Poison ivy and clothing

Factual Questions
1

I went to a friends cook-out yesterday and we played a little volleyball. At one point the ball rolled all the way into a creek running behind my friends property. As I was retrieving the ball I evidently walked through some poison ivy. I was wearing jeans and socks (and shoes too). One of my fellow party goers told me to be careful with the jeans and socks when I got home that night…needless to say I forgot completely and threw them into my hampers with many other clothes. So my question: is this true? Will poison ivy retain its ability to “infect” my skin many hours after I rubbed through it? Even transferring to other clothing in my laundry hamper? Or am I worried about nothing?

2

In my experience the dam oil from poison ivy can persist a long time on various surfaces. I got it on my hands once from petting my cat after he had been outside. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after handling that load of wash, and before you touch any other exposed skin and you should be o.k., I think.

3

With three kids and a wooded area behind my house, I have found that a good laundering in hot water and a good detergent (like Tide) will take care of residue poisen ivy oils on your clothing.

4

Are you allergic to poison ivy? Some people aren’t (like me). If you’re not, you don’t have anything to worry about.

5

Not true. Just because you have never reacted to poison ivy in the past doesn’t mean you can’t react to it in the future. (I must have been in the stuff countless times as a kid, but only in the last few years developed an alergy.)

See this old thread or this web site: http://poisonivy.aesir.com/
for more information.

I sure hope mine goes away soon. Last night I fantasized about using a potato peeler to remove half a square foot of skin from my legs.

6

I got poison ivy from my cat a number of times. One of his favorite places to nap was in a large patch of the stuff, nice and cool, and a good place to ambush chipmunks. He would then rub himself against my legs or sit in my lap, got me many times before I figured out where it was coming from!