Poison Ivy cure!

[oosik]

True story. Between my Jr & Sr year in high school I worked for the forrest service, in the summers. I was involved in suppression of a grass land fire that burned thru a patch of poison oak. I got it so bad - I had to spend four days in the hospital. Not a fun experience. After that - every spring I got some kind of shot that all but eliminated the problem. After college I moved to AK. No poisonous weeds in AK.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I have no documentation of this except in my experience it worked.
When I bought my place there were poison ivy vines big as my arm up the side of barn, trees, etc.
I cut a 6" section out with a small chainsaw. Of course juice flys everywhere so the more you cover, goggles, gloves, clothes the better. Immediately...and I mean immediately wash everything.
My theory and experience is this...the huge vines put out berries in large quantities. That propagates it.
Cutting those huge vines eliminates the source. Now if I see one tiny sprig of it I spray roundup, several applications.
Now it's under control.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

If I could sell poison ivy I would be rich because my East Tennessee Farm is a haven for it. Have vines that I could take to the sawmill!
My mom told me that Cherokee tradition of eating some leaves of poison ivy in the spring would keep you immune to the effects. It痴 an allergen not a poison. In college I had emeritus botany professor who did the same. Soon new leaves will appear and I will continue the tradition. The most I have ever got a reaction is a few bumps on the thin skin between fingers while chainsawing and clearing vines barehanded. Not recommending that anyone should eat poison ivy. Just this hillybillie痴 experience.

Poison ivy can attack the kidneys, eating it can really mess you up.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

As a youngster, I'd get a terrible case of poison ivy once or twice a year, lots of times, so bad that all I could wear was a pair of loose fitting shorts and flip flops, while covered in calamine lotion.
I guess I had so many terrible sessions with it that I eventually got immune to it. Now I can pull it by hand, roll in it, whatever, I never get itchy.
That worked against me years ago while I was cutting firewood, wound up cutting a bunch of locust with the vines embedded in the bark. The wife filled the stove one night and there was enough oil in the smoke to really mess her up.
That was a double whammy for me, she was torqued off big time and I had to do everything related to the woodstove after that, she wouldn't go near the stove if the door was open.

Same thing, i had a real bad case when 12 years old. Never had a problem after that and I was around it a lot. Talking about smoke, my mother was highly allergic to poison ivy, oak, sumac, and oleander. We lived in the Phoenix AZ area where the use oleander as an ornamental and along highways. When blooming my mother did not dare get any way near. Smoke from burning it was double trouble for her. Friends removed their plants so she could visit.

Ron

 

[ning]

Never seen nor heard of poison ivy or poison sumac around here. However, poison oak makes up for the lack. I'm doubly fortunate to have none on my 80. But when out & about - I'm always wary. I'm VERY allergic to poison oak.

My son got poison ivy when we were swimming at the Spokane River - we're very familiar with poison oak but don't know poison ivy obviously.

 

[Ford850]

Washing really throughly (scrubbing hard, repeatedly) after exposure works well. No need for expensive Technu, Dawn dish soap works as well (and since it's cheap you'll use enough).

How to never have a serious poison ivy rash again - YouTube

I tested this all last summer and fall since reading this post last spring. It works! I've used a lot of methods and some work better than others, but this method of scrubbing with a cotton washcloth using dish soap worked nearly 100% of the time for me. I have tons of PI on my property and there's no way to avoid it. What I found most impressive about this, other than how it prevents allergic reactions, was how it stopped reactions even a day or so afterwards.

 

[ray66v]

I have found that I will start a reaction almost exactly 24 hours after exposure.

If I find itchy spots the day after I have been in where I could get exposed, I scrub that area with a soft, (white) Scotch Brite pad, and mechanics hand cleaner.

The oils bind to the skin. There is no way to remove them. You need to remove the top layers of skin the oil is attached to with the hand cleaner and the scrub pad. Doing that once, generally eliminates the problem. If it still itches after the first time, I scrub it more.

This process does leave you with a mild skin abrasion, which take a few days to go away. However, a skin abrasion is substantially better than having a severe poison ivy reaction spreading all over your body, for weeks.

This works for me every time.