19 Comments

The urushiol oil chemically bonds to the skin so it is not removed by soap. However, detergents will break the bonding and remove the oil. If you suspect that you have been exposed, use dish washing detergent to bath or shower.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks! I've heard Dawn detergent works really well. What about Clorox wipes? Will it work to carry those and wipe down with them after a hike or a ride?

Expand full comment

In my whole 40 years on this planet i have never got a rash from poison ivy. With that said my kids but one and my brother are highly allergic to it. Like have to go to er sensitive. I have rolled in and walked in it barefoot and so on and nadda. Hopefully i never get sensitive to it. I imagine i would have limits somewhere but i dont eat it or burn it so we wont find out there. Its always been kinda weird.

Expand full comment
author

I was hiking yesterday, passing long, hairy ropes of poison ivy in the forest, and thinking of stories I've heard of folks who aren't allergic tearing down vines like that at their house -- and then suddenly developing their first, horrible case of it. Here's hoping you never develop a sensitivity!

Expand full comment

Gasoline and turpentine will wash away the poison ivy oil. Yes they are toxic but it takes a lot of misery away.

Expand full comment
author

Does it wash away the oil before the rash starts or does it help with easing the effects of the rash? Either way, I suppose the unpleasant smell is worth putting up with.

Expand full comment

Sorry for delayed answer. Not tech savvy. If you wash right away with gasoline, it will be as if you never had it. Also works after rash breaks out. Just a little more toxic. If you still feel itching, you missed a spot. Do it again.

Expand full comment

Fortunately, New Zealand is free of poison ivy, although there are a couple of related species grown in gardens that can sometimes affect people. We also have the weirdest poison honey problem, which results from scale insects feeding on the deadly poisonous native tutu plant and then excreting honeydew which contains the tutu toxin, then bees forage the honeydew and make toxic honey.

Expand full comment
author

I want to learn more about bees and honey - and honeydew, which I'm not even sure what that is! I also heard that one bee in its lifetime only produces a thimbleful of honey and I wonder if that's true. At least you don't have poison ivy...

Expand full comment

Honeydew is important in New Zealand forests. I wonder if you have it in the USA? https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1436-honeydew-ecosystem

Expand full comment
author

Really cool article - thanks for sharing! I'd never heard of it, and according to this Wikipedia entry, it looks like it occurs mostly in Europe and New Zealand, even in the Himalayas, but not in the Americas. All we have is the honeydew melon, which isn't the same at all...

Expand full comment

I to have said for years I can just look at it…. A forester I met told me about oral ivy (I found it on Amazon) and he says since he started taking it (a few drops on the tongue everyday) he hasn’t gotten it again. I’ve been trying to take it everyday and when I do get exposed it seems to be a much milder case.

Expand full comment
author

Good to know! I got exposed on a bike ride Monday when I bashed my shin (it started bleeding) then had to hike the bike through waist-high poison ivy. I washed off in the creek about 30 min afterwards but thought for sure I'd get it since I had an open wound. I started taking the pills I linked in the article, and so far so good! It's been 5 days and no PI! I'll take a look at that oral ivy. At least it's not eating a leaf.

Expand full comment

I think I’ll order the pills😀

Expand full comment

Heather, I've really enjoyed your newsletter. This one about poison ivy particularly resonated with me. Gerald (and our daughter Sarah) experience serious breakouts from poison ivy. I, on the other hand, have never reacted to it. Sarah has huge blackberry bushes with lots of ivy growing in it. I can dig deep into the shrubs to get the berries, enveloped by shrub, and not react. Now I know it could happen.

Expand full comment
author

Well, I hope for your sake and for the sake of blackberry pie-eating that you DON'T develop the reaction anytime soon!

Expand full comment

I disagree with scratching it doesn’t spread it. My belief is that the oil gets on your fingers and when you touch another spot on your body poison ivy will show up in that spot. I have learned that you must cover up your poison ivy at night. Wear long sleeve’s and long pants. Wrap your hands if you have it on the back of your hands at night. When you sleep you touch different parts of your body and poison ivy can show up on your legs your tummy. Showering in the AM helps.

Expand full comment
author

My understanding is that's correct if you haven't washed the original oil off well enough. But the pus inside the blisters that form on your skin are just bodily fluid forming from within your body as part of the allergic response. If you scratch those, that pus won't spread the rash. However, if you still have a spot of the plant oil on your skin, or if you touched your old shoes and got a new batch of oil on you, it will spread. Either way, it's no fun! I've gotten the rash twice this summer already!

Expand full comment