Poison Ivy

OK, I'm new to gardening. And we recently bought our first house, which had been empty for awhile. The yards weren't maintained. We have poison ivy around the property. Last fall we sprayed what we found with Roundup. This spring, while working in the yard, I got another case of poison ivy. However, I don't think it's even popped back up yet. My husband said perhaps I got it from one of the gardening tools. Has anyone else dealt with recurring cases of poison ivy? What has worked for you? So far, Burt's Bees Poison Ivy soap and hydrocortisone has helped me...a little. Do you clean your garden tools with something to lessen the chance of contaminating yourself again? What do you use? I really want to enjoy working in my yard this year without the misery of a poison ivy rash LOL.

Thanks, Denise

the plant has a chemical that is an irritant and it also causes allergic reactions to those who are sensitive to it. put your small garden inplements in the dish washer use the regular soap and run a cycle. Then spray them all with WD 40 to keep them from rusting. Wear gloves and long sleeves best idea with you who are allergic.

We have lived with poison ivy for as long as I can remember at our cottage. We know where it lives and mostly avoid those spots. However, every 5 years or so I go around in early summer and paint or spot-spray the leaves with 2,4-D or Round-Up and usually get rid of most of it.

It's at its poisonous worst in the spring, when the oils are being produced and the plant is in full, vigorous growth. The leaves are larger in early summer and easier to paint. Use dishsoap in the herbicide to help it adhere to the leaves.

In the fall, my mother used to pull it out. The oils have mostly dissipated by then, and the roots are easy to pull. The plant spreads like strawberries, with stolons running on or just under the soil, so you can sometimes get a good few feet of it pulled up once you get started. Just make sure you are totally covered, preferably with something you can discard afterward, like plastic gloves and bags around your arms, because YES, it can stay on clothing and footwear and tools.

I don't get too much irritation from PI myself, lucky me, but I've found I can minimize the effect by taking an antihistamine. In years when I'm having a bad hay-fever season and taking one daily, I rarely get PI, and rarely get bitten by insects. They seem to stay away -- maybe it's the smell?

One year my Dad burned a large pile of brush and there was poison ivy in it. The wind caught the smoke and blew it onto him. He broke out all over and it even was in his lungs. He was hospitalized for a week, and could have died. Serious stuff!

Good luck, Denise.

Thanks, andycdn, for sharing your knowledge and experience with PI. My husband rarely is bothered by it. I, unfortunately, am extremely sensitive to it. As this is our first year living here, hopefully we'll get rid of most of it eventually. We did use roundup last summer and will have to repeat it again (and again LOL).

Denise

If you have to work around poison ivy, spraying bleach on the leaves will actualy neutralize the urishiol which causes the reaction. I always wipe down with bleach any tools that have been used on poison ivy and wash my clothes that can't take bleach with a cup of ammonia added to the detergent. The ammonia will emulsify the urishiol oil.

X

X,

That's great info to know! I didn't know about the ammonia. We've been wiping the tools off with bleach water. Unfortunately, I think we missed something last fall and I found it this spring LOL!

Denise