Poison Ivy

So my neighbors little girl has poison ivy but they don't know how she got it. She would rather stay inside than play outside. They asked me if she could have gotten it from their dog since those two seem to be inseparable. Is it possible the dog ran though a patch and then their daughter got it when she hugged the dog? Would seem possible since she has it on her arms, neck and face. Poor thing.

Yes you can get it that way.

Yep that's one way. Another up here is people getting it in the winter from firewood

My wife would get it doing my laundry till we figured out how she was getting it. I guess if your allergic it's not hard to get in a lot of ways other than walking through a patch of it.

Urushiol is the oil in the plant that causes the rash. Getting it on you is the problem. Yes, can be transmitted by pets , firewood , clothing and other forms of contact.

Fun fact , only humans and primates get the rash. Whitetails like to eat poison ivy , birds eat the berries.

My brother never reacted to it growing up but if I turned a couple pair of his jeans out the right way and washed them with mine I could get it on my hands and wrist

I'm aware that some people seem to be more susceptible to getting it than others but never really gave it much thought to how many ways it could be transmitted. I will pass this information onto my neighbors. Thanks!

The oil from poison ivy is very similar to grease in consistency, and is pretty tough to wash off. Put some tractor grease on your arm and wash it off, that’s about the same as poison ivy oil. It could easily be passed from an animal to a person. I’ve heard it can stay on tools like shovels, chainsaws, weed whackers, etc for many years if not washed off. That’s why many people that haven’t even been around the actual poison ivy can pick it up from some other way.

I got it one winter when our neighbor was burning brush. I walked through the smoke. I used to get it almost every year when I was younger.

There are lots of remedies for poison ivy. I found the one that worked best for me was Zanfel.

Very true , like axle grease. Just watched a video explaining it exactly like that. Key to exposure is washing thoroughly to remove it. The vid compared different soaps and poison ivy soaps to remove the oil. Best tip was to wash with a washcloth for the scrubbing action. That was more important than the type of soap used.

Truth!

dawn is good for breaking down the oils in it when washing

I had it on my jeans years ago and my wife got it on her stomach right after doing laundry. She was pregnant and not happy with me.

My wife never got poison I've in her life until after I got her pregnant. Now she gets it mildly. She points out that something to do with pregnancy women keep some of the males DNA in there body the rest of their life? Sonethingvshe read somewhere. So she blames me for making her allergic now.

As a kid I got it often. Really bad once head to toe miserable dose not describe it. Just happened it was on our way to the ocean a day or so later. After a day or two at the beach it went away. After the first day it didn't bother me any more. Now I only get it very mildly for a short time. Did I build up some immunity or just learn to stay out of it better. Probably both I think.

what kills the ivy plants?

Round up or any good brush killer. It's not hard to kill.

Interesting read. Been around poison ivy my entire life and never realized there was oil on the plant. I can take it and rub it on me and never noticed an oil or a reaction. I do know some people that claim just being in the vicinity of it gives them the rash. Guess growing up wearing shorts and no shoes sorta immunes you to some things in nature.

Used to break out bad as a child. Still it never deterred me from running the woods all summer barefoot, shirtless and in shorts as all us wild heathens did. I'd get big water blister type of rashes between my toes. Sundays were horrible as mama required shoes to go to church and that was back when we baptists still did all day singing and dinner on the grounds. The last bad breakout was probably when I was in jr high a couple back to back rashes that swelled my eyes almost shut.
I guess I finally developed some sort of immunity to it as I wade through it today without consequence. Maybe every few years a tiny pea sized patch of rash might show up for a day or two.

Good info here

When I did basic at Ft Jackson we had a kid out of New York do what bears do in the woods. Probably his first time in the woods as he didn't know squat about where to squat or why leaves of three make poor butt wipe.

I really felt sorry for that poor yank.

My mom had never had a reaction to poison ivy in her life. She was planting flower along a bank edge in the yard that I now live in. She mowed the area and dug it all up. She ended up with it all over her body and in her lungs and was in the hospital for a week. That was 15 years ago and the flowers are still beautiful.

problem is, birds spread the seed....

True, you'll never be without. All you can do is beat back this year's crop.

Does round up damage the tree if you spray it on the ivy or does the tree bark protect the tree?

Good point. I can get ahead, but don't expect to get it all. It's an annual commitment.
I hit the areas each year with brush grade Roundup. It works well.

I wear knee boots when in the woods or weeds, and I still keep my eyes open for it.

I spray the neighbors too. I don't think they know what it is.

Depends. Most mature thick barked trees, no damage. Younger tender stuff, yes. And some species like grapes, wild or domestic, just a whiff is enough to burn.

Basically roundup is taken up by green soft tissue such as leaves and buds not hard calloused tissue like bark. But hack and spray is a thing so if the bark is cut so the cambium is exposed it becomes vulnerable.

I read an article in a dermatologist’s office that said after you have poison Ivy, you are more susceptible to getting it again from an exposure, and the longer you can go without a reoccurrence, the less likely you are to get a reaction. Makes sense. Seems to come in spells for me.

For sure dogs will carry the oil on their coat. I get it during the winter when I skin fox and coyotes.

I just got over the first batch of poison ivy for the year. Probably get it 3 more times this year.

If i am going to work around it, i dust my clothes and hands with baking soda. It neutralizes the acid of the ivy.

I had some in my woods. Sprayed it once with Round Up. It killed it within several days.

I normally had it bad, several times a year for as long as I can remember. I found a product called "Oral Ivy" and if I remember to start taking it early in the spring, I do not get so much as an itch!

I believe it is an allergic reaction to the oil that is on the plant. That is why some people do not get it. I can crawl through it all day and not get it while a friend of mine walks by it and has it all over him the next day.

Humans have some natural protection to PI, but get a bad case and it takes around 7 years for your immunity to build back up, assuming you don't get it again.
For some relief from the itch, I have found that scrubbing the affected area with soap and water as hot as you can stand it, will deplete your bodies Histamine supply and buy you about 6 hrs of relief, an OTC Anti-Histamine tablet will aid in the relief.
Washing the contact area immediately with soap/water or ammonia will destroy the Urushiol. In the field, our old friend Jewelweed works wonders too.

One summer day at my hunting club, I was so obsessed with contracting poison ivy, I got in a shower tub with a jug of Chlorox and a washcloth. I bathed with soap and water and then washed every inch of my body in straight Chlorox. I will never know if I rid myself of poison ivy oil, but I do know I did not contract it. In addition, I did not get any chigger bites. The treatment wasn't as bad as it sounds. I washed it off within a minute of application.

Cows love to eat poison ivy. Get their milk on your hands at the next milking and you can get poison ivy. Been there , done that!!

It is strange how it affects some worse than others. I can pull it off trees and if I wash my hands it won't get me, but if my brother stands downwind of it he will be in the hospital getting mega prednisone shots

When my Dad was very young he used to make wreaths out of it and run around with them on his head. He never got it.

My wife, kids and myself do not get it. I am really bad about noticing poison ivy. Many times I have been told that I have the vines all over me. Same with bees. All you will see is a small red dot where I got stung. But that only last about an hour or so.

That being said I have not intentions of stomping of yellow jacket nests or rolling in poison ivy. I try not to push my luck lol.