Poison Ivy

[rwsaunders]

As if the cars, road debris, sun and the bees aren't enough; poison ivy thrives on increased levels or carbon dioxide. Maybe drinking San Pellegrino has helped my immunity…knock on wood.

https://pittsburghquarterly.com/arti...arbon-dioxide/

[bigbill]

I had it all the time as a kid, and at 12, I had it so bad that the family doctor wanted me hospitalized overnight to evaluate the spread. I'm 59 and I've been rash-free for 47 years although I spend a lot of time in the woods and bushwhacking to get to fishing spots. My wife had it two years ago and still has scars on her legs that will take a while to fade. After her ordeal, I keep alcohol wipes in the truck when we fish and wipe down extremities before I get in the truck.

[Too Tall]

Gobs of Dawn Liquid dish soap does the trick for me.

Turn your head if you are adverse to herbicide. At the VA campsite we have close to 100 acres of wooded lands. Most of the trails have filtered sunlight where there are poision ivy vines some as thick as your arm. Hack and squirt Crossbow, mixed properly, sends them to their graves. Same for the trail edges where I mix it even weaker as the stuff is effective even at low doses. I use a Gator and a powered sprayer run off the gator's battery. blah blah blah.

After several years of this I find that the grasses and ferns are bouncing back and I prolly will cease spray in most places that were a problem.

Yah yah I'll do some good deeds to make up for it.

[j44ke]

I think we just need to figure out a way to sell it to teenagers as an inebriant.

[monadnocky]

Interesting that in the article picture, most of what's shown is common raspberry (thus the little thorns you can see). Might be some PI on the bottom right, but hard to tell.
Very common mistake.
Also looks like there may be some virginia creeper in there, also commonly confused with PI.

And yes, I am that guy.

[bcm119]

As if the cars, road debris, sun and the bees aren't enough; poison ivy thrives on increased levels or carbon dioxide. Maybe drinking San Pellegrino has helped my immunity…knock on wood.

https://pittsburghquarterly.com/arti...arbon-dioxide/

Am I crazy or is the plant in the cover photo not actually poison ivy? Poison ivy doesn't have such sharp serrations and spikes on the stem, that looks more like an invasive blackberry to me.

[bcm119]

Interesting that in the article picture, most of what's shown is common raspberry (thus the little thorns you can see). Might be some PI on the bottom right, but hard to tell.
Very common mistake.
Also looks like there may be some virginia creeper in there, also commonly confused with PI.

And yes, I am that guy.

You beat me to it, I guess I'm not crazy. We have poison oak on the west coast, no poison ivy, so it's been a while.

[monadnocky]

Am I crazy or is the plant in the cover photo not actually poison ivy? Poison ivy doesn't have such sharp serrations and spikes on the stem, that looks more like an invasive blackberry to me.

You're either crazy, or a giant nerd. Like me.

[monadnocky]

As far as the substance of the article - WOW have I seen explosions of PI and grape vines in the last few years. The latter do some gruesome work on young cherry and birch trees. Just forests of nothing but grape vines clamoring for anything they can grab onto. Spectacular increase of PI as well around here.
I guess an increase of [CO2] at least partially explains increased vine growth - of any species that vines out - ?

[thollandpe]

One, this is hands down the best way to clean up after getting it on you. I got turned onto it from the grounds department at a college where I worked. https://tecnu.com/product/tecnu-orig...skin-cleanser/

Two, my town made a mistake of commissioning a study before spraying roadside poison ivy. It said exactly what the article says, including that the berries are food for birds (also see link below) and they persist late in the season and even into winter. So no spraying. In my yard, it's kept at bay by the ferns which grow higher and take up all the light, and the multiflora rose that outcompetes its rhizomes. But I've pulled most of the latter so poison ivy is on a comeback.

Three, nice job spotting the bad photo! https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-w...nts/poison-ivy

Four: I was hoping to find my favorite 71-year-old in here.

I'd post a song from The Cramps, but most of the titles are too risqué.

[72gmc]

That's the most iconic photo of her, I do believe.

I liked this tribute to her 70th: https://rockandrollglobe.com/punk/st...-ivy-turns-70/

“I’m always trying to make this less sexist than it is, but every time I do Ivy starts smackin’ me around and it hurts.”

[Tom]

There's a wide patch of trees and bushes across the back fence between us and the apartments over there. It's packed with that stupid garlic mustard, Virginia creeper and lots of well established poison ivy. The fence was put up by the apartment complex and follows the town line. When we had moved in about a week to this our first house ever and were still in that glow of newly in our forever home we came back one day to several police cars on the street in the park which I thought odd but more odd was when I turned into our street there was a police car parked on the lawn. The next town's police car. It turned out two young fellows had attempted a daring daylight burglary but failed to remember not to enter an occupied dwelling. Said occupant took phone into bathroom, locked the door and called the police. Upon hearing sirens descending from all directions they ran out the back door, through the patch of trees and scrambled over the six foot chain link fence, crossed our yard and ran straight into the teeth of the yard sale going on across the street. When the police arrived everybody just pointed and said "They're over there." I can imagine the scene in the lockup that night. Two very itchy young men and a policeman holding up a bottle of calamine lotion going "Anything you care to tell me?"

A couple of years later I got a dozen field grown five foot arbor vitae to plant back there. Being young and dumber than I am now I decided I'd plant them myself so I had the nursery just drop them off back there. I dug a dozen holes by hand chopping through many roots and wrestled the bushes into those holes scratching myself up quite a bit. That's about the only time in my life I really got it. All those scratches went crazy. I was Pink Man for about two weeks. Bottle after bottle of the stuff, me down at the CVS all pale shaky and sweaty going "Don't hold out me, man! I know you have it! Where is it? I need it! I need it!"

[rwsaunders]

My bride beat us to it as she wrote a letter to the editor this morning and pointed out that the plant photo was of a blackberry/raspberry…he’ll blame the photo on the intern. I used to get poison ivy on a regular basis as a kid when I was a caddy, along with the occasional yellow jacket stings. My Dad’s homemade remedy for me was Fell’s Naptha soap applied with a scrub brush, doused with Clorox after the scrub, and then a trip to the community pool. I can’t quite describe the feeling as it’s been a while, but it was enough to remind me to avoid the plant like the plague.

[bigbill]

I put a tube of benadryl lotion in my wife's fishing bag. It works pretty good on the itch.

[vertical_doug]

We always washed in a baking soda mix immediately after exposure. The alkaline n the soda help neutralize the acid in the ivy.

The editor should hire GPT-4o to be his assistant editor. GPT spotted the mistake.

The plant in the center of the image with serrated, compound leaves consisting of three leaflets appears to be a type of bramble, likely from the Rubus genus, which includes blackberries and raspberries. The identification can be made based on the following characteristics:

1. **Leaf Structure**: The leaves are compound with three or more leaflets, which is common among plants in the Rubus genus.
2. **Leaf Shape**: The leaflets are serrated and have a characteristic shape often seen in bramble plants.
3. **Growth Habit**: Bramble plants often grow in clusters and have a spreading habit, which is suggested by the dense foliage in the image.

However, without additional details such as flowers, fruits, or a closer look at the stems, it can be challenging to make a definitive identification. If you need a more precise identification, providing images of the stems, flowers, or any fruit present would be helpful.

[Corso]

I catch it just by thinking of it. In fact, after reading this tread I'll be itching...

Ivy Dry clear liquid helps stop the itch, Technu wash (while scrubbing with a wash cloth, the friction helps to get the toxins off the skin).

My best go to cure: the Atlantic Ocean. The salt water dries the rash out, and totally helps my "curing" time. I've even gone in the water in late fall, freezing like those "polar bear" swimmers (actually quite peaceful once you get used to it) - but it's my cure. I've filled 5 gallon buckets to bring home, in order to soak a limb.

Sounds strange, but after a lifetime of getting it- works for me.

[Too Tall]

And now for something completely different.

Jewel weed is a well known folk cure that when crushed and used as an astringent does work. This works for immediate exposure so rise with water after will help.

At some point in my life I was a camp counselor / bus driver for the 8/9 year olds who seemed to always end up in the stuff.

Once you identify jewel weed you can not unsee it. The plants will pull up roots and all easily.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/...capensis.shtml