poison ivy

[Tom L]

I am the guy who walks near it and gets it, never did when I was a kid just after the age of 30

so there I was friday night before the hurricane, my neighbor is in a panic and wants to take down three large white pines in his yard before the storm hits.

so I gear up and head over. shorts and all. one of the trees is covered in poison ivy, of coarse I am the guy running the saw and he is sitting in his loader pushing them over. well I bathed in Poison ivy for at least two hrs. and all I am thinking is that I am doomed.

at dark the trees were all put away and I headed home to take a shower. one bar of soap left. ouch!
walk outside to my mill and I just purchased a new container of pine sol. and yes, yes I did. took a large cup of it in the shower and three times washed with pine sol.
one week later and no poison ivy. I came out of the shower my skin squeeked, so maybe I am on to something. if anyone else has the same problems try it. I am amazed that I did not start to break out on monday or tuesday. I may be onto something, I did smell like a pine tree for three days but no breakouts.

[submarinesailor]

Usually if you get it off within a couple of hours, before the oils have a chance to bond to the skin, they will wash right off.  Wait to long and you need something like Tecnu to get it off.  Been there, done that too many times.

Bruce

[Al_Smith]

I don't really break out from it but I do itch .Fels Naptha soap works pretty well if you come in contact wih it

[red]

there is a goats milk soap everyone laughs about this but do a google search

[Cedarman]

It seems that if I am sweating, that I do not get it at all.
Tom L, what is wrong with smelling like a pine tree?  Beats being pink with calomine lotion.  Of course, I like cedar pink.
I can just see all those PI chips flying back and covering you.  Nasty.

[florida]

Poison Ivy is just like any other kind of sap and washes off the same way. If it will get pine sap off your skin it will remove poison ivy sap. Tecnu is just jelled mineral spirits.

[submarinesailor]

Poison Ivy is just like any other kind of sap and washes off the same way.

Not according to the article I read by a skin doc at Johns Hopkins.  He stated that the poison ivy oil and the human skin are like a 2 part epoxy.  If the oils are not washed off in about 2 hours, starts to bond with the skin and that's when you need something like Tecnu to break it loose.  If you catch the fact that your have some on you early enough, you can wash it off with soap and cool/cold water.  Don't raise with hot, because that can speed up the bonding.  Ever since I got it in my eyes, I catch it VERY easily.  So, I have tried LOTS of different methods to get it off and treat it.  Tecnu is the best that I have found - bar none.

Poison Ivy King Bruce

[SwampDonkey]

It's rare to find it here and it's only along the main river valley in settlements. But I did see one fellow get into it one time planting his field with trees. Along the hedgerows was poison ivy vines I guess and he blistered all over. He got it in a bad way, big time.

[thecfarm]

I am surprised you did not get it a little. The pine sol must of worked. The poison ivy that I have here only grows as a single plant,I've never see it as a vine. But that one plant will send out roots and many others will grow form it. I have very good luck killing it in the open.Bought a piece of land back to add to The C Farm 5-6 years ago and the stone wall was covered in it. Just about all gone now. But on the edge of the woods my Father fought it and I am too. Have to keep at it or it will spread out into the field.

[miking]

You sure it was poison ivy?

[Ron57]

   I have a relative if you tell her she touched poison ivy she will break out but if she doesnt know about it she does a lot better.
   I would like to make my next kitchen out of poison ivy wood, it is really beautiful stuff!!!

[sandhills]

Now I'm confused (and ignorant) the poison ivey around here is just a broadleaf weed, I've also never seen it as a vine, can we see some pictures?  I also never had any reactions to it until later in life, but have heard the more you are exposed to it the worse it gets, I'll have to try the pinesol.

[SwampDonkey]

It can grow as a low shrub or a climbing vine. It climbs by aerial roots as a vine and the shrub variety is a bunch of branches from underground stems. It has white berries, but bane berry, which is not woody has white (or red) berries and are very poisonous. Squaw-bush (or red osier dogwood) has white berries that are harmless.

[doctorb]

I get it badly too, Bruce.  I don' think it matters too much what you wash with, a good basic ( i mean base like acid / base) soap will do the trick pretty well, as long as you wash as soon as you can after contacting it.  I shoot for an hour or less.

It definitely grows as a vine.  It's looks "hairy" and dark in color and can be as big around as your forearm.  Many people get it felling trees and cutting firewood.  I am told you can get it in your lungs if you inhale the smoke from burning it, so I try toremove it from my firewood when I can

[florida]

submarinesailor- Yes, that's correct. As I said, if it will remove pine sap it will remove poison ivy sap. Gasoline, lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, almost any solvent will work including baking powder but mineral spirits (Tecnu) is the easiest, is usually handy and is dirt cheap. Tecnu is just fancy mineral spirits at $2.00 an ounce.   

[maple flats]

I am surprised you did not get it a little. The pine sol must of worked. The poison ivy that I have here only grows as a single plant,I've never see it as a vine. But that one plant will send out roots and many others will grow form it. I have very good luck killing it in the open.Bought a piece of land back to add to The C Farm 5-6 years ago and the stone wall was covered in it. Just about all gone now. But on the edge of the woods my Father fought it and I am too. Have to keep at it or it will spread out into the field.

You must not have healthy poison ivy. The same plant, will climb and become a vine if it has something to climb as long as it has a healthy root system. Maybe you need some fertilizer.
I used to get it very easily but since I started working in it regularly I rarely do. I dug a trench with my excavator this year thru a hugh patch of poison ivy, had no problems until the excavator trru a track. In the repair process I was working with the track for 2 hrs. I got some poison ivy on my arm. Used Teknu a few times and it went away. I use the "Extreme" Teknu. I keep several tubes on hand just in case. It works. I may however try Pine Sol next time just to see.

[SwampDonkey]

Maple, you rarely see the vine up this way, mostly the bushy kind when branches coming off the roots. The only vines in the bush up here are grape, wild cukes and clematis and escaped Virginia creeper. Nothing bigger than your pinky finger and most would be smaller. I've walked in a lot of woods in NB and that's all I see in the vine category.

[thecfarm]

maple flats,I doubt it needs fertilizer to make it grow the way it spreads at the lower end of the field.  ;D   Started to spread down the road from the field too. I've seen places where it has been growing for years,but have never seen it as a vine. Some people it does not bother so they never try to get rid of it.

[maple flats]

sorry, they sure grow vines here anyplace they have a host to climb. They'll attach to the bark and climb sometimes as high as 30+' up. A friend told me that they will not grow if there is boron in the soil but I did not find a source for boron to spread or spray.

[SwampDonkey]

Borax, but that stuff will kill the trees and anything else to. It's a lethal salt in high enough concentration.

[Bro. Noble]

You may be able to buy boron at your local fertilizer dealer.  Alfalfa requires it for optimum growth and they add it to the mix for alfalfa.  I bought 50# pretty cheap for painting pine stumps to prevent fomus anosis.

[metalspinner]

The worse I've ever had it was when I dropped a cherry tree with a vine on it.  After trying every over the counter product for a week, I went and got a steroid shot at a walk-in clinic.  Cleared it up by the next day.

We have massive vines growing around here. Like Doc mentioned- as big as your arm.  The vines are so hairy they look like a squirrel's tail.  My neighbor has a white oak treee just covered in the vine. I'll take a pic later to share.

One of my boy's gets it if he just looks at it it seems. :-\

[florida]

Poison ivy is about the easiest vine there is to kill. When we bought our current home 6 years ago every tree in the 2 acre yard had poison ivy growing up it. I used a machete to cut it at the base then sprayed with Poison Ivy killer from HD. Usually one application was all it took. I had multiple vines as big as my wrist on some trees. The trick is too be patient, let it die and fall out of the tree on its own. I never touch it even when it's dead.