Poison Ivy

[tmetal]

Here in Texas, the plant is protected as a "native plant" so even though you can remove it from you property, it has to be left alone and allowed to flourish if found growing on public property. I'm not allergic to the stuff but my wife is so I treat it like I'm allergic too; this way I don't accidentally spread it to her.

[bustr]

NorCal height of summer when everything is really dry. You don't just step off a trail to water the bushes. We have poison oak. During the spring it flourishes and sap runs, because that's our green wet time. As things dry out, it's sap turns into a dust that settles out onto the trails and everything around it. Take a trail side leak causing the dust to poofh up. Well, it's hot, your bare legs are sweaty, and the dried sap is in the dust. Many young ladies have gotton the rash in a bad place from stepping behind a bush off the trail. It grows just about everywhere out in the bush. Brush fires can be very dangerous. Supposedly the fire and forestry services have something their people take every spring.

It takes tree hugging and whizz breaks to a whole new meaning if it's the wrong tree in the wrong bushes around here in NorCal.

You can dry out the rash with warm oatmeal. It feels like your sores are being scratched they way you can't with your fingers because you would spread it and make the sores worse. Warm oatmeal sucks out the urushiol the same way it empties your pores of excess oil and dirt. I had a rash on 25% of my body once and had to lay in a bathtub of oatmeal. You just can't trust free firewood here in NorCal. 

[Zodiac]

Zanfel is amazing once the blisters have appeared. Binds with Urushiol and allows it to be washed away, as a bonus Zanfel contains granules similar to many hand cleaners (which allow you to "scratch" as you apply it   ) Had a severe reaction (most of one side of my calf looked like a leathery burn)  a few years ago and that stuff was a god send. Be aware though it is a little more pricey than your traditional poison ivy/oak/sumac treatments (between $35-$40 for a one ounce tube) but well worth it in my book.

[Vulcan]

LOL poison ivy...pfffttt...

Try Onga Onga : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_ferox

Urtica ferox, commonly known as ongaonga, is a nettle that is endemic to New Zealand. Sometimes known as the "tree nettle", ongaonga has woody stems and unusually large stinging spines, and can grow 5 metres tall. Even the lightest touch can result in a painful sting that lasts several days.

In Maori folklore, Kupe was said to have placed several obstacles to hinder pursuers whose wives he had stolen, one of which was the ongaonga.

Ongaonga is the main food plant for larvae of the New Zealand red admiral butterfly or kahukura, Vanessa gonerilla.

There has been one recorded human death from contact—a lightly clad hunter who died five hours after walking through a dense patch.[1] Acute polyneuropathy can occur due to U. ferox stings.

(have been stung once by onga onga, enough for me to be terrified of the stuff)

[Nefarious]

LOL poison ivy...pfffttt...

Try Onga Onga : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_ferox

(Image removed from quote.)

(have been stung once by onga onga, enough for me to be terrified of the stuff)

They have something similar on the east coast here in the USA called stinging nettles. It grows around streams and rivers and is super painful to touch. Thankfully nature has its own remedy called jewel weed which grows in the same spot. Crack the stalk and apply it on your nettles... poof... instantly heals it.

[Zodiac]

Yep have something like that in Texas too, known as Bull Nettle. Had a friend who grew up in Chicago visit our place out in the sticks, I directed him clear of a patch as we were walking the property telling him to keep an eye for it because it is nothing fun....he wandered into the same patch later in the day when I wasn't with him   

[Meatwad]

Speaking of poison ivy, i have now been infected by it somehow