They call it poison for a reason

[Gardening]

I like to read more stories or cases on that, since in our area it is common to locate ivy's.

 

[lawn_king]

I was badly exposed on a mulch job, i installed about 7 cubic yards of mulch that was loaded with poison ivy. Long story short, trip to the hospital & a 2 week run on anabolic steroids, no fun. poison ivy is very dangerous!

 

[jimmer2880]

When my father was a young farm boy - he had a real bad case. The Dr wasn't able to do anything about it. He said that he went out and ate a couple leaves. He swears that it cured him. To this day, 65+ years later, he rarely catches it and never wears gloves when working around it.

Having said all of that, he didn't allow any of us kids to eat it, realizing that it was a dangerous thing to do.

 

[Spiveyman]

JoelD,

Here are all three plus some more irritants. Bad stuff. Look at the pictures.


Skin Rash Hall of Fame

This is kind of an old thread, so I'm not sure who will see it, but it's that time of year again. My wife and I just moved out to our farm a couple of months ago and she's deathly allergic to PI. The whole fam was out on the tractor taking a ride. She never got off the carry-all. About 3 am she was running for the show covered with a rash.

The reason I quoted the above post was, did anyone notice something odd in the thumbnail? Kind of like the kid shows, one of these doesn't belong? Well, my wife thinks I'm nuts (no pun intended) but I told her that I'd heard eating cashews will make you immune to PI. I used to get it bad, every year. Then I heard the cashew thing so I started eating a handful every day. For the last year I've been working on cleaning up the farm. I cut HUGE PI vines out of the woods with my chainsaw, then yanked them off the trees. I was covered in debris. I regularly weedeat the stuff out of my fence rows, and the string always breaks down inside the hub when I'm right in the middle of it, so I have to pull the head off and re-thread the string bare handed. Not to mention the oil spraying all around as I weekeat. Now, I'm knocking on every piece of wood I can find near my PC, but I haven't had PI since I started the cashew deal. The oil in cashews is nearly identical to the urishol oil in PI. It's safer than eating the spring leaves, although my granny who lived on this farm before me used to make biscuits every year in the spring with a ground up PI leaf. She never got PI either. Now I think THAT is nuts, but the cashew deal is worth it.

 

[ampsucker]

NPR just did a story on it. seems the higher carbon dioxide levels and warm temps have given poison ivy a boost. it grew faster in their experiments than any other "under story" plants (that grow under the tree canopy in the US).

so, if you think you are seeing more PI than you used to, you're probably right!

amp

 

[cherokeecowboy]

I've never had it. My kids get it all the time. A few showers with lye soap and it seems to dry up in two days or so. Never had any problems using the lye soap.

 

[Snapper Head]

It never bothered me until I got into a shedload of it when clearing out a pine grove back in 2001. Manged to get into again a couple of more times, and each time it was worse. I found that Zanfel worked wonders, but at $45.00 for a tube, a small one at that, it is pricey. Still worth every penny to me.

After hurricane Katrina I got into it severely, and was blistered from head to toe. No Zanfel. Bathing in a half gallon of water each day. No running water or power. Had to keep cleaning up and moving forward, despite the misery. I won't soon forget that.

What I can tell you is that after showering, if you hit the blisters with a blow dryer it is the best feeling in the world, nothing short of orgasmic. Like scratching it, but much, much better feeling. The problem is that doing this stimulates the blood flow in the area, which serves to spread it.

That stuff is ****.


Big Al

 

[Soundguy]

i guess i've been lucky.. so far I don't seem to be alergic to it.. have handled it frequently, by accident and never had anything but a mild redness inthe area that went away in an hour after washing with soap and taking an over the counter antihistamine.. and that's with extended handling. occasional brush ups have offered no reaction ( knock on wood )

now.. I do like cashews.. ane real relation to these two?

soundguy

 

[czechsonofagun]

What I can tell you is that after showering, if you hit the blisters with a blow dryer it is the best feeling in the world, nothing short of orgasmic. Like scratching it, but much, much better feeling. The problem is that doing this stimulates the blood flow in the area, which serves to spread it.

That stuff is ****.


Big Al

I second that, same thing with hot shower. I use hand hold shower as hot as it gets and the feeling is very very intense.

 

[dex3361]

I used to get PI but I took Spiveys Grannys remedy and I eat a fresh tender PI leaf every spring. Mind you I do not chew on it and wallow it around in my mouth I ball it up and swallow it hole. I may get a speck or two a year that looks like a bug bite but thats about all for the last 15 years or so. I read about it in a folk remedy book years ago. I dont recommend it for anybody but it works for me.:thumbsup: