Is there any "safe" method to get rid of poison ivy vines on logs? I have a few logs with poison ivy on them, and short of putting on a biohazzard suit and pulling it all of, is there anything I can spray on there to get rid of it?
Some people can look at it and catch it. Others can wallow around in it all day and never catch it. I'm sorta in the middle, so when I have logs with poison ivy I just put on my gloves and pull it off. Bout the only way I get it is if the juice gets on my skin. Sometimes a quick shower with strong soap, immediatly after exposure will prevent it. Never heard of any spray that will make it safe.
Don't know of anything but reminds me of an occasion about ten years ago before I quit logging. I used to be very allergic to it, went to the local Doc to ask about getting a shot to prevent it. Said he did'nt know of one. His advice was to stay out of the woods! ::)
I've never caught it, but I don't like taking chances since I've seen that past experience has no relevance for future susceptibility.
I guess i'll pull it off with gloves and such and go chuck it way out of the way somewhere.
If you have alot ivy to deal with then Tyvex suits and rubber gloves are your best bet if your really reactive - then just peel it off right into a plastic garbage bag and scrap everything.
My brother swears by this stuff:
http://www.clorders.com/ivy.htm
I recently asked my wife to help stack some firewood - she was glad to lend a hand. She got poison ivy on her arms, one leg and her belly and back from about a couple hours worth of work. :-[ :'( :-[ :'( I didn't get while stacking from the same pile. ::) ::) I hoping she'll stay my wife but I think I permenantly lost my firewood helper.
Dan,
I have ran across a product that you use after exposur to kill the oils on your skin. and the rash never apears
This stuff works great, the company's name is Tecnu, run a google search and you will find them.
Some of the best money I spent this year. Last year I got in to something that took me three weeks and two trips to the doctor to get rid of. About a month ago I got into some stuff and this Tecnu stuff knocked it out in about two days, after the rash appeared. 8) 8)
Mark
That Ivy block stuff sounds neat. Imight have to order me some of that as well.
Mark,
You beat me to it..
Dan,
I use this stuff by the quarts. It falls into the GOOD SH__ category. Gemplers and Forestry Suppliers has the best prices.
Bruce
http://www.teclabsinc.com/pro_tecnu.html
http://www.gemplers.com/a/shop/list.asp?UID=20050511131433671817370&SKW=1mztnu
I'll have to try some of this new fangled stuff and see how it compares with Fels Naptha Soap. ;D
I am not allergic, but my mother, and son are highly allergic to it. I can roll around in the stuff and not even see a spot, but if they are across the road from it they getit BAD!
My son got it twice last year and had to get shots both times to get rid of it. I will look into that stuff to cure it as the shots cost me big time for him, and he was hurting bad!
That stuff is ugly when you are allergic, but I guess I am fortunate. I have been curious as to what it woudl taste like if I cooked it up like greens......
Doc
I used to get it real bad but now I usually either don't get it or only a little blister or two. I do however use a product called TEKNU (spelling?) that I wash with as soon as I know I have gotten into it or as soon as I start the slightest itching if I have been working but don't know I got into it. This is a cleanser that seems to work great. I carry some in the console box of my truck, a little goes a long way. Some of my woods are totally covered with it on the ground and most every tree has vines going up it. Last week I cut a few vines with the chainsaw that were between 2.5 and 3" in diameter however most is much smaller. Those huge ones I just cut in 2 places a foot or so apart and then used the back of the chain to kick the piece away from me. I didn't even wash with the cleanser that time and so far so good but the leaves were just getting started on the ground cover and were not open yet on the vines. My dad was the same way, in his early years he got it and in his 70's and eighties he used to pull it off with his bare hands. I think if you are exposed to it enough your body eventually builds a tollerance or eventually an immunity maybe. I understand the american indians used to start as soon as leaves began to open in the spring and chew a leaf every day until it was a muture leafe they chewed for immunity. I never dared try that. 8) 8) If I get any bigger vines I wonder if they can be sawed on the mill and used for lumber? Ha!
I've used Tecnu for years.I get it at the local drug store.
I use a sharp ice scraper to get to clean vine off the log.
Mary's mother was very allergic to poison ivy - even got it from the handling cloths that others wore while working in the woods or fence rows.
Mary was allergic too. Shortly after we bought the family farm, we got a second small chain saw to trim with. Mary took to using it to trim cedar. She got poison ivy on her arms so bad she looked like a burn victim. She finally went to the emergency room a got a shot. Since then, it hasn't bother her.
I got it little once in a while when I was a kid. Dad worked in the woods all his life and I never knew it to bother him.
We have it come in on logs all the time. I generally strip it off with my bare hands and pitch it in the log yard. I avoid leaving it on the log as sawing it will tend to expose it more.
Also, I'd caution against burning it as I hear the poison can be carried in the smoke. Don't want that in your nose, throat and lungs!!!
I get it pretty bad, have had it three times this year.
a few winters back we were rabbit hunting and my brother shot a bunny, blew the guts up. He wouldn't gut it so I did, bright green mush in the belly.
well it turns out those rabbits were eating the bark off the vines. My hands were like footballs for 2 weeks.
the next weekend I could barely get my trigger finger in the trigger guard to get my revenge.
Maple Flays, I spend alot of time between Bradford, PA and Rushford, NY (north of Olean) hardly any poison ivy in those areas
where's Onieda (east by Binghamton, Cornell?)
I've been recommended tecnu before, but couldn't remember the name of it >:(
I know it's sold locally, i'll just have to find some. I think my plan of attack for the ivy on my current batch of logs is just going to be wear gloves and yank it off. Like I said, I've never had it, but i'm not risking chance. I rolled around in it once as a kid on a dare, I remember my mom fanning my tail! (maybe that had a lasting impression)
Mike_Barcaskey, Oneida is 100 miles north of Binghamton, half way between Syracuse and Utica in a straight line. I am told that the geographical center of NY is in Oneida, however 2 spots within 10 miles also claim it too. Can't verify except my mother told me it was so when I was a kid, and she never lied.
Dan, be sure and wash the gloves after you wear them to pull the ivy off. The oil will stay on the gloves and you can get the itch and rash the next time you use them. I use to use the tecnu products but I found that if I exposed my skin to the sun after use I would burn quickly. Now when I know I have handled poison whatever I wash my arms and hands with vinegar. The acetic acid seems to cut the oil and allow it to be washed away. If the vinegar smell gets to you use some lemon juice after washing, or, my mehtod, eat a nice big salad and plate of spaghetti. :)
Got poison Ivey real bad until age 17. Then someone told me to eat some of the small leaves and I didn't get it again for 12 years. Have to take another treatment every 10 years or so ::) ::). Did some reading and the shots the Dr youst to give were made from an extract of the plant and built immunity in most people :P. Unfortunately some got a bad reaction and they don't give the shots anymore. ::) ::)
I hope NO ONE tries this! It may have worked for one person, but there is a very very real chance it can KILL you. My older sister Connie nearly died from ingestion of Poison Ivy. This hapened before I was born, but Dad never let the rest of us forget. Dad was always picking wintergreen leaves to chew from the wood edge near thier home in Beaverton. Connie was emulating dad, but picked poison Ivy. THey say it was touch and go for more then a week. Dont EVER eat poison Ivy!
Around here the only logs that have poison ivy on them seem to be white oak. I have had that rash alot over the years. Quite often it is from sawdust going down my neck and I get the rash right around my belt line. When I think there is some poison ivy around I do up the top button on my shirt and wash my hands with rubbing alchol. This is a good web site to check out www.poisonivy.aesir.com
i'm with Doc i can roll in it but my son will get eat up what he uses is liquid bandage you by at wallmart
when the rase comes out he covers it with the stuff. works for him anyway
Years ago I baled some hay, one end of the lot was solid Poison Ivy. It doesn't dry well, some of those bales weighed 100+ lbs. I kicked them in the bushes to rot. Some that only had a little, I picked up - July, hot, humid, never got it - That winter, feeding that hay out, I got poison ivy on my hands.
If I know I am going to be exposed, I take 50 mg of Benadryl before I go out in the morning and then another 50 mg before I go to bed. The idea is to suppress the bodies ability to mount an allergic reaction and that is what Benadryl does. It works for me. I am only moderately allergic to it but have not gotten any this year. I spent a couple of mornings stripping vines off of walnut logs wearing gloves with so many holes I might as well have been bare handed and haven't gotten a speck of it.
WARNING: DO NOT TAKE BENADRYL RIGHT BEFORE YOU ARE OPERATING YOUR SAWS OR MILLS UNTIL YOU HAVE TAKEN IT SEVERAL TIMES AND KNOW IF IT WILL MAKE YOU DROWSY OR NOT. It has such a strong effect on some people, they might as well be drunk. You hate to learn that while operating a chainsaw or moving out of the way of falling trees. For me, I just seem to get real calm.
I'll bet the ingredients include rubbing alcohol, I use it to "kill" the oils after exposed. I'll even scrub the area with a stiff brush and then dump the alcohol on. Seems to work for me at least even after a rash appears hours after exposure. REID
I seldom get the stuff.If and when I do,Fels Naptha dries it up in short time.It's odd but poison ivy and black cherry seem to be companion plants,in this part of Ohio.I normaly use an axe to clear an area around the felling cut,then strip the rest when on the ground.I wear long sleeved shirts and gloves to do so.I have to remove my clothing{in the garage} and keep it apart from the rest of the clothing to be laundered,as my wife is very suseptable to the stuff.We have a seperate washing machine that is used on my grudgey work clothes,and I wash them,as it would be bad if she were to come in cantact with them.
I don't know if spotted-touch-me-not (jewel weed) works on ivy, but it kills the sting in stinging nettles. Just grab a fistfull and squeeze the juice from the succulent stems onto the infected area.
Thanks, SwampDonkey, That also used to be a remedy according to my dad from many years ago. When I used to get poison ivy if I was out away from other remedies I used to use jewel weed and it helped some until I got home for something better.
I don't get it often, but when I do, I scrub the affected area with soap and water then pour some full strength Bleach over it and scrub it in then rince off good and it's always dried up the next day.
NOTE: this can be painful when scrubing in the bleach!
Goats like the stuff down here :D
Man, I get it BAD! Thankfully, I've only had it real bad twice in my life, and the second time was absolutely awful. Most of my lower leg got engulfed in one HUGE blister. My brother said it's the grossest thing he's ever seen on a person before. :D The bummer that I've always heard is that it just gets worse every time you have it.
Thanks for the recommendation on that Tecnu stuff--I'm going to definitely keep some of that in my car at all times.
From reading the posts you start to see that having an allergic reaction can be really hit or miss. One summer when I was in school me and a friend were clearing some brush for extra money. He had never had poison ivy and had been around it quite a bit. We burned the brush piles and we both inhaled some smoke. The next day he was on oxygen in the hospital. He had it in his lungs and sinus as well as his throat. It took a week for them to get it under control enough for him to come home. I've known several people that never had it till they got it. ;D I've been around it a good bit and only had 5 or 6 times, can't tell I'm doing anything different when I get it. The thing that works best for me is bleach as well. It's a strong base and will deffinately take the fat right out of your skin though. That is it will dry you out. ;D
RUN!!!....AS FAST AS YOUR LEGS WILL MOVE!!!!!...ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH POISON IVY!!!! :o :o :o