there when I urinated.
I itched for a day before I realised what had happened and got out the calamine.
A bath in epson salts.
Also bleach if you can take it.
I had a neighbor who burned a pile of poison ivy when he was cleaning out his back yard. The burning just puts the oils into the air. It about killed my brother.
Seriously, folks... Don’t burn poison ivy. It’s bad enough on your skin, but you don’t want that stuff in your lungs.
If you think you’ve come in contact with it, wash the area right away. Use only water—soap only spreads the oil. I found out that one the hard way. We have a large tract of land in Maryland and are constantly clearing brush, etc. Poison ivy is everywhere. Only gotten it once this year . . . so far.
My girlfriend got poison ivy on her brain. The only way she could scratch it was to think about sandpaper. (S.Wright)
Spray the leaves to kill the plants.
Do NOT burn the stems as the smoke can carry the oils that can then get into your lungs where your next reaction will be bad.
Apparently deer like the leaves ?
Poison ivy oils can swell up your face, close your eyes...the oils travel well on dogs or clothing . Be careful.
Some are somehow immune ?
I used to pick berries in the midst of poison oak. I am very sensitive to this stuff, but washing EVERYTHING once I was done (for my clothes and me, soap and water; for the berries, just lots of water) averted problems (after the first mis-hap). In those days, all we had was calomine lotion (not sure of the spelling) and baking soda baths, but I think they have better stuff today. And someone else mentioned chiggers—the soap and water helps get rid of them too.
deep woods - an insistent call of nature - no toilet paper - inattention to the leaves being grabbed...
Note: Not recommended for use within 3 feet of the cabin...
Since we have property and a second home in the Smokies, I am all too familiar with poison ivy. About 50 - 100 years ago, most of the land had been cleared for pig farms and subsistence farming. The regrowth over bare areas allowed a great deal of poison ivy to take root — literally.
From my experience, when I have to work in the woods/edges to keep our land and paths clear, I NEVER work outside for more than 30 minutes, and then hot-water launder my clothes, hose off my boots, gloves and face shield (I wear a hard hat with a face shield/screen for general protection from flying debris, saw briars, etc) and take a hot shower with a real soap - not Dove or similar.
The key is to get the poison ivy oil OFF your skin before the urushiol poison has time to bind with the skin. Despite rumors to the contrary, urushiol is a contact allergen/poison AND ONCE BOUND TO THE SKIN IT (the rash) DOES NOT spread due to itching the skin.
The reaction caused by poison ivy, urushiol-induced contact dermatitis, is an allergic reaction. In one extreme case I had on my forearms (winter-time stupidity stacking firewood with remains of poison Ivy vines not yet removed), I needed corticosteroids to treat the rashes and severe itching.
WRT to washing after exposure — The poison can be washed off within a **short time** after contact, but once bound to the skin, it cannot be washed away.
IT’s worth noting that the blisters and oozing result from blood vessels that develop gaps and leak fluid through the skin; if the skin is cooled, the vessels constrict and leak less. <— so getting hot enough to sweat exacerbates the outbreak, but sweating DOES NOT spread anything.