TOPIC: Posion Ivy

im not sensitive to ivy or sumac or what have you, but the spiders seem to like me. i use crushed mint leaves to discourage ticks and chiggers, but those damned spiders chew me up.

Elijah,
Maybe thats whats biting me, spiders. I'm always brushing them off, that maybe my culprit leaving those huge welps that itch

probably! feels like a huge chigger bite or something...

yeppie, that description hits the nail on the head, makes since, there where more spiders in the woods this year than any year I can remember, had alot of rain past 2 years, must make alot of bugs for them to eat

Early in the season we have spider web's with spiders everywhere. Seems like every two trees you walk between you get coated with a spider web. Little horny back spiders but as far as I know they do not bight - never botehered me anyway.

PS - from my last seng hunt I got another does of poision oak between my first and second finger on my right hand. It has been bothering me for several days (itching like crazy) and every time I put my hand in my pocket to get something it would scratch it a bit and it was starting to spread some.

Last night just before bed, I scratched the heck out of it to break the blisters and then took a q-tip with clorox and coated it good. Burned a little while but when I got up this morning and all day today - no itch left, no blisters left, clearing up already.

That clorox does the trick.

TNhunter

I do know that hot water will take the histamines out of your skin, and you will not itch for hours. I get a great nights sleep.
It works for numerous insect bites too. Hottest water you can stand on the spot.
I got chewed on more this year than I ever have, here in NY.
Seeker

Hey Seeker,

When I was looking around online at home cures for poison oak/ivy I did see where some were suggesting that you could simply subject the area to extremaly hot water (as hot as you could possibly stand, as long as you could stand it) and they were saying it helped.

Many years ago I tried that and mine seemed to get worse. It actually feels great to get poison oak/ivy affected areas into hot water - almost like you are scratching it without actually scratching it.

But now mine seemed to get worse when I did that (blisters got larger and spread). That is why I said in my first post here not to get it in hot water - makes it spread.

Perhaps I did not get the \"hot enough\" part right when I tried that - not sure.

I do know for sure that if you have it and can't stop scratching it and it is spreading - you can sure ruf it up good to break the blisters and apply some clorox and it will sure dry right up. It stops itching almost immediatly, but then you do have a little sore that has to heal. I can sure deal with that much better than I can those poision blisters.

I have always applied straight clorox and had no problems with that - but others online suggested half clorox / half water.

TNhunter

I have alway thought that Poison Oak was only in the extreme western states and Poison Ivy is everywhere else. Is this correct?

I have been in contact with both and have never caught either.

classicfur

Classicfur,

I found a nice pic online showing poison oak/ivy/sumac.

Looks like oak/ivy are very similar with the oak having leaves that have a more curvy edge (sort of like a oak tree leaf) and Ivy has a more smooth edge leave with just a jag or two around the edge.



Looks like what I have always called poison oak is actually poison ivy, but now I do think I have seen it in places around here that looked more like the poision oak leaves.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Here's a link that shows that Poison Oak is located in the west, southeast and east coast. It shows that it is also in TN.

www.venomfactory.com/oakgeography.html

The Poison Oak is more of a bush and Poison ivy is more like a Vine.

I'm not too familiar with the P. Ivy. But I lived out West for 30 yrs and Poison Oak was everywhere. I remember that it was a short plant, usually never more than two feet tall.

Thanks for the picture of the Poison Trio.

classicfur