TOPIC: poison ivy\oak

what do you guys do to prevent the oil gettin on your hands while digging, i had a bad experience last year wher my digging tool must have struck a poison ivy\oak root and my hand must have got contact with it where i rubbed my eyes due to them nagging gnats flying into your ear or eyes. you can imagine. i dont get no allergic reaction when brushed against the leaves, but the roots i think are different story.

digdug,

I don't do anything to prevent it from getting on my hands except try to watch out for it, but now that does not work very well.

I get it from the leaves or from roots.

I got some this winter while planting ginseng from roots under the leaves.

I hate the stuff. I can usually just do my best not to scratch it and take a benadryl a night for a few nights and it will get better, but then the next weekend I am out senging again and get more, so I usually keep some on my hands (between fingers - yuck) for most of seng season.

Someone said last year that you could use those wipes (like baby wipes) but with alcohol and when you realize you have touched some, take a wipe and scrub the oil off.

That is supposed to help. I am going to try that this year.

When digging seng a lot of times I will go to break the stuff out of the way around the plant I am going to dig and then accidentally grab some of that poison ivy. I realize it, but too late. If I had some of those wipes I could do something about it.

I do know (from years of experience) that when you do get it, and it blisters, you can scrub it real good to break the blisters and then put on clorox bleach. It will burn like heck for a few minutes, but then it will not itch or spread anymore.

It just drys right up.

Now of course you can't do that around your eyes, but like on your arm or leg you sure can. I have many a time and it always works.

Someone ( I think Latt ) said that Jewel Weed works wonders on poison ivy. I have not tried that but may this year.

Just a few weeks ago I was looking around online and found this \"all stop\" stuff. You can find reviews on line and it sure sounds like it works well.

I may have to try that toooo..

www.allstop.com/poison-ivy/poison-ivy-treatment/

TNhunter

I have never had a problim with ivy thank the Lord but I did read of a plant that helped called jewelweed.And I went back and found that link for you hope this helps.

www.altnature.com/jewelweed.htm

And here is a video as well



g/l to all who have this to deal with and I hope this helps.

Like TNunter was saying Ill scratch and scrub the heck outa it but then I always wipe it down with alcohol not bleach. I had never heard useing bleach I may have to try that.

Also There is an over-the-counter product and I cant remember the name at the moment but its in a blue and white tube. Your supposed to use it as a scrub if you think or know you have come in contact with ivy. Then you can also use it directly on a full blown rash.It also contains pumice or some other abrasive material. I use this on my arms five days ago and the rash immediatly stoped itching and scabed over and dried up! I have not had any more problems since!I was absolutly amazed! It says that the active ingredient actually bonds with the ivy oil and then you just wash it all away.

I'm actually really wondering if the chemicals in jewelweed are used or made synthetically in the making of this product.

I looked around on youtube and found a couple good vids on jewell weed.

One shows how to cook it down and make a tea that you can store in the fridge and keep a while.

I bet you could take a zip lock bag with some paper towels soaked in that stuff and treat right after you realized you touched some - and that would do the trick.

TNhunter

thanks guys, i really appreciated. i wonder if wd40 works to clean the tool and hands with a small towell. you know in all reality, when your out digging, poison ivy is the last thing on my mind. im more cautious of poisonous snakes. i guess i got to get in a habbit of wiping down every so often.

To strip the oil off I use Ajax Dish Detergent any other dish detergent will work too.I bought some stuff at tractor supply last winter and it's a 2 part product.1 is a scrub for contact and the other is a Pre-contact barrier. http://www.coretexproducts.com/ivyx_b

jughead,

I have not heard of the ivyX product but I do have a local TSC store and will have to check that out.

I checked out amazon and found a couple different listings for ivyX products (that had user reviews) and both users gave it 5 stars.

Sounds promising.

I would love to be able to put something on, and it block me from getting it. That would be much better than finding something to treat it with after the fact.

Thanks

TNhunter

Not sure how to make this happen \"on purpose\", but this would only work for someone not alergic to PI, of course.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would spend our time in the field next door making forts against the old stone wall. One year, we worked very hard in the fall, after all vegetation had withered and died, to make a cabin warm enough for us to camp out in at night all winter long - our goal was to keep the snow off us, heh heh heh. Well, we cleared out all the ground cover, mostly golden rod and the like, and set up poles from the top of the wall onto tree limbs 10 feet out from the wall and laid dead logs over the poles and up against them. I was unsatisfied with the dirt floor, which had lots of vines sticking out of it, so I pulled them all up, following hand over hand as I pulled them up and ripped them out. Come to find out, they were poison ivy roots and we were in deep doo doo then! We had PI all over our hands and arms (and feet, because we lived in bare feet unless there was snow on the ground, because that's what the indians did, we belived). Really bad case of PI, but the result was I never, nor my brother, got PI again. I can walk through it barefoot and nada. My physician has told me, yes, you can become inured to poison ivy, so I guess if you get a bad case, you can consider yourself innoculated!!

Of course, people who are allergic to it have a different response than 'normal' people, and they can become very very sick, systemically, so those folks should not 'try' to get PI on purpose.

Just relating my own experience.

Another small fact, is that after being exposed to PI, if you wash very well with soap and water, I use \"lava\" soap, you really can wash off the oils and avoid the reaction. If you think you have been exposed, just go directly to soap and water and clean up, it will probably help quite a bit.