Poison ivy, oak, and nasty sumac no detectorist friend

[civil_war22]

I’m just glad I’m not allergic to any of the poisonous plants. So far my three kids aren’t either.

 

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[ToddsPoint]

There are two types of poison ivy, and two types of poison oak. Eastern US has one type, Western US has another type. The western types are far worse than the eastern types. For the eastern types of oak and ivy, buy a product called Tec-Nu. It removes the oil which causes the problems. I swear by it. I've never dealt with the western oak or ivy or poison sumac. Another trick an old doctor told me about. If you're in the woods and get exposed with no soap or water, urinate on a large leaf and wipe down with that. I've never tried it, but I don't doubt the old Austrian doctor. Gary

 

[civil_war22]

There are two types of poison ivy, and two types of poison oak. Eastern US has one type, Western US has another type. The western types are far worse than the eastern types. For the eastern types of oak and ivy, buy a product called Tec-Nu. It removes the oil which causes the problems. I swear by it. I've never dealt with the western oak or ivy or poison sumac. Another trick an old doctor told me about. If you're in the woods and get exposed with no soap or water, urinate on a large leaf and wipe down with that. I've never tried it, but I don't doubt the old Austrian doctor. Gary

Most people don’t realize the many uses for urine. The ammonia in it will take the oils, and break them down from the poisonous plants. People used to debunk pissing on a jelly fish sting, but I have first person accounts (myself), of it working. I’ve been stung on two different occasions, and good ol urine works. Learned it from my uncle who’s a retired UDT(Seal)Frogman.

 

[delnorter]

Here in the northwest corner of California poison oak grows from the seashore to our highest peaks, about 6000’ ASL. In our small county alone, the vines grow 100 feet up the side of redwood trees, as ground hugging shrubs at the ocean and large and small bushes throughout the rest of the area.

As youngsters we all learned to identify and try to avoid the plant. If you did get the rash the usual remedies of the time were used. Calamine lotion, Fels-naphtha, etc.

Later I began a long career of land surveying. Amazing where a straight line takes you in the mountains. We did a lot of boundaries surveys between National Forest and private lands in Nor Cal and southern Oregon. Poison oak everywhere. Machetes and chainsaws cutting of boundary lines really exposed us to the plant. The crews had the itch more often than not.

One day while chatting with a local Native American friend the subject of poison oak came up. He said some of “his people” had a natural remedy. He told me to cut a section of bark, about the size of a stick of chewing gum from a madrone tree and chew it, swallowing the juice and spitting out the pulp after a bit. It’s pretty darn bitter.

As it was so long ago, I don’t recall how soon I got results, but ever since, I chew some each deer season and only get small spots if I first break my skin from thorns or such. For me, it has really worked.

For or the last 8 years or so I’ve worked for Caltrans (Ca. Highway maintenance crew). Keeping the highway right of way open and clear is a constant battle with the ideal natural garden here. A lot of chainsaw and weed eater work keeeping the forest back. I still chew my madrone bark but many of my coworkers, as well as the local Forest Service fire fighters, power and cable company linemen and many outdoorsmen swear by a product called Zanfel.

Mike

 

[Tuberale]

First aid for any of the above is to scrub the affected area with a freshly-cut piece of mushroom. It really doesn't matter what kind of mushroom you use, just that you use a freshly cut mushroom (or alternatively a freshly cut rehydrated mushroom). You can use either a white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), or a more expensive mushroom (Boletus edulis, Pleurotus ostreatus, or even a fresh truffle in a pinch.) This deactivates the toxin in Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba), Poison ivy (sorry, don't know the scientific name here) or Poison sumac.