When hiking, carry Wet Ones or alcohol swabs and as soon as you touch that plant (also: stinging nettle is a problem in Indiana - I'm sure it's across the Midwest, and South, too.) swab the skin with alcohol to "break" the oil. The times I have done this = no rash. There is also a vine which grows where the poison ivy grows, called Jewelweed The juice from the Jewelweed will also break the oil, and has enzymes to counteract the poison ivy. I have also had some success with Jewelweed, but you can't always find it when you get exposure.
I just came back from Far North Queensland, where mango is a major product. Apparently, those who work in the mango processing plants develop rashes - mango rashes are common and real (I didn't know that prior to this trip). We do not have poison ivy downunder (though, there are fatal tree versions of the stinging nettle). So the mango rashes here in Oz do not relate to exposure to toxicodendron.
The amusing story here: when my now-husband, from Australia, came to visit me in Indiana. Australia has a reputation for things that can kill you: crocs, snakes, spiders, stingers, cone snails.
I had to teach him about poison ivy, stinging nettle. He said, "At least Australia doesn't have these kinds of plants - EVERYWHERE!" Another joke we tell is that when you fly to Australia, the snakes, spiders & crocs are waiting for you at the airport (in other words, encounters are rare).
THEN, we dangled our feet in an Indiana creek, and up came a cottonmouth. I guess the world is dangerous wherever you are!
Thanks for sharing! I did notice Jewelweed mentioned in one of the articles I looked up but didn't venture deeper into figuring out what it was, so that's interesting to hear! I'm assuming any lipophilic agent may help with urushiol, although I think rubbing cooking oil would end up being far messier than it's worth.
I should have been more careful with my language. Cross-reactive responses to allergens would inherently work both ways- one can be sensitized to poison ivy and then mangoes, or one can be sensitized to mangoes and then poison ivy. The only issue is that Toxicodendrons may not be native to these mango-growing places, and so it's likely that they never get exposed in their lifetime, in similar ways that some people in the US may go their whole lives never eating mangoes, although those people would be missing out!
I was thinking that I should just make a section called "Damn, nature!" and have it be a light-hearted jab that nature really just wants to kill us!
I have heard that as well. I think I read someone mentioning they use goats to eat the plants, although goats are known to eat EVERYTHING so that makes it more difficult if you have some more precious plants that you would not like to become a summer salad.
My experience with the critters is that one needs lots of patience... they are into everything! Fortunately ours had a money back guarantee so we returned them promptly when we discovered they only ate weeds if they were hand fed (:o
Something near, but definitely not dear, to my heart. I have had more than my share of poison ivy outbreaks (some so bad that I was put on steroids - both legs swelled up and I could hardly walk - I sat on the floor with gauze bandages over my blisters perpetually doused in Domeboro solution). During lockdown I got it several times (presumably from my dog), so I declared war on the poison ivy in my woods and killed most of it (it has since returned) using 1 cup of salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water with a few drops of dish soap - I diligently sprayed the poison ivy daily and within a week it was obviously dying.
Now take this with a grain of salt, but a good way to relieve the itching is to scald your rash with as hot as you can stand water. I had done that a lot and it really helps you get on with your day as it relieves the itching for hours at a time.
Very interesting about the mango link - fortunately I haven't had that reaction! Something else I read recently about poison ivy is that the leaves tend to not be lobed at the points where they are touching each other - they are smooth in that area, but lobed where they aren't touching each other.
I fortunately never had it super bad where my legs were covered, but nonetheless it's always uncomfortable. Your case sounds horrible! To resort to steroids is scary!
Thanks for the natural remedy since I mentioned to SQ that people tend to resort to Round-up to deal with poison ivy.
So to your itchiness, I have seen some posts online jokingly stating that they used bleach! I think the approach is to essentially numb the nerves so that they don't keep yelling at you to itch. Maybe menthol may be a better soothing aid, although I never tried that. I think I generally resorted to Neosporin with limited success.
And thanks for the lobed information! That's interesting. I wonder if that may be due to surface area (if not nearby one another, become lobed to increase sunlight exposure and gas exchange- if nearby one another, become teardrop to prevent overlap and reduced sunlight exposure?).
I wouldn't be surprised if dogs, whether due to the fur creating a physical barrier, or due to lacking an immune response to Urushiol, are protected from in some ways. But that leaves us pet owners to suffer when our pets decide to cuddle up after some time frolicking outdoors!
Great read! I just moved from a no poison plant area to a they're everywhere place, so this was very helpful. Now, I'll go scout the backyard for those darn leaves of three. Thanks as always!
The red colors are really something that I didn't take into consideration. Fall is my favorite season, and so I guess I'm glad I haven't become enamored with the changing leaves and gotten too close to them! Good luck with dealing with them, they can be rather invasive, and be careful of damaging them too much or the Urushiol will release. I think this is where people end up resorting to Round-Up, but I think there are likely to be some less toxic approaches to dealing with them.
So Clarisse mentioned one approach to dealing with poison ivy by using salt, water, and some dish soap, so that may be better if you want to avoid herbicides.
When hiking, carry Wet Ones or alcohol swabs and as soon as you touch that plant (also: stinging nettle is a problem in Indiana - I'm sure it's across the Midwest, and South, too.) swab the skin with alcohol to "break" the oil. The times I have done this = no rash. There is also a vine which grows where the poison ivy grows, called Jewelweed The juice from the Jewelweed will also break the oil, and has enzymes to counteract the poison ivy. I have also had some success with Jewelweed, but you can't always find it when you get exposure.
I just came back from Far North Queensland, where mango is a major product. Apparently, those who work in the mango processing plants develop rashes - mango rashes are common and real (I didn't know that prior to this trip). We do not have poison ivy downunder (though, there are fatal tree versions of the stinging nettle). So the mango rashes here in Oz do not relate to exposure to toxicodendron.
The amusing story here: when my now-husband, from Australia, came to visit me in Indiana. Australia has a reputation for things that can kill you: crocs, snakes, spiders, stingers, cone snails.
I had to teach him about poison ivy, stinging nettle. He said, "At least Australia doesn't have these kinds of plants - EVERYWHERE!" Another joke we tell is that when you fly to Australia, the snakes, spiders & crocs are waiting for you at the airport (in other words, encounters are rare).
THEN, we dangled our feet in an Indiana creek, and up came a cottonmouth. I guess the world is dangerous wherever you are!
Thanks for sharing! I did notice Jewelweed mentioned in one of the articles I looked up but didn't venture deeper into figuring out what it was, so that's interesting to hear! I'm assuming any lipophilic agent may help with urushiol, although I think rubbing cooking oil would end up being far messier than it's worth.
I should have been more careful with my language. Cross-reactive responses to allergens would inherently work both ways- one can be sensitized to poison ivy and then mangoes, or one can be sensitized to mangoes and then poison ivy. The only issue is that Toxicodendrons may not be native to these mango-growing places, and so it's likely that they never get exposed in their lifetime, in similar ways that some people in the US may go their whole lives never eating mangoes, although those people would be missing out!
I was thinking that I should just make a section called "Damn, nature!" and have it be a light-hearted jab that nature really just wants to kill us!
I hear it does not affect goats, which would make them useful eaters.
I have heard that as well. I think I read someone mentioning they use goats to eat the plants, although goats are known to eat EVERYTHING so that makes it more difficult if you have some more precious plants that you would not like to become a summer salad.
My experience with the critters is that one needs lots of patience... they are into everything! Fortunately ours had a money back guarantee so we returned them promptly when we discovered they only ate weeds if they were hand fed (:o
Something near, but definitely not dear, to my heart. I have had more than my share of poison ivy outbreaks (some so bad that I was put on steroids - both legs swelled up and I could hardly walk - I sat on the floor with gauze bandages over my blisters perpetually doused in Domeboro solution). During lockdown I got it several times (presumably from my dog), so I declared war on the poison ivy in my woods and killed most of it (it has since returned) using 1 cup of salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water with a few drops of dish soap - I diligently sprayed the poison ivy daily and within a week it was obviously dying.
Now take this with a grain of salt, but a good way to relieve the itching is to scald your rash with as hot as you can stand water. I had done that a lot and it really helps you get on with your day as it relieves the itching for hours at a time.
Very interesting about the mango link - fortunately I haven't had that reaction! Something else I read recently about poison ivy is that the leaves tend to not be lobed at the points where they are touching each other - they are smooth in that area, but lobed where they aren't touching each other.
I fortunately never had it super bad where my legs were covered, but nonetheless it's always uncomfortable. Your case sounds horrible! To resort to steroids is scary!
Thanks for the natural remedy since I mentioned to SQ that people tend to resort to Round-up to deal with poison ivy.
So to your itchiness, I have seen some posts online jokingly stating that they used bleach! I think the approach is to essentially numb the nerves so that they don't keep yelling at you to itch. Maybe menthol may be a better soothing aid, although I never tried that. I think I generally resorted to Neosporin with limited success.
And thanks for the lobed information! That's interesting. I wonder if that may be due to surface area (if not nearby one another, become lobed to increase sunlight exposure and gas exchange- if nearby one another, become teardrop to prevent overlap and reduced sunlight exposure?).
I got poison ivy from my dog TWICE last month. It definitely happens!
I wouldn't be surprised if dogs, whether due to the fur creating a physical barrier, or due to lacking an immune response to Urushiol, are protected from in some ways. But that leaves us pet owners to suffer when our pets decide to cuddle up after some time frolicking outdoors!
Great read! I just moved from a no poison plant area to a they're everywhere place, so this was very helpful. Now, I'll go scout the backyard for those darn leaves of three. Thanks as always!
The red colors are really something that I didn't take into consideration. Fall is my favorite season, and so I guess I'm glad I haven't become enamored with the changing leaves and gotten too close to them! Good luck with dealing with them, they can be rather invasive, and be careful of damaging them too much or the Urushiol will release. I think this is where people end up resorting to Round-Up, but I think there are likely to be some less toxic approaches to dealing with them.
So Clarisse mentioned one approach to dealing with poison ivy by using salt, water, and some dish soap, so that may be better if you want to avoid herbicides.