Poison ivy in my eye

[oldred]

I am one of those folks that can't even get near poison ivy (heck I'm almost afraid to type out the word!) but if there's one thing that grows REALLY well on our farm it's that dang stuff! Well yesterday I mowed the lawn and knowing full well about the possibility of hitting one of those diabolical plants and creating toxic clippings from the mower discharge I never mow more than 15 minutes or so then RUN for the shower. This time I must have hit one and then missed washing it from my eyes, this morning my left eye is swollen and feels like I have Sulfuric acid on my eyelid! Well maybe not that bad but it looks like it's going to be a rough time the next few days, I told my wife I think I will heavily fertilize the lawn next time with ROUNDUP! Anyone else have this much trouble with this noxious and extremely evil plant?

[Col4570]

We have Nettles here in the UK but I do,nt think we have Poison Ivy.Could you possibly send a Photo of the stuff just in case we do have it.

[oneokie]

I have known people with that condition. There are better, more effective chemicals for the control of broad leaf plants. Talk to your county extension agent for recommendations.

[Pb2au]

I have known people with that condition. There are better, more effective chemicals for the control of broad leaf plants. Talk to your county extension agent for recommendations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_radicans

"Leaves of three, beware of thee."
Or
"Leaves of three, let it be."

106449

Wretched stuff if you are sensitive to it. Fewer things can bring you so much misery.
I believe you are safe in the UK.
We have stinging nettles here as well. Pretty tasty when they are young and fresh, but definitely can light you up later when they mature.

[DLCTEX]

Poison Ivy does not affect me, but my oldest son once hit a vine on the trunk of a tree he was cutting with a chain saw and the juice from the vine hit him in one eye. His eye swelled like a goose egg.

[dragon813gt]

I can't get close to the stuff either. To cheer you up and make you realize that having it on your eye isn't the bad I will tell you a story. It involves me as a child around the age of six. I was in the woods and had to go to the bathroom. I was never told what leaves not to grab when wiping your backside. So you can guess what helI I went through over the next week. As painful as it is to have on your eye it's a lot more painful to have it where the sun don't shine.

[Pb2au]

I am pretty lucky. I will get a light rash from it, but no more. My mother is completely unaffected by it. My middle brother can't even be in the same county with it. It pretty much eats him alive. That boy normally spent half the summer pink from Calamine lotion.
My grandmother's pet cure for it was bleach. I got a good rash of it when I was little on my arm. She grabbed a scrubber and gave the rash a good working over to open the boils. Then she soaked an old towel in bleach and laid it on it. Holy smokes I could barely sit still.

[shaper]

I have the same problem in n/w Ga. It's all over the place. I had a problem with it earlier this month, before the leaves were out. As soon as I know I have gotten into it I have to run to my son n law's office for a shot and dose pack. Even then it took two weeks to get it under control. Can't burn the stuff, it will get in your lungs and you defiantly don't want to do that.

[dragon813gt]

Bleach works, so does isopropyl alcohol. The problem w/ those cures is the potential for scaring. It didn't prevent me from using it in a few occasions. But I still have some very faint scars from it.

Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac are of the devil.

[Bad Water Bill]

I seem to be immuned to the stuff.

Mom had a cottonwood with a vine hanging from about 2/3 of the way to the top for many years.

One day the dead vine (3-4 inches in diameter) fell to the ground.

My chainsaw made short work of it but my son got hit with some sawdust.

Everywhere the dust could go it did.

He was in misery for a couple weeks.

IIRC that stuff has several forms so check your local folks to see just what it looks like in your area.

And then there is FIREWEED out west.:evil:

[dakotashooter2]

In all the time I've spent outdoors I've never run into it in my neck of the woods. I used to get a pretty good reaction from nettles (we called it burning grass) but I must have developed some tollerance to it because it has been years since it affected me.

[bikerbeans]

Poison Ivy doesn't bother me, wish I could say the same for poison oak and a weed eater; that was no fun. When I was a kid we went camping and had a bonfire. Apparently one shouldn't put poison ivy in a campfire as several of the kids with me ended up in the hospital with eyes swollen shut and respiratory troubles.

BB

[southpaw]

The only problem I have had was one time I was cutting firewood (cherry and oak) and got some on my forearm. There was plenty of the poison ivy around and my forearms were pretty scratched up from loading the trucks with firewood. Only got it on my right forearm and then it was pretty mild. It was about maybe 2 inches long on the scratch and there was few other spots that looked like mosquito bites. I was surprised that I got it but I guess the skin being broken open helped. I have been crawling through the stuff since I was little and that was the first time that I can remember getting it.

One of my buddies gets it if he is down wind from it. I don't think he will pee in the woods again, atleast not when he has been cutting firewood.

Jerry Jr.

[jcwit]

I'm a lucky one. Doesn't effect me at all, not one bit.

Now my wife, it's a different story. Like the OP just getting close seems to affect her, what really bad is for someone burning it danged stuff and driving by. She has even gotten it internally, bad news, medication is the only alternative in that case.

[joesig]

Make sure you wash your hands BEFORE you pee as well as after. The oil is just as effective in January after sitting on a machete for five months. You can get PI through clothes. Dog fur and chicken feathers are great carriers.

I found that Giant sells a CareOne Poison Ivy Wash that is pretty effective at stopping the Urushiol. For $10 I bought a few boxes (tubes) and keep one at the girlfriends and one in the truck. Worth very penny! Wal-Greens has something similar for 4X the cost.

[tomme boy]

None of it used to bother me. But for some reason, when I was put on insulin for my diabetes, I can not get near any of it without having to itch for a couple weeks.

[bear67]

My sympathies--It does not bother me much, but a couple of my kids and grand children are plagued by being close to it. My wife works outdoors with elementary kids and takes college kids on outdoor education (canoeing, camping, rock climbing, caving, ect) and has found a relatively new product that works every time so far. It is OTC and in a tube and is labeled Zanfel. We get it at WalMart, but have bought it at big grocery stores in Arkansas before. Not a cheap product, but it works, just might not help in your eyes.

Wasn't funny then, but seems funny now. Years ago we had a Councilor in training working Boy Scout camp and sent him over to weed eat around the waterfront. He worked in poison ivy for several hours with just a pair of shorts on. By that evening we had to carry him to the hospital and they admitted him. It was so bad around his crotch that they restrained his hands and spread eagled him on a bed with just a sheet covering his body. For a 15 year old this was trying to say the least. He wound up with it in his eyes and sinus cavities. Was in the hospital almost a week.

[HarryT]

You should take a cold shower to wash poison ivy off your body. Hot water opens your pores and makes the rash worse.
Men who are allergic to poisonous plants should get a court order forcing their wives to do all the yard work. Be sure your wife is squeaky clean before hugging or any other close contact.

[dilly]

Poison EYE-V.

My sympathies to you; I try to avoid it as much as possible myself.

[mold maker]

You can go merrily through life without having to avoid it, and all of a sudden it finds you with a vengeance. It's accumulative, and your immunity will eventually run out.
I've never so much as had an itch from it YET. I take every precaution to avoid it ever since I had to care for my Grandson who was covered with the blisters. We had gone prospecting, and walked through it to the creek.

[Harter66]

I'm also 1 of the lucky 1s and 3 of my 4 kids X1 wasn't so lucky she got wrecked when I brought some home on my clothes I guess at least 2 pair of pants had enough that the normal hunting wash just spread it around......

[shooterg]

We used to spray it with the evil stuff called agent orange later. Still had a rusty can of that stuff here 10 years ago, mixed with kerosene and sprayed the stuff on fence around garden. Still none come back yet. Stuff was bad for people but it sure worked.

[762 shooter]

I had a son-in-law that was not "allergic" . He cut up a 3" diameter vine wearing shorts and a tee. Luckily his mother was a registered nurse.

762

[dragonrider]

My wife and I are seriously allergic to poison ivy also, several times each year I walk around my property with a jug of Round Up and spray every vine I can find. I have been able to keep it to a minimum. like many plants it grows underground for quite some distance before it will pop up someplace else.

[John Allen]

My son is is the same boat. All he has to do is look at it and it is all over his body. I for some reason never get it I can walk through it and not have any problems.

[bob208]

when I was just a little guy I would get it from just walking past it or if the wind blew in my direction. about the age of 8 my mother took me to the doctors and I got a shot I think it took 6 weeks. after that I hardly get it at all.

[Lee]

Uh Oh! Vines growing up trees? I cut down a bunch of them 2 years ago, looked like they were choking off the trees. Sure hope they wasn't PI. Got away fine, but from now on, I'll look before I chop and rip!

[Lee]

Ummm someone mentioned RoundUp?? That has been my go to kill everything spray for years. Watch where the wind is blowing, watch where you are spraying. Don't let the wife see you doing this, especially near her plants. Deny! Deny! Deny!
P.S. Theres a rumor out there that Roundup is about to be outlawed. Too effective against Democrats if I heard right. Get a 5 gallon jug of the concentrate if/while you can..............
Just sayin..........................

[oldred]

Been really hard to do the computer thing today with these burning eyes but now it's showed up around my waist at my belt, I was wearing a tucked in T-shirt but I guess it got me when I removed the shirt. The doc say there's still plently of time for it to show up in other places but I should know by tomorrow. I now have burning sinus, very irritated eyes (probably made much worse by seeing that danged picture of this evil stuff that was posted by Pb2au! :mad: ) and a patch of the stuff around my waist, I guess I have a lot of "fun" to look forward to in the next few days..

[PS Paul]

About 15 years ago I was fishing bass during the spawn in the back of a cove fed by a small feeder creek in a NorCal reservoir. I caught and released WELL over 50 fish that morning before hangin a crankbaits in a tree on the other side of the creek.

I jumped that little creek to get the lure and in doing so, landed on top of some poison oak. A branch stuck up my leg and under my shorts, scratching me on the scrotum.

A few days later I was in the hospital after the festering sores had spread nearly EVERYWHERE on my body!
Took about two months for the sores, rash and itching to finally go away!

Went back to that same spot on a business trip to CA a couple years back and had another GREAT day fishing, but I sure stayed away from those same oily leaves that time. Guaranteed!

[dbosman]

Grew up on a farm and was a state park ranger in an area with lots of poison ivy. It never affected me.
Shortly after getting married and moving into a subdivision house, I got nailed in my back yard. I've still got the scars from scratching.

There is an injection and an oral medication for people who know they react. Both are supposed to be good for a year. Talk to your physician.

[Goatwhiskers]

My wife used to be supersensitive, not so much now. One year we obtained a teeny little bottle of some stuff called ImmunIvy, you put the stuff in a glass of water and drank it. It gave her absolute immunity for that year, have never been able to find it again. Normal, if it works they take it off the market. GW

[webfoot10]

Google Jewel Weed, and find the plant. Nothing works better on poison ivy then the juice from the mashed stems of the jewel weed. Counter acts
the effect of the poison. You won't have no sting or burning of bare skin. I thought everyone knew about jewel weed. This is for external use only
can't help with internal infections. Hope this helps you out.
webfoot10

[freebullet]

In yer eye ooo dang that sucks.

I played in and around it as a kid with no problems. Around 04-05 i was doing some pre bow hunting season scouting. I must have gotten into it purty bad along the way because that evening I started breaking out with blisters all over my feet and ankles. By morning I had blisters on my feet the size of quarters and 1/2" tall, ankles were completely covered in blisters. Doc said it was the second worse case she ever seen. It started to cause blister and little pusstules anywhere my veins near the skin like blister trails going all over my body.

I couldn't wear socks or anything on my feet for 2 weeks. It was miserable. They had me on steroids for nearly a year because even after the original blistered healed I would break out with mini pusstules when ever I would sweat. It had gotten in my blood stream.

Those mini pusstules still pop up every once in a while. They itched worse than you can imagine. I gained almost 60 pounds being on the steroids. I haven't let that stop me but I'm very cautious now. I threw away all the clothes I wore that day.

[MaryB]

Has never bothered me, same for stinging nettles. Walked through a patch of nettles today in shorts...

[FISH4BUGS]

Don't use Round Up...truly it poisons the environment and the ground water. I use straight white vinegar in a sprayer to kill the poison ivy. You need to do it two or three times but it works and is much better for the environment.
I get it pretty bad when cutting wood or rebuilding the stone wall. I cut up a maple that blew over in a storm and my arms were covered with it. It was torture for a week or so.
Try the white vinegar trick. It really works.

[Beerd]

"ivy eye", now that don't sound like any fun at all.

try borax to kill the plants.
crushed stems of a plant called Jewel Weed will help with the blisters.
..

[Bloodman14]

I use GroundClear on anything I want dead. Had a buddy that had a younger brother that would pester him no end. Mike grabbed a handful of poison ivy vines and whooped the tar out of his brother. He swelled up like a balloon for several days. Mike said he finally learned not to pester him.

[**oneshot**]

After every hike in the woods or mow my mother-in-laws grass, I wet a paper towel with iso alchohol and hit all exposed skin, even my face. I carry it in my backpack in case I see it along the trail so I can apply ASAP. I can't go near poison ivy without getting it, but since using the alchohol I haven't had a problem.

[oldred]

Well I have some relief this morning! The anti-itch creme is working for the rash around my waist and the eye(s) are doing better also, at least I can comfortably type again.

Oneshot, yes I also am a firm believer in the iso and use it liberally after possible exposure to this evil weed but that time I just showered and didn't take my usual precautions and only dabbed lightly with the iso, I was not overly concerned since it was mower discharge against the ground and not the usual weed-eater debris I had to contend with, LESSON LEARNED!

[Hogdaddy]

I'm lucky,, Ivy dos'nt bother me.. Now Redbugs (chiggers) is a different story ; ) PS Good Luck
H/D

[marshall623]

I used to not take it , But after a couple of years of weed eating it around the woods / yard junction it will light me up in a hurry. The Round up made for PI will kill it , but dead it will still eat you up. My daughter was shooting my cross bow and missed the target the bolt went into dead PI jungle . I went in with shorts & tee shirt after it- 3 days later the doctor wrote me a prescip. to get rid of it.

[BrassFinger]

Oh boy, do I have some poison ivy stories.... The first really good one was when I was around 9 or 10. I was at the annual company picnic of my father's company and standing next to a tree during the raffle. Not thinking, I was pulling leaves off the trunk and peeling them into little shreds. The next morning I woke up with my face looking like a pumpkin and both eyes swelled shut. I think the doctor about shat himself, said he'd never seen anything like it before. Lots of Benadryl for that one....

Second good one was 9th grade band camp. The freshman had to do a scavenger hunt. One of the items on the list was a weed. Well, running around the woods of Lehigh, PA in the dark, in shorts, in the summer, looking for a weed...you can guess the rest. I ended up with both arms and legs pretty much completely covered with a giant, oozing mess. I get it so bad that it doesn't even itch. It just oozes for WEEKS! I think it was 4 to 6 weeks before it finally all went away.

Just the other day I got a tiny touch of it while fishing. I don't know if I just got lucky with minimal exposure or if maybe I'm developing some immunity to it. Nevertheless, I really need to pay more attention to the stuff otherwise one day I'll get into it without realizing it and be in a big world of hurt. It is definitely not fun.

-Chris

[oldred]

Well I feel MUCH better today, I guess those steroid shots are working.

I learned quite a bit from talking to the doc, the most common approach to treating poison ivy has always been to treat it as an allergic reaction but he told me that's of little help, Benadryl is no help and while the Calimine/Benadryl lotion (CalaDril) works somewhat it's because of the soothing effect of the Calimine. Turns out that Anti-Allergy medications are useless against this evil weed because the rash is actually the body's reaction to just the OPPOSITE of an allergic reaction. While I don't claim to understand exactly all the medical terms he used it kind of boils down to the rash is not caused by an allergic reaction but rather the body's immune system over-reacting to what would otherwise be an irritant. So what I have done in the past like swallowing Benadryl to the point of intoxication almost and applying anti-allergy preparations was all for naught with the exception of the anti-itch cremes which do help the symptoms but do nothing for the rash. The steroids (which work both ways in this case) and applying an antibiotic to prevent secondary infection along with an anti-itch to help keep the scratching down and this round of Ivy poisoning has gone away MUCH quicker than it has in the past!

[firefly1957]

I have found that roundup is not real effective on poison ivy even with multiple application it may survive. I am not sure what a farmer gave me to fight o couple acres once but it worked very well, he told me i could never tell where it came from either.

[oldred]

I have found that roundup is not real effective on poison ivy even with multiple application it may survive. .



I noticed this also but I found a perfect solution, I just brush it on full strength (41% concentration) instead of mixing and spraying. I learned a trick a long time ago to just mix the solution a bit on the strong side and then instead of spraying I use a large paint brush to just wipe it on weeds/grass around our flowers and other plants, 100% perfect control and no danger of damaging or killing desirable plants!

On the evil ivy I just use the straight 41% Roundup then I stand back and laugh as the diabolical devil withers and dies!:twisted:

[Pb2au]

Glad to hear you are on the mend olred!
One of my co-workers is currently covered in poison ivy. He is one of those that CANNOT leave it alone and spends all day scratching it. So now both of his hands are coated and now are sporting an infection.....

[Just Duke]

Goats eat Poison Oak and Poison Ivy with no affect to them.

[firefly1957]

Old red i currently am having good luck with 2,4D herbicide add soap as a wetting agents and it works great i got it because roundup barely works on thistle this stuff does last year i hit a small clump of poison ivy with it and is is gone. I have used roundup full strength when cutting down box elder trees i put it in a old PVC solvent/cleaner can and use the swab to put it on the freshly cut sapwood it seems to kill the roots and stop new shoots from growing.

[MaryB]

Have t remember that firefly I have a boxelder I cut down 15 years ago that has turned int oa 20 foot tall bush. Tired of having to constantly trim it so it is getting the chainsaw soon as my wrist is fixed.

[Bad Water Bill]

For more years than I can remember "Bitter sweet nightshade " leaves crushed and covered with fresh cream and stirred with a silver spoon would jell (curdle) over night.

Cover the effected area with the jell and everything would be OK.

Poison ivy does not affect me so I have never had to try it but have read about it in many outdoor type magazines.

[dagger dog]

Being a kid, we used to pull the leaves off a stem then write your initials on your forearm, next day blisters forming the letters, a couple days after that the blisters are gone and the new white skin contrasts with your summer vacation tan leaving your initials.

Dumb huh ?

[doc1876]

I am making this in color so you can find it again if you wish. I am not allergic to it, but most people I know are. The recipe that they use is Jewell weed, it is found but creeks or springs, and it has a flower on it that is like a cornucopia in red or yellow or orange. the plant is green and knobby kind of like a cane pole. This time of years it should have blooms on it. DO NOT PULL OUT THE ROOTS, JUST CUT IT, because of the pollution of water this is becoming endangered and if you pull the roots, it will not re grow. Use it just as it is, or crush up the leaves and cook it down like spinach, kind of a brown juice, then store it in the fridge freeze or put in a icecube tray for later usage. DO NOT DRINK THIS.
If you go on line to the Mo. Conservation and pull pics of a wild forgetmenot this will give you a good idea of what it looks like.
They boil it and make a juice out of it, then store it in the fridge. when affected, they coat the area, and with in hours it is usually gone.
There is another remedy that some of them have used, for making them immune, and they swear by it. if you gather burdock root, fill a quart jar wigh it, and then top with water. After 4 days, drink the juice, refill with water, and re drink each day for 7 days. those that have done this say that they have never gotten poison ivy again!!

I would have posted this earlier, but I got locked out by my work people