Feeling itchy

Your advice was invaluable ;)

BWAHAHA

In case anyone took that seriously.

Fumes can cause severe allergic reaction when breated in, possibly leading to death in rare cases - or so I heard.

I've heard the same, it can not only get on your face if you're near the fire but in your lungs. Having it on my surface is bad enough I can't imagine having a rash in my innards too.

I had heard it only last year, and I looked it up now because it was only one thing I saw in passing, and others confirmed t though one source said it wasn't true. I just scrolled through them, didn't look further. Whatever the case, I ain't anxious to verify it, so I wouldn't near.

Another thing, this milkweed you've been picking, has this been with gloves? Has any touched your skin? Because that can irritate too (I just looked that up since I knew ingesting was bad)

I haven't been using gloves but you bring up a good point. I should wear them since it might be an irritant. My rash def looks like ivy though from what I've remember, I have PTSD from my former encounters. One one time I made my mom a pretty wreath from of vine I found outside it was Winter time but the next day I was broken out in a rash all over had to get on steroids. Turns out that stuff is potent even when it looks dead and my parents tease me about it to this day.

Sorry, I laughed a sec when I read that wreath bit, as it reminded me of a little story I read - an aside in Carol Ottesen's The Native Plant Primer (a great book for gardeners interested in such and what got me into wildlife gardening, only it's out of print) - of how the author got a nice Christmas wreath with white berries a friend made her, and yup, it was poison ivy.

We had relatives in Connecticut who lived next to the woods, and my Uncle (RIP) told me early on what it looked like when we visited, so I knew to stear clear.

Some years ago at the NY Botonical Gardens (where my apt was near and I often went), two people I knew who worked there were talking about how someone was handling a dried branch of it in their herbarium and broke out in a rash, and it had been there 75 years!

The irritant is a volatile oil which doesn't break down easily. That's how it can be passed from person to person, even if much later than the initial contamination.

Didn't mean to make light of what you went through, sounds horrible.

That's insane. Don't worry I laugh at myself that I was dumb enough to assume we had random wreath making vine that would not be hazardous.

Naah, not dumb, stuff happens.

Here's dumb: I got stung by bees yesterday and went running to escape them down the path where I whalloped my lower leg on some fallen branch hidden by weeds real bad early July, doing a number on it. No gardening for the rest of the month, as my ankle was screwed (think that part happened after at home tho).

Wanna hear dumb with poison ivy?
In HS, took a couple of friends (brothers) to these Amtrack tracks nearby. I pointed out a stand of poison ivy, advising them to stear clear. So one of them grabs a bunch of leaves and starts rubbing them between his hands.

"I'm not kidding you, Jeff, that's poison ivy"

With a big assed grin, grabs some more.

"I'm not kidding you, that really IS poison ivy"

"I know," he says.

Anyways, he later gets the rash on his hands and upper arms. Gone from school for a week.
His brother told us he did it ON PURPOSE! to get out of school. But he was in bed all itchy n not feeling well the whole time, wouldn't even hang out. So what was the purpose?

The idot did the same thing with chewing tobacco, this one day someone brought in a tin. We were getting pinches of it in the locker room, he advised us not to swallow the stuff [this doesn't sound quite as intended!] or we'll be wretching something fierce.
So what does Jeff do? Gulp a wad down so he could get the rest of the day off, the frickin moron.

YEEOCH!!!!
Did they find out who did it?

That is so messed up.

Meanwhile, now picking up hitchikers in Utah with the license plates, PSN OAK1...

Oof

It is a volatile oil. If it gets into your lungs you would need hospitalization.

So what I said then?

Just don't touch it right? You'll be fine!

Seriously, I have no idea of any good remedies except what I used to be slathered with at all times as a kid...calamine lotion. If it wasnt poison ivy, it was chiggers or chicken pox...or an anonymous rash. Calamine was the all-cure. Dont even know if you can find it anymore, probably causes cancer like everything else that works well.

Oh they still sell it but I avoid it like I should avoid those poisonous plants. Lol. I found a combination of apple cider vinegar, coconut oil and cortisone cream has been the best remedy. Still looking for how to exterminate those pesky buggers.

Calamine lotion is not a known carcinogen. It's still available OTC.

My family and I have dumped salt (very liberally) on the roots to kill it. Just be sure to wear long pants, thick socks and long sleeves if you do.

Interesting, I remember my granny pouring salt on the slugs near her house poor things, I think I'd need the entire Dead Sea to kill off the plants in my neighborhood, I literally live in the woods, lol

Then you have an area you can't grow anything on. Plus you might need a whole lotta salt given how it can spread.

Ever try covering it with black plastic sheets like from trash bags for a few weeks?

Actually I do feel bad about killing plants slowly like that, but poison ivy is parasitic, killing the trees they climb that way over time, as well as releasing allelopathic chemicals which hinder or prevent the growth of other plants around them.

A single plant can spread pretty wide via its roots, making huge beds, so killing them is difficult unless extensive and possibly repeated use of something like Roundup, which is toxic to people as well, is resorted to.

I just found that out last fall.

There's a whole mess of plants - including many invasives like mug wort and tree of heaven and garlic mustard, plus natives like the ivy, sumac, and oak, that do that.

Neither did I.

Lmao

Get a goat so they can eat the poison ivy.

Tastes like chicken to them!

If someone actually took this seriously this would NOT WORK.

You know that goats actually do eat poison ivy right?

No.

well now you do

If goats took it seriously?
Thank goodness they're not common on this site then.

Sometimes I wonder

hahahahaha,,,

One of my first new temps when I was working on reviving this account, adding a load of new ones, and I never use it!

Y u m

I would love some goats to mow my lawn and get rid of the pesky plants. I don't think the town ordinance would appreciate it, lol

lol

Imagine walking down your street and you see a Cheese Grater with a big green M telling a goat to eat poison ivy

I don't think it would work...

Combine the salt and the goats, that would work.

Ok, I salted the goat, now what?

No I mean let the goat eat it then salt the soil to prevent it from growing back.

Cortisol meds. Cortaid, which is milder at 1% Cortisol, is available over the counter.
Also 1 Claritan per day in addition to that.

Cortisone*

Am I glad you did not say Calamine lotion. I hated that stuff and it never really worked anyway. I'll try the Cortisol and claritan, might have some around. Thanks Dr. Modda ;)

I've come across in the past some names of plants Native Americans used to treat it. but don't recall them as I don't seem to react to it and it's everwhere were I garden. Granted, I never wear shorts and I'm careful around it, but I have stepped on/through it as well as tripped and fallen with my arms and once the side of my face brushing it! Ok, not like I stayed lying there (remember Terminator 2 when the biker landed on the grill, his reaction? that was me), but still.

I also, like an idiot, have dug around it, and started coughing after a bit. I have some mild allergy to something undetermined but this was more hacking. YAYA for Darwin Awards!

ooops, almost forgot. I had heard about Cortisone (Hydrocortisone), but asked someone I know to confirm and about any over the counter versions, so it was another Dr, hahaha

I have loads of hydro laying around as my kids have excema. I've been using it and it does help. Another useful remedy is apple cider vinegar. Seems to dry it up pretty fast but burns like the dickens.

Apple cider vinegar is not recommended. If it burns like the dickens it's not supposed to be a treatment. Hydrocortisone mighht work but I have zero experience in this field. I don't have skin allergies and poison ivy doesn't grow here in Asia.

Alrighty, got that covered at least.

"burns like the dickens." double points for the word. I gotta start using that one.

Just be sure you don't forget the "ens" at the end or you might get some wierd stares.