Poison Ivy...

I think zanfel is another one that's only if you catch it right away. Also like $40 a bottle. Some say you can use it as a preventative too. Now that i know i'm allergic to it might not be a bad idea if I know i'm going to be out in the woods ( which I am a lot ).

Went to the walk-in and got some prescription steroid cream and a blister pack of prednisone, hoping it kicks in soon. Even the firefly guitar non-event is barely enough to keep my attention off the itch.

 

What part of the Delta are you from?
My family's from Greenville and Leland.

 

I was born in Greenville. Grew up in the tiny town of Scott, the HQ for Delta and Pine Land Co.
My father's family was from Leland. Gilbert on one side, and McCaskill on the other. On the other side I come from Nunnery's and Mosley's. I am a third generation cotton breeder. Commercial cotton breeding was born in Scott in 1915.

Surely we know many mutual people. Pleased to meet you.

 

Dude - sorry to hear. I am not going to be much help, as I am almost insensitive to its effect. My skin will turn red for a 1/2 day and that is it.

But everything everyone else said is good. Don't let it go too long if you think it is getting worse. My wife had it in her circulatory system, because of me. I was working behind a shed in shorts and wallowing in it. it transferred from my skin to hers and the next thing, she was on steroids and antibiotics for a few months.

 

I'm the first in my family to be born in GA.
Mom and dad moved here about a year after my brother was born, for my dad's new job.

Also, PM sent.

 

Follow up - the prednisone and creme seems to be kicking it down a notch but still got a pretty nasty rash on my left leg. On the bright side I did at least figure out where it came from. Last tuesday we were holding a scout meeting at a community garden doing some service work. I wasn't actually in the garden but was sitting in the grass alongside the perimeter with one of our scouts doing a conference. It was a mowed area so I didn't think much about it but took a drive today just because I was curious and the entire fenceline where I was sitting was filled with it. My guess is they probably mowed it recently back then too so the whole area was probably coated in the plant oil. I was sitting cross-legged on the ground with shorts on for probably about 10 minutes right in it.... Pictures ( of the plant ) or it didn't happen. I am nearly positive this is it as the younger growth was reddish and the telltale 3 leaves with the short stem on the middle one and woody stem. Threw out my shoes I was wearing that day and hosing out the truck mats too.

 

This is a tricky one, as the leaves (not the count) could pass as Virginia Creeper, an innocent plant.

I have plenty of both, but my poison ivy leaves do not have dentils like yours, just smooth edges.

If it was mowed, you may have been exposed to the stems (and roots?), a lot more virulent than the leaves (says the guy who once pulled whole roots with bare hands)

Stay well, take it easy.

 

I watched a ton of vids on identification and the shape of the leaves can vary quite widely - smooth or jagged. The virginia creper usually has 4-5 leaves too and not the hairy stems like this...but it's hard to tell. I'm guessing this is where it came from though as I was sitting smack dab in the middle of it and there was no other contact with plants that I can think of over the past 2 weeks.

 

"Leaves of three - leave it be!"

A sign of poison ivy or oak is when the three leaves stem our of the same intersection of the plant. Sumac does not follow that pattern.

 

Poison ivy or Virginia creeper? If in doubt, spray the surrounding area with roundup and then cover it with 6” of concrete.

 

Well.....I'm a bit of a caveman.....but.....I've always scratched the shit out of it, and then rubbed it with bleach. Not for the faint of heart, but it has always killed it in it's tracks for me. We have it every where here.

 

hmm.. I don't think I have sumac, I should check what it looks like.

My poison ivy has grown and spread, as, somehow, I skipped y usual consumer-RundUp spraying every other year, and I am going to pay for that.
The regular ivy is a pain as well. Useless pest. I can't believe it when I see people buying some at the nursery, and feel like stepping in and stop doom on its tracks!

 

I like any treatment that involves bleach.

 

i had the opposite experience, when i was young i was hyper-sensitive to poison ivy. i noticed in the past year or so that i hadn't gotten it in a long time and realized i was probably no longer sensitive to it (which i've pretty much validated since, we have a lot of it in the (wooded) back yard so if you aren't very careful to avoid it you'll definitely exposed). not a problem anymore. weird.

 

I wouldn't fire up the poison ivy bong just yet....just to be on safe side

 

Man, I was always lucky. I could touch it, pull it out by the roots, nothing. My cousin could look at it and break out all over. He used to be pink in the summers from all of the calamine lotion.

 

My son thought the same thing even after we told him he really is allergic to it. So what does the dumb ass do? Yup rubbed a huge spot on his arm. It was the nastiest case of poison ivy I've seen. Boy did I bust his balls.

I usually ride out the 14 days.. if I do happen to scratch it.. I usually take a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and dab the spot. If you didn't know this, the oils can remain up to 5 years on dead plants.

 

I always thought I was immune to it as well, I'm in the woods all the time and while I've never intentionally touched it I"m sure I've at least brushed against it many times.

The doctor I talked with said it's pretty common for the allergy to develop later in life, or after a large exposure incident. I'm betting that's what happened to me as I was literally sitting in an area filled with it unknowingly, and possibly not long after some mowing so the oil was proably all over the ground.

And yes, duly noted on the length of time the oil can remain. I've cleaned and disinfected/wiped down the surface of pretty much everything I have touched over the past weeks, threw away my shoes that I was wearing and have scrubbed my body with Tecnu about 5 times.

 

It is one nasty weed. I don't tempt the fates with it and avoid it at all costs.

 

You sound like my high school health ed teacher...