quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
A couple things (this turned out to be kind of a brain dump, sorry!):

If you haven't been exposed to poison ivy before, it usually takes a few times before you start reacting to it. There wasn't any poison ivy where I grew up, so I wasn't exposed until in my 30s. The first couple times I realized I was standing in it, I freaked out, but when I didn't react, I got complacent figuring I was one of those people that aren't bothered by it. That tured out to be a bad assumption -- several years in, after several more non-reactive exposures, I ended up with a rash on my legs so bad I needed steroids to heal it and had to stand on a towel everywhere I went for 2 weeks because it was weeping so bad I was making puddles on the floor. So so so gross. (So first lesson - if you or Mr. SK have never been exposed before, you probably have a little leeway before you start reacting so no need to panic at the first touch!)

Now I am much more paranoid (obviously). That said, I have gone with the round up route (yes it might kill the grass but it will grow back) and have also pulled out small plants like the one you picture. When I pull them out, I usually use the "grocery bag dog poop technique" -- where I wear a plastic grocery bag like a glove, pull the plant, flip the whole thing inside out so the plant is in the plastic bag, seal it up, and toss. Not the most environmentally friendly way, but effective. Also, poison ivy doesn't tend to affect thicker skinned parts of your body (so you can generally touch it with your palms and you won't get it there). It's just that when the oils are on your hands and you rub your eyes or scratch somewhere else that you are setting yourself up for disaster. (The last several times I ended up with it, it's been on my face, usually where I wipe sweat, so be very careful to try not to touch your face.) That said, I wouldn't recommend just yanking it out without gloves or a bag for protection. But there have been several times when I found myself pulling weeds and came up with a handful of it that I didn't see because it was buried under other weeds. As long as you go wash it off with soap right away, you'll be fine. I read somewhere that it has to bond with your skin for like 20 minutes+ before it causes a rash.

On that note, pharmacies sell special poison ivy scrubs but they are super expensive. There's 2 different kinds - tecnu is just like an oil dissolving soap and Zanfel is like a scrub with grit (which feels awesome when you actually have poison ivy and are super itchy). That said, there's nothing magical about them that you can't get with other soaps -- Regular dawn dish soap works just as good as tecnu in my experience and I make sure I wash my hands with Dawn after coming in from weeding. If you want the gritty scrub like Zanfel, Amazon sells a scrub called Mean Green (actually, apparently, the name has changed to Full Bore - https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which is meant for cleaning the hands of people with dirty greasy jobs, but it works great for poison ivy and it's like a fraction of the price of Zanfel. (In fact, I read somewhere that the guy who invented Zanfel left and founded Mean Green using the same formula but he's not allowed to market it for poison ivy due to his noncompete, -- not sure if that is true, but it definitely feels like the same stuff.) Typically when I have been out doing yard work, I come in and shower and I will often scrub my arms, legs, and face/ears/neck with the Mean Green as a just-in-case measure. And when I do get a bit of a rash, scrubbing it with Mean Green works really well to scratch the itch and keep it from spreading.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:
You can tell him that the common name is "slow itchy death plant".

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Home Depot sells Roundup pre mixed. in gallon bottles with a battery powered sprayer. The sprayer is adjustable to a thin stream.

Wear plastic gloves and stand back. Direct the stream to the poison ivy. Easy does it - you can always apply it a second time. Overspray should be minimal.