I’m terribly sensitive to poison ivy, but Virginia creeper doesn’t bother me at all. Two ways to tell them apart every time- poison ivy has three leaflets, Virginia creeper has five. The second way, if you think you might be looking at immature creeper, is that poison ivy climbs with adventitious roots that grow out of its stems (like other ivies) and Virginia creeper has tendrils that wrap around things (like grape vines do).
i HAVE had it on my girly bits.
YOU SO DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN TO YOU.
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
i’m one of those poor wretches who aren’t just **allergic **to the stuff. i get systemic reactions that would put down a water buffalo.
the worst ever was the time i learned the damn stuff was hiding in the hedge that runs between my neighbor’s driveway and mine. i didn’t know that when i waded in one day to trim the bushes on my side. with no protection on at all. later in the day, after using the bathroom a couple of times and of course touching my face, etc., i stripped off my clothes *a couple of hours later *and took a nice hot shower - with lots of soap.
yeah. you guessed it…
i got it so bad, i looked like a plague victim. i got it in my throat, in my eyes - and other places as mentioned. i had to have massive shots of cortisone injections to the point i nearly had to be hospitalized because of the side effects of the damn drug. they had to dose me like that to kill it off in my eyes. **that **was dangerous. had it gone on much longer i would’ve been admitted for IV therapy and observation, because it was messing with my heartrate.
re the girly bits, i’m not discussing all the issues that came with certain bodily functions, but you get the general idea, i’m sure. not fun.
as a result of that experience and a few others, the queen is pretty much scarred for life when it comes to nature:
- the queen no longer gardens.
- the queen no longer has much to do with the great out of doors unless it’s a glass of wine while sitting on the patio.
- and above all, the queen doesn’t camp (not that she ever did!:D)
so, take my experience to heart, fellow dopers: look before you leap and learn what poison ivy looks like before you go out to embrace mother nature. i’m embarrassed to admit that i have a hard time spotting my deadly enemy in the wild. probably one of the reasons i’m not fond of the out of doors as a rule.
I’d miss gardening, but otherwise that doesn’t sound a bad approach to nature.
Gulp . . . That very descriptive passage I just read made the hairs on the back of my head stiffen up and go: “EEK!!!” I salute you Scubaqueen, and congratulate you on a full recovery. Your precautions seem quite reasonable to me and I hope never, NEVER, never go through what you went through.:eek:
I must also admit that there is something in my yard that must be a related genus but I cannot spot what it is and every damn year I think I will and try to weed the beds anyway and later in the week have my coworkers commenting as they see my arms and neck “Oh gardening again I see.” and my wife kicking me out to the sofa as my itching at night drives her bonkers. But dang, there is nothing there three leafed at all!
Could be poison oak, which despite the name is a ground-cover plant like poison ivy, not a tree. Or possibly poison sumac.
Or rhubarb leaves.
Common plants that can cause poisoning
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/badplants/poisonplants.aspx