I know I’m off topic, but since others have mentioned general poison ivy lore, I thought I’d chime in. Some archaeologist friends of mine, who would know, swear by Tecnu to wash off poison ivy oil. This is also the go-to product in south Louisiana. As a confirmed sufferer, I swear by it. And by the way, calamine or oat meal baths never did a thing for me. Off to the doctor for a cortisone injection at the first hint of a rash to head it off at the pass, or it’s weeks of misery.
One trick for killing poison ivy that I’ve heard, but never tried, is to fill a few tin cans with about 4 inches of RoundUp or like herbicde. Then clip a couple of leaves to each can so they are immersed in the fluid. Supposedly, the poison ivy will soak up the herbicde into the roots much better than just spraying it on the leaves.
I have personal experience of it taking longer than that - at least, to fully develop.
When I was 9, I found a large, pretty leaf in the woods. Mostly yellow, one green spot. For whatever reason, I held it up to my face.
The area where the leaf was still green was breaking out within 24 hours.
It took a few days for the rest of my face to turn me into what looked like an advanced case of leprosy or smallpox or something.
Needless to say, this did not enhance my social standing. As a result, I’m terrified of the stuff!
Sounds like Antigen did a lot of the right stuff. From what I’ve heard though, no more pulling - not until it’s been nuked with Roundup and had a few days for the roots to get a good dose.
Hopefully next year there’ll be less of a problem if you get most of the stuff clobbered this year (I found this to be true when trying to deal with a nasty thistle infestation).
Seconded on Tecnu. Before I discovered it, I’d get a rash at the slightest contact, and like others upthread, it started in a few patches after a day or two and continued to spread over the next few weeks. Now if I suspect I might have brushed against any, I wash with Tecnu and am fine. And if I do forget to use it and get a rash, I wash the affected skin with Tecnu and the rash is gone in days instead of weeks.
Antigen, I’d recommend a bottle until you get the backyard completely cleaned up.
I know there’s still a lot left, unfortunately. That’s as much as we could manage for one weekend, and we were wiped out afterwards. We cleared about a tenth of the space we need to clear, but got rid of probably 1/4 of the poison ivy in the yard, because it was all concentrated in the very front. Further back it’s all different vines and weeds, with sparse spots of poison ivy.
I followed all the advice and washed up with dish soap in a cool shower, being very careful with my clothes and not touching anything on the way inside. My husband decided not to shower right away because he had to mow the lawn and would “just get all sweaty again”, so of course now he’s got patches of poison ivy on his arms where his shirt cuffs rubbed on his skin. Just red patches, no blisters, for now. Looks like the calamine lotion and Benadryl I bought won’t be a waste! Oh, and this doesn’t get him out of helping next weekend!
I bought some weed killer with a high concentration of Triclopyr, the main ingredient in Brush-B-Gone, which I couldn’t find, and I sprayed a small area to see how well it works. I really want to get it from the roots as much as possible so I don’t have as hard a time with it next year. Between the poison ivy and the other vines, and the pine trees, the ground is so thick with roots that I doubt I’ll be able to plant anything under there like I wanted to. Oh well. Naked ground is still miles better than poison ivy.
In hindsight, the wiser course would have been to mow first, and then tackle the poison ivy.
Oh, also: Folks probably already know this, but if you see any hairy ropelike vines climbing up your trees, those are also poison ivy, and even without any leaves, contact with the ropey vines will have the same effect.
When you spray it, buy something with triclopyr in it. Someone mentioned BrushBGone which I’ve used too with success. I’ve found the Glyphosate (eg. Roundup) stuff doesn’t work as well.
And it probably goes without saying: don’t use a weed whacker either unless you want a nice blistery spray pattern all over your legs. (In my defense I didn’t know poison ivy was hiding in that particular mound of weeds at the time.)
Someone mentioned Tecnu as well. The bottle suggests you can use it as a partial barrier before you come into contact in addition to use it to de-oil yourself after contact.
Clearly poison ivy is not your expertise. As has been stated, mowing poison ivy is a great way to spread it. It roots out from pieces very easily. Also, jewelweed (also called Virginia creeper), also produces similar hairy vines. Jewelweed actually looks a little like poison ivy when the leaves have not matured.
Figuring that jewel weed occupies the same niche as poison ivy, I try to leave that stuff alone as much as possible. I have no idea if it helps.
I was under the impression that he was mowing the grass, not the poison ivy. And jewelweed is a completely different plant from Virginia creeper, and does not grow vines. Jewelweed is, however, often found in the same environments as poison ivy, and can be used as a field treatment for poison ivy exposure.
Pus-sy not female body part =) [or however the frell one spells that form of pus.]
And now he has an appointment with the doc tomorrow to get prednisone and aterax for the damned poison ivy exposure. From 0 to 80% of the body in 2 days. Glad I have epipens…
Not trying to be a know-it-all-Norman, but the proper term is purulent. Pussy is not a word (well, not in that context, anyway).
I used to work with a doc who regularly made rounds with groups of interns. Invariably someone would report that a wound was ‘pussy’. Said doc would pause, then say “how do you spell that?” The resident would become extremely embarrassed every single time.
Clearly, I meant Virginia creeper. Somehow, someone must have mentioned jewel weed in the same sentence and I took them as the same. :smack: Anyway, I find Virginia Creeper can look a lot like poison ivy when it’s leaves are immature. It vines up the trees just like poison ivy. The little hairs on Virginia creeper tend to be thicker, but I wouldn’t trust I if that were the only marker.
For that matter, though, some portion of the population can apparently get contact dermatitis from Virginia creeper, too. A much smaller portion than are sensitive poison ivy, of course, but still some.
And anyway, mistaking other plants for poison ivy isn’t really much of a problem. The problem is just when you mistake poison ivy for some other plant.
