Dascro, I never got the stuff until I was about age 30. Never bothered me even when I worked in the woods and used to go right through it and cut vines etc. But when I decided to burn some, I got it and got it bad. So bad I went to doctor and took one son with me. Doctor told me we were really lucky we didn't get it into our lungs and had we done that we'd either be dead or in the hospital near dead. That, needless to say, was the last time I burned any in a brush pile. I have from time to time put just a little vine (16" long) into the stove that was on the wood and we're okay. Fortunately with wind direction, that smoke would have to go 1/2 mile or so before any homes so it would be disappated by the time it got there.
I'm a bit confused here.. (not the first time, don't worry it won't be the last either) I have only seen poison ivy as small ground loving vines. But poison oak as large tree climbing vines like in the OPs pic. As I understood it the leaves were a bit different. I do know, that I am not particularly allergic to what I have always called poison ivy. But poison oak on the other hand, hit me inside and out, skin, lungs, nasal passages, in the worst way a few years ago. (ok maybe not the worst way, but it was pretty horrible and came on extremely quick, maybe an hour after contact) and if you google "poison ivy large vine" and "poison oak large vine" you get pretty much the same pictures. So, are they the same thing? One is just a larger version? What is the deal? Inquiring minds would like to know.
I used to get ivy bad as a kid. As I got older it affected me less and less. Then a few years back I ate several poison ivy berries on a dare (there may or may not have been alcohol in my system). Honestly I don't think I've gotten it at all since then! I tell my friends to eat a few berries now and then to keep their tolerance up now! (They know I'm not serious!)
There's no poison oak here. That is poison ivy. Here's the center for disease control's website where I took that screen grab fromhttp://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/plants/
As the planet warms up, all bets are off. As an example, kudzu vines are moving farther north than they use to grow.
I hear you on that point, but we don't have PO here. Not in the southeast part of the state where my house is, and not anywhere in the north either.
Pioson - oak, sumac, ivy, wild radish, and a couple others around these parts ( got the t-shirts)- all will make life miserable for a few weeks ( Horkin I have run into all of it). Plus the bugs. Only one nasty snake in most of the state ( timber rattler) but heard of some corals being found now and again in the extreme Southeast- course then some real bright person in the DNR decided to see if some other poisonous snake would survive here- so they set out a population- supposedly they collected them all back up. We will never know the truth about that for many years. And if you are really sensitive to PI stay away from Ginko trees same oil just not as virulent.
There is something poisonous in the mountains of Colorado, I was taught poison oak. Colorado is not on either map though....
Dear father went fly fishing in the Colorado mountains when I was a kid, he had no idea he had it until he got home and showered. Washing up he proceeded to spread it to his armpits, chest, and neck in the shower. That was a bummer. Next time he went, same thing. He finally figured out it was on his fishing vest
Poison Ivy grows almost everywhere in the US. Poison Ivy can grow as a groundcover, as a climbing vine with large branches, or as something that is almost a shrub. It is all the same plant, and it is all equally capable of causing reactions. Poison Oak grows along the west coast and in the southeast. The leaves of Poison Oak have some lobes making them sort of similar to oak, but they are still three-part leaves and closer to Poison Ivy in appearance than they are to a real oak. I my opinion they resemble Box Elder leaves. Some Poison Oak looks very similar to Poison Ivy, and vise versa. I have gotten bad Poison Ivy rashes from being in the area when somebody hit a patch with a lawn mower. I use Roundup to kill it, since I don't have to touch it is disturb it in order to apply roundup.
I mentioned earlier in this thread that I haven't caught poison ivy in about 3 years. Then just this past weekend I was cutting up some ash that had big hairy vines on it like in the OP, and I specifically remember the vine chips being thrown right inside my inner elbow (it was t-shirt weather) and thinking "what if I caught poison ivy in January!". Well, it showed up in that exact spot the next day, and spread to both forearms. Luckily there's only a few short streaks of the rash on me, and it's already going away. My brother on the other hand gets it way worse, and he was helping me cut wood that day. He called me yesterday to tell me he had to take off work and go to urgent care and get a steroid shot. He's covered head to toe in poison ivy rashes right now!
