I worked on a good size locust this past weekend but once I got ready to cut it up, I realized that mess that was growing all over it was a bunch of poison ivy vines. I hate to not get the wood but not sure I wanna pay that price (I get it somethin' awful). It looks good and dead but I know better. Any options?
Let it be and wait till the bark falls off. Locust isn't going to rot on you. Even dead those vines will still get you if you are sensitive to it.
Take "Tagamet" before getting near PI or poison oak, and it will help keep it at bay.... Antihistamine in the antacid apparently stops the onset reaction. Even if you come in contact with the stuff, Dawn dish detergent and cold water plus heavy scrubbing will remove the confounding PI oil.... Maybe you can wait?.....
I cut a couple of trees with poison ivy on and I get poison ivy easy. I didn't cut any of the vines with the chainsaw, cut the vines out ov the way at the bottom with a hatchet, drop the tree then pulled all the vines off before bucking it up, didn't get any poison ivy, I did the trees in the early winter
Yep. One of my closest buds gets PI just looking at it.... His doc told him of this prep.... I don't get PI too badly, but he has tried this with bettah results than not.
I get it bad but still cut stuff like that. I make sure to have long sleeves and gloves. Throw the gloves away and wash the shirt as soon as I get in then wash my arms and face with Ivarest.
I also get it in a terrible way , extremely allergic to the stuff. As a matter of fact, I have it now. I got it cutting a cherry tree. There is also a medicine that my employer gives us once a year. It's called Rhus-Tox. It's some type of herbal medicine that pharmacies can mix for you. If you take the medicine at the beginning of spring, then it will lesson the severity of it. You can also try calling your pharmacy and see if they have any. I swear by the stuff. I forgot to take it this year and now I'm paying the price. Locust Post mentioned Ivarest. That's some good stuff also. That what I'm using now. You can get that at Walmart or just about any pharmacy. Good luck, but personally I'm not gonna pass up a good tree because of poison ivy.
I went to Walmart yesterday morning to get some and they were out. So I settled for the Ivarest. I will try Zanfel the next time I get the devil weed. I've heard good things about it.
That is what I did, use latex gloves under your work gloves, handle ivy carefully. Don't touch your face or more tools than absolutetly neccessary and peel of the outage gloves, then the latex gloves. Wash your hands thoroughly after. Good Luck!
I'll look for the Zanfel and Ivarest today. And will try the Tagamet too. The little bit I got on my forearms last weekend is about to drive me nuts. Thanks guys
Just watched the video, I was expecting some kind of super duper revelation but it was just good solid advise. Clean off the poison ivy oil......I have even found that taking a small tube of waterless hand cleaner out with me to use if I don't think I will be back home to scrub up soon enough sure helps.
If there's PI on a tree that I'm cutting, I usually take the loppers and cut it all away first and do not touch the wood without gloves. I don't have a bad reaction to it, but it affects me if I get enough of it on me. I've found the best method of getting rid of it is to use bleach. I put a little bleach on a cotton ball and wipe the area that itches. The bleach works great, but gotta get it early. Another thing that works well if it's summer is to jump into a swimming pool. The chlorine neutralizes the PI.
