Feel free to laugh..poison ivy first time ever. Help!

[aluminum13]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but the active component in poison ivy is a oil. Urushiol

Think about it. How do you get oil off your skin?

Get a hand cleaner, like Goop. The stuff that smells like solvent (or the sickly sweet cheery kind). It will dissolve and wash away the oil to prevent it from getting worse. Rub it in, let it sit to dissolve, and then wash it off.

I can't find a picture but they also make this Gojo Cream in a little white plastic tub which I like, it's cheap, and you probably already have it.

I also have tried Jewelweed. Placebo effect? Maybe. But I think it helped.

 

[RobertN]

Based on my years in poison oak country...
-Keep Technu handy. We have it on the fire engines; wildland firefighting will put you in the thick of it.
- Know how to identify it
- At least for western poison oak, it is leaves of three. It likes to inter mingle in other trees and shrubs, so you have to be on the lookout.
- In the winter it is stalks; you can get it just as bad from the stalks. Again, it inter mingles with other stalks...
- Remember, even if you do not get it right away, you can get it from the oils rubbed on the dogs, cats, tractor, dirtbike, quad ect. I have got it from oils on the tractor a month after last contact. Changing oil...
- Remember your clothing if you do come in contact. The oil will be on your shirt, hat, pants, boots.....

FYI, I have done well spraying it with Roundup. A buddy of mine swears by pool chlorine...

I even ordered an ap for my phone that supposedly identifies most trees, plants and vines in the U.S. If it's anything but Kudzu (yeah, got that crap too) or Honeysuckle, I steer clear of it now!

 

[jcliburn]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but the active component in poison ivy is a oil. Urushiol

Think about it. How do you get oil off your skin?

Get a hand cleaner, like Goop. The stuff that smells like solvent (or the sickly sweet cheery kind). It will dissolve and wash away the oil to prevent it from getting worse. Rub it in, let it sit to dissolve, and then wash it off.

I can't find a picture but they also make this Gojo Cream in a little white plastic tub which I like, it's cheap, and you probably already have it.

I also have tried Jewelweed. Placebo effect? Maybe. But I think it helped.

+1. After a day in the woods, I use common mechanic's degreaser all over my arms, followed by soap and water. Poison ivy is abundant on my land, but since adopting this practice several years ago, my rash outbreaks have been minimal.

 

[JamesHW]

I was told years ago to wash skin with Fels Naptha soap after a day working in the woods, and that has worked well for me. Not gonna help you this time....but maybe next time.

Fels-Naptha

Here is another helpful product that is available in stores. I actually shower with this stuff when I've got into some poison ivy.

It helps to wear long sleeves or pants to keep the oils from getting on any of your furniture. Wash clothes right away after wearing.

My dogs would get into the stuff when I had a house in the woods, and I would get poison ivy from the dogs on occasion without even getting near the plants.

Round Up tough brush killer will kill the stuff in about 2 weeks after spraying, if you can wait a couple weeks to get into an area to work.

I have to second (third) the recs for Fels Naptha Soap which you can usually find in the grocery store laundry section. My wife gets a terrible poison ivy rash (oozing sores for a week) by simply looking at the evil weed, but since we got in the habit of keeping a bar of the FNS by the sink and washing up thoroughly with it after working outside we have reduced the incidents to almost zero. You can also put a little in with the wash to get the oils off of clothes. I never get more than a mild irritation which my wife attributes to my Native American ancestry (that and almost never getting lost ), but have to be careful not to contaminate her.