Leaves of Three, Let it Be—A Poison Ivy Prevention Recipe

It’s been nearly a month now since my first major expedition to the woods. I lost my first walking stick that day, but I came back with a better prize – a few morel mushrooms. I also came back with mosquito bites and ticks. Four ticks the size you normally expect and one nearly microscopic in size had hitched a ride home with me. An extra pair of eyes was all that saved me from becoming a blood meal.

My highest priority mission was to avoid a case of poison ivy; I have always been very allergic to poison ivy and that usually does not change. We spent at least three hours with the ticks and abundant poison ivy to claim our prized morels. By now I’ve already enjoyed these wild delicacies, and my careful prevention tactics made a difference once again.

Preparation, including long pants and a walking stick is the first step in poison ivy prevention. Use the walking stick to help move poison ivy in your path. The second step is discipline. Never step without looking what you are stepping into and touch just one end of the walking stick. The third step is prudence. Limit exposure time to just two or three hours before cleaning up. Immediately after potential exposure, follow a few simple cleanup steps and you still might avoid a serious rash.

Cleanup procedures can be very crucial because poison ivy oils may remain on clothing and other objects. Clean hands gently with soap and cool water before removing clothing to avoid spreading oils that might be on your hands. Wipe hands dry with something disposable like a paper towel. Remove clothing but avoid handling clothing with anything more than finger tips. Isolate clothes in a bag or wash immediately to prevent the potential re-exposure of skin to poison ivy oil on the clothing.

Continue cleanup by using a soap or hand cleaner that you know is effective on oil along with plenty of cool water. Start with areas of the skin that have the greatest potential for exposure like the lower legs and the hands and arms. Follow with a cool shower and ordinary body soap to finish cleanup. The cool water keeps the pores of the skin closed so that the oils are less likely to penetrate into the skin.

During washing, you will spread the oil around. The key is to use enough cool water that you spread the oil right off of your skin. The body’s own oils may provide some protection from poison ivy, but after thorough cleanup those will be gone too. Pay particular attention to avoiding contact with potentially contaminated clothing after your skin is thoroughly clean. Remember to also clean up other items such as shoes with disposable towels.

Prevention is the key to avoiding a poison ivy blister disaster. All of this may sound like a lot of work, but treating a bad case of poison ivy is a lot of work too. A bad blister fest can take days and even weeks to heal. It has been several years now since I have had any significant case of poison ivy and I wouldn’t trade the time I have spent with this meticulous recipe for any amount of itching oozing blisters.

After a couple of days, the only blister I had was the one I had worn into my index finger from pulling the starter rope on the water pump needed to load the field sprayer. By then I knew that I was in the clear. I enjoy sharing my poison ivy prevention recipe. I would even share my recipe for cooking morel mushrooms. I just can’t share where I find them, but you can be pretty sure that they are always within just a few feet of some poison ivy.

What you should know about poison ivy
The poison in poison ivy is the oil “urushiol” - pronounced ((y)oo ‘roo she awl). Urushiol is simply a skin irritant that causes an allergic reaction. As with any other allergen, the first exposure doesn’t usually cause a reaction, but, instead, sensitizes you to the oil. It will usually be the next exposure that results in the awful rash that so many of us get.

You don’t build up immunity to urushiol or poison ivy. In fact, repeated exposure often just makes subsequent exposures that much more painful. Some adults who never had poison ivy as a kid may find that they become allergic to it later in life, and others who used to get terrible rashes as children may find that they seem to be less sensitive as adults. Not all of these things are well understood, so don’t allow yourself to be overconfident about your apparent immunity.

Although there are a few treatments that work to help stop the itching and dry up the poison ivy rash, your best line of defense against poison ivy is prevention. That doesn’t mean you have to stay inside, and it doesn’t even mean that you have to avoid walking through an area where you know poison ivy grows. But, it does mean learning how to identify poison ivy in its various forms and becoming familiar with a few simple tips that should prevent 90 to 95 percent of the painful results of a little bit of exposure. Poison ivy prevention is 95 percent mental. If you are a chronic sufferer of poison ivy, it’s good to learn to prepare a mental image of how the oil reaches your skin and then to develop a set of habits to get rid of it before it “gets” you.

The oil is essentially invisible in the sense that it takes so little of it to cause a rash. You can also get a poison ivy rash from plants that are either dead or alive. So, yes, it is possible to get poison ivy in the winter, and destroying poison ivy by burning is very risky because the oil can become airborne. Also, remember that a pet can bring the oil into the house after a walk in the woods and that the oil can remain viable on clothes for as long as a year or more under the right conditions.

Identification
There are lots of Websites available with pictures of poison ivy, but here are the basics. Poison ivy always has three leaves and they’re often not symmetrical. In much of Missouri, the leaves often take on a mitten shape, especially in mature plants. Early in the spring and late in the fall, the leaves can also have a beautiful red appearance as well. New leaves are often very glossy.

There are many other plants that seem to fit these criteria, but there are also a few distinct differences. If you see three leaves, look further down the stem. If you also see pairs of leaves below the top three, it’s not poison ivy. If the three leaves have nice, even or regular serrations, this is probably not poison ivy either. Very symmetrical plants with several stems in a symmetrical arrangement are probably young trees. Poison ivy is an unruly plant that can take the form of a small plant, a vine, a bush or even a small tree. It’s very hard to enumerate every possible condition, so it’s a good idea to find a pictorial guide.

Avoidance tips

• Dress in long pants to minimize skin exposure, and avoid touching your legs below the knees with your hands or arms. For example, tie shoes well so that you don’t need to retie them during a hike.
• Carry a stick to help you move vegetation as you walk. Touch only one end of the stick! Do not touch your face.
• Create a mental picture of your exposure. For example, visualize that your pants and shoes may be covered with oil-especially below the knees-and avoid skin exposure to those areas.
• Keep potential exposure down to about an hour and plan to wash well as soon as possible.

• Avoid any action that might spread the oil inside the house. For example, you might even open doors with a paper towel if you suspect you have the oil on your hands.
• Immediately remove clothing and place in a plastic bag or directly in the washing machine. Alert others to the potential hazard from these clothes.
• Start by washing hands and other exposed areas with lots of water. Use cool water. Warm water can open pores and allow even better penetration by the oil. The oil can also penetrate clothing, so consider the same cleanup routine for your legs, especially below the knees.
• The key is to dilute the oil with plenty of cool water. A washcloth may only spread the oil. Dish soap and even rubbing alcohol can help break down the oil, but these agents will also remove important oils from your skin. If you plan to go right back out again within an hour or so, removing these oils can remove some of your natural protection.

Bill Casady
CasadyW@missouri.edu