Wish me luck...Poison Ivy VS Man

[brewmaster15]

Thank you Hurricane Irene for giving me the opportunity to prove my superiority over one of the plant kingdom's strongest most advanced warrior..Poison Ivy....The scourge of many a weekend warrior or skilled Gardner...Millions of years of evolution creating what can only be natures most feared and respected plant. Armed with seeds dispersed by hundreds of species of birds, Leaves resistent to chemical poisons, the ability to cling to and climb most surfaces by highly developed adventious roots, and lastly the crowning acheivement in the plant kingdom as far as defenses do...a water soluable oil called Urushiol. One can only marvel at this oil..It lasts forever, gets on everything and stays...The oil is in the leaves, the sap etc. Herbarium specimens that are hundreds of years old still have active oil.:mad:

So here we go today I go to battle...the Hurricane knocked down a large cherry tree in two piece, one on my side of the yard the other into my neighbors and its my tree.... no problem there...have chainsaw will travel...unfortunatelY theres massive 6 inch thick poison Ivy vines growing on it, literally covering it.I have been dreading dealing with this tree for years.

Going into battle I will be armed with a full body tyvek suit,face shield, old clothes and shoes to throw away, coated gloves, face mask, old hat to discard...and the pièce de ré·sis·tance...Poison Ivy Guard, which I really hope works as I am very allergic.

I am sure to be quite a sight, a literal white knight in my tyvek suit, helmet made of plastic, thick gauntlet covered hands, and the weapon of the day, the chain saw.

Wish me luck as I go into battle.

Sir Brewmaster the foolish.

[TURQ64]

Back in the old sixties, my brother-in-law heard of an 'old Indian trick' of consuming poison ivy to build resistance to it..He put a fistful in between two slices of bread, balled it up, and swallowed it..I figured he was a goner, and rightfully so, but he's still alive today, and never an outbreak..Did it work??..Got me..good luck, Al...

[pcsb23]

good luck Sir foolish ;)

[yim11]

pics or it didn't happen! LOL

Good luck Al!

[Disgirl]

Good luck Al! If you should end up burning any of the nasty stuff, I'm sure you know not to breathe in any of the smoke! Who needs poison ivy in their lungs? That's what happens from the smoke. Any pics of you suited up?
Barb

[roclement]

Best of luck! I heard tomato juice is great for poison ivy! Be safe.

Rodrigo

[stephcps]

pics or it didn't happen! LOL

Good luck Al!

Exactly what I was thinking!! I especially want to see the tyvek suit and the helmet!! At least you thought it all out! I once went out to spray my new wooden fence with an oil based stain. Had a respirator mask which made me feel like a giant grasshopper. Covered all my exposed skin...spent all day spraying as there was a lot of fence. Came inside to discover I had forgotten to put my hat on!! It took me weeks to get oil=based stain out of my hair!!

[TURQ64]

Best of luck! I heard tomato juice is great for poison ivy! Be safe.

Rodrigo
It;s codiene..you take the codiene,pass out, and come to when it doesn't itch anymore......

[zimmjeff]

make sure to have some benadryl on hand for after the battle good luck. I am dealing with a case of the shingles right now so I know your pain.

[AKRON AWOL]

had pretty bad experiences as a kid with poison ivy...best of luck to you Al!

[foreese]

AL - I am sure you're well versed on how one gets PI. IT is the oil and it penetrates the skin causing the classic itchy, fluidy reaction.

The trick as I am also very allergic, is to wash with zanfel after you think you may have been exposed. see this site. http://www.zanfel.com/help/

It work everytime for me.

[roclement]

This place amazes me every time! Everyone is always ready to help with advice! Awesome! :)

Rodrigo

[brewmaster15]

Well my lords and ladies, it was a fierce battle, one compounded by an inferior weapon (buyers remorse, hated that chainsaw model from day1--never another Poulon.) The battle raged on all afternoon and I put my heart into...but being but only one lone knight I was vastly out numbered. The Battle for the day was my neighbors yard....and I was victorious...I slew that beast entirely and chopped it up so it could never return. I won the battle but the war is far from over....I need to find myself a new weapon and then take on the two headed beast thats still alive...this being the tree and IVY on the ground in my yard, and its sibling, a 60 ft tree still towering over the battle field.

I am but a humble man and am loath to show myself in full battle armer, least it put fear into your hearts and nightmares into your dreams, but I shall do so this one time. Be warned , Tis a terribly fierce sight!

68599

68600

68601

[brewmaster15]

Now that the battle is done for the day, I've had myself a prolonged bath and am enjoying a pint of Mead ...its how all knights end their days of battle don't Ye know?

-al

[AKRON AWOL]

it's texas chainsaw massacre....poison ivy style

[Keith Perkins]

Sir Brewmaster the foolish - I'm just hoping you don't ascend to the throne and become King Itchalot. Sounds good for you so far at least.

[LizStreithorst]

I'll never buy another Poulan either. Do yourself a favor and buy a Stihl. Mine has yet to fail me.

I was TERRIBLY allergic when I was a kid until I decided to eat it so I wouldn't have to go to school. (I wasn't fond of school. The dentist was better). It DID NOT WORK. It was either that or I out grew the terrible allergy. Yeah, if I mow it wearing shorts and it splatters all over my legs I get it. I scratch a some, but it heals soon enough. No biggie. Nothing like it once was. I'd have done it for you had I been there. But I wouln't have dressed in a costume, as you did.

Be aware that it will sprout from the roots. It is a very hardy vine. Make sure that you have some RoundUp on hand when it sprouts back out. Watch for it in the Spring!

I just let mine grow. I leave it alone and it leaves me alone. It's a pretty vine.

[TURQ64]

You guys are saw sissies!..I have three Poulan's, one's still going from their second year in business, and 2 Stihls, one Husky..All but the Husky run about the same when we have time, we do at least a dozen full cords of ash or oak, and they've all performed superbly, no parts yet other than five miles of chains....JMO..Gary

[Darrell Ward]

Out here in the woods, we have both poison ivy,and poison oak in abundance. I have found that Roundup Poison Ivy and Brush Killer in the concentrate, is highly effective getting rid of it, and practically any other kind of vegetation as well. It doesn't grow back either. I use it all around the property both at home, and at the old family farm. Good stuff!

[LizStreithorst]

You guys are saw sissies!..I have three Poulan's, one's still going from their second year in business, and 2 Stihls, one Husky..All but the Husky run about the same when we have time, we do at least a dozen full cords of ash or oak, and they've all performed superbly, no parts yet other than five miles of chains....JMO..Gary

How dare you call me a sissy;) Besides, with all those chain saws you must always have ONE that will crank. I imagine you know how to work on 2 strokes. 2 Stokes are over my head. Stihl for me. Other than my Dr. Trimmer (4 stroke), my Stihl is my best friend. I take care of my best friends and they are always there for me when I need them.

[Disgirl]

Hey Al, what are you going to do with all the cut up PI? Even dried it is still dangerous.
Barb

[Darrell Ward]

My dad use to call cheap lawn mowers, trimmers, chain saws etc. "disposable products", meaning you use them til they quit running, then throw them away and buy new ones, as they are really not cost effective to fix. I still have a Poulan saw around somewhere. When new it worked flawlessly, but about a few months of hard use, it didn't want to start anymore. I've got an old Echo that's about 20 years old, has taken an unbelievable amount of abuse over the years, and still runs like a champ. You get what you pay for I guess.

[Second Hand Pat]

Al, remember that mead is not the knights only reward ;)

[brewmaster15]

You guys are saw sissies!..I have three Poulan's, one's still going from their second year in business, and 2 Stihls, one Husky..All but the Husky run about the same when we have time, we do at least a dozen full cords of ash or oak, and they've all performed superbly, no parts yet other than five miles of chains....JMO..Gary

Gary,Glad you like yours, mines good for a door stop. It came with a new fangled "easy chain Tensioner" which loosens up while using just as easily as it tightens!


Hey Al, what are you going to do with all the cut up PI? Even dried it is still dangerous.
Barb

Barb, thats stuff stays forever active. I burn wood for my home heating but this stuff got dragged to the woods where mother nature can recycle it..Its a shame as its a really solid cherry tree...but you can't free it from that junk growing on it. I've known several here that have gotten itin their lungs and throat from the smoke...nasty and requires some serious prednisone.

I'm super allergic, swell up like a balloon and need prednisone when I get it like that. I slathered on a poison Ivy shield product before gearing up and went and washed up with technu...at this point I've doen all I can..we'll see if I get in the next 2-3 days. The photos don't do the tree justice...I can't begin to tell you how much poison IVY was on that tree. the vines are thicker than my legs ! This was not your garden variety of Poison IVY....we are talking Mega-plant....reminded me of "Day of the trefids" for those that know that flick.

-al

[strawberryblonde]

Let me know if you need some help with the half in your yard, k? When I was a wee lass (18 months old) my Mom tossed me into a playpen for the afternoon while the adults and older kids enjoyed an old fashioned Electrical Union Steak Bake (for the uninitiated that's all the brats n beer you can eat all day with huge plates of raw clams and oysters, followed by a dinner of grilled T Bones, steamed clams, corn on the cob and all the fixins...washed down with yet more beer).

According to the witnesses of my poison ivy escapade, I'd been sitting in the playpen, eating handfuls of the stuff and playing with it for well over an hour before anyone noticed I was covered in green slimy bits. They washed me off and waited for the symptoms before they rushed me to the hospital (I blame the beer for their lackadaisical attitudes towards my plight!). The symptoms never came. To this day I can roll in the stuff and it has no effect on me.

So yep, let me know if you need some help and I'll mosey on over. I'll need some beer, oysters on the half shell, a thick Tbone and a bratwurst or two to see me through the ordeal however. Don't bother with the playpen though. =)

[LizStreithorst]

Shame. Cherry burns so wonderfully and is such a delight to split. I burned wood for my heat for years before I became civilized. I know.

[Sean Buehrle]

Let me know if you need some help with the half in your yard, k? When I was a wee lass (18 months old) my Mom tossed me into a playpen for the afternoon while the adults and older kids enjoyed an old fashioned Electrical Union Steak Bake (for the uninitiated that's all the brats n beer you can eat all day with huge plates of raw clams and oysters, followed by a dinner of grilled T Bones, steamed clams, corn on the cob and all the fixins...washed down with yet more beer).

According to the witnesses of my poison ivy escapade, I'd been sitting in the playpen, eating handfuls of the stuff and playing with it for well over an hour before anyone noticed I was covered in green slimy bits. They washed me off and waited for the symptoms before they rushed me to the hospital (I blame the beer for their lackadaisical attitudes towards my plight!). The symptoms never came. To this day I can roll in the stuff and it has no effect on me.

So yep, let me know if you need some help and I'll mosey on over. I'll need some beer, oysters on the half shell, a thick Tbone and a bratwurst or two to see me through the ordeal however. Don't bother with the playpen though. =)

Everyone is allergic to poison ivy, but

When I was a kid I went through a 2 year round of shots, don't know what they were but it did make me somewhat resistant to poison ivy.

Over a few years time I began to get it bad again, my body had lost what resistance I had to it from the shots.

Today I can get it just looking at it.

If you expose yourself to it enough, you will get it.

I would rather have a broken bone .

I've had to go to university hospitals in Iowa city to have scabs scraped off me like a burn victim to help with infection, it sucks big time.

Why the lord put that crap on this earth is beyond me.

Don't play with fire :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TURQ64]

My mother-in-law was absolutely resistant to it for fifty years. she'd clean it out from her beach, build a big fire, and just shrug it off. Then one year, it finally reacted with her, and we dang near lost the ole girl....
all my Poulan's are simple, not the newer, colorful ones..and yes, I keep all the outboards, chain saws, weed eaters, and snowblowers running up to snuff!..Gotta be pretty self reliant out here on the Northern Plains....great photo's al; looks like me doing bottom paint every year...

[strawberryblonde]

Oh my gosh Gary, I'm over the fifty year mark! =)

I don't actually roll in it, honest I don't, but I've brushed up against it plenty when I'm out on hikes and so far, knock on driftwood, I'm still immune. Which is a bit weird in and of itself since I'm allergic to nearly everything else out there in the woods. <sigh>

Mostly I just told my story to perk Al up and put a smile on his Poulan weary (yet very knightly), mead besotted face.

[Darrell Ward]

LOL! I've got to admit, and I've spent most of my life around swamps and woods, I've never seen anyone cut up a tree in a Tyvex suit! Whatever works.:)

[retiredsailor]

two tips.... be immensely careful of the sap. it is much more potent than any other part of the plant. second, if it localized to easily accessible areas on your body hot water can be a godsend. simply get the water half a degree below the point you can't stand to touch it then let it wash over the effected body part. it feels like someone is scratching the hell out of it and feels sooooooo good. the marks from it will take longer to go away but at least you have the pleasure, the extreme pleasure, of "scratching it".

[brewmaster15]

The Poison Ivy Report for today....

Well I faired pretty good so far after battle...I was unfortunately wounded and will need to prepare myself better when I go up against that knave again...

Looks like I have a 1-2 inch wide ring of it on my wrist. where the tyvek suit and glove meet. I should have had longer gloves I guess....as would have it, It knew that was a weak point and I was going to tape the sleeves over the glove,but didn't instead I relied on the poison IVY shield I slathered there before suiting up. I may also have been wounded below the chin and in the front of my neck...that place was exposed as I again relied on the poison Ivy Shield and my helmet's visor....

Considering all the PI there was there and how much sap went airborn as I cut it...at this point I think I did well....we will see.

-al

[seanyuki]

Yr jumpsuit reminds me the movie Texas Chain Massacre.....Leatherface hehehe



Well my lords and ladies, it was a fierce battle, one compounded by an inferior weapon (buyers remorse, hated that chainsaw model from day1--never another Poulon.) The battle raged on all afternoon and I put my heart into...but being but only one lone knight I was vastly out numbered. The Battle for the day was my neighbors yard....and I was victorious...I slew that beast entirely and chopped it up so it could never return. I won the battle but the war is far from over....I need to find myself a new weapon and then take on the two headed beast thats still alive...this being the tree and IVY on the ground in my yard, and its sibling, a 60 ft tree still towering over the battle field.

I am but a humble man and am loath to show myself in full battle armer, least it put fear into your hearts and nightmares into your dreams, but I shall do so this one time. Be warned , Tis a terribly fierce sight!

68599

68600

68601

[Darrell Ward]

The Poison Ivy Report for today....

Well I faired pretty good so far after battle...I was unfortunately wounded and will need to prepare myself better when I go up against that knave again...

Looks like I have a 1-2 inch wide ring of it on my wrist. where the tyvek suit and glove meet. I should have had longer gloves I guess....as would have it, It knew that was a weak point and I was going to tape the sleeves over the glove,but didn't instead I relied on the poison IVY shield I slathered there before suiting up. I may also have been wounded below the chin and in the front of my neck...that place was exposed as I again relied on the poison Ivy Shield and my helmet's visor....

Considering all the PI there was there and how much sap went airborn as I cut it...at this point I think I did well....we will see.

-al

Wow, you are super sensitive to that stuff. Now I fully understand why you were worried. Good luck with the rash.

[Second Hand Pat]

Godspeed to the good knight Sir Brewmaster Al as he rides out to slay the mighty PI beast as it dwells in its lair. May he succeed so the land is free and all may venture out onto the land in safety and freedom.

Seriously Al, be careful

Pat

[brewmaster15]

Well, The verdict is on the PI>...considering how much I cut I feel I got off lucky, but there were some areas I need to get better armer ... For one thing I used Gorilla grip gloves....I fingured the coated grips would protect my hands...I was right to a degree....what the gloves also had was a very tight fabric on the back..its flexible and stretches a little great for working...bad for PI...The Oils managed to get into the fabric as it stretched...so I have poison IVY on all the the back surfaces of my hands...mild and spotty for the most part..pretty nasty on the backs of my thumbs...makes sense if you ever used a chainsaw.

I have a bit on my face, nose, neck... heaviest at the cheeks where the mask ended....even with a face shield some got thru!

By far the worst is my wrist...right arm.It got right thru where the glove and suit met...note to oneself, tape glove to suit,:mad: Its goes clear around the wrist and really had some serious blisters which have since gone by.

Now I realize not everyone here gets Poison IVY or has had it bad,,,but heres a few photos of how bad I get it...and thats with all that armer! Can you imagine If I hadn't taken all those steps!

Ps...not for the weak of heart....

.686666866768668

-al

[Second Hand Pat]

Ouch, appears you swelled up too. Not for the faint of heart.

[Darrell Ward]

Ouch! Last time I was at the Doctor's office, I saw a ad on the wall for some high strength prescription only stuff for reactions to poisonous plants. I can't remember the name of the product, but it had pictures of all the plants harmful to the skin in North America on the poster. Might be worth checking into.

[Northwoods Discus]

Al I do everything I can DIY but maybe you should hire a tree service for the other half. We lost 6 huge oaks at our cabin to oak wilt. The trees needed to be taken down. I could not handle 100 year old plus trees over the cabin. Needed crane to do it. We had them done professionally and it killed me to sit and watch and then see them take the wood but that is how they do it. Some times you need to let go and have some one else do things that will be out of your control or cause you great pain.
Bill