Identifying and Treating Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac

When I recently was introduced to the agony caused by poison ivy, the reaction began as one simple bump that I initially mistook for a bug bite of some kind. Within the next 24 hours the reaction my body experienced convinced me this was obviously not a bug bite. That one little bump had multiplied and spread to several different places on my body. After quite a bit of research I changed my diagnosis from bug bite to being exposed to poison ivy, poison oak or poison sumac.

Since I have been doing quite a bit of yard work I wondered which one was present in my yard. I learned a few things about each plant and although they all come from the same plant family, toxicodendron, and their appearance can be quite varied. It didn't take me long to learn my yard is heavily infested with poison oak and just a moderate amount of poison ivy

Identification

Poison ivy can grow as a vine or a shrub, the vine is known to wrap itself around trees. Each leaf of poison ivy contains three leaflets and usually turns red in the fall (see pictures). Poison ivy leaves have smoothed or serrated edges and very obvious veins.

Poison oak grows as a shrub -- either a short one in the eastern or a taller one in the western United States. Like poison ivy and most poisonous plants, poison oak also has three leaflets on each leaf. These leaves are lobed in shape and can be from one to five inches long. The leaves of the poison oak resemble those of any oak tree.

One exception to the saying "Leaves of three, leave it be" is the poison sumac which has as many as 13 leaflets per leaf. As with most other blister and rash producing plants, sumac leaves may be dull or shiny.

Take a good look at the pictures that accompany this article and commit the appearance of poisonous plants to memory. That is the surest way to avoid an outbreak of rash, blisters and maddening itching.

Remedies

The offending chemical in these plants is urushiol, oil that can be transferred to you in countless ways. It can be on your clothes, the family pet, garden tools or a football or Frisbee that has come in contact with poison ivy, oak or sumac. Urushiol can remain active for 5 years and a billionth of a gram can cause a reaction

The first thing to do if you know you have come into contact with poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac is to thoroughly wash the infected area with warm soap and water. You also want to wash any clothes that may be contaminated. In many cases this can stop the rash from occurring.

If like me, you had no idea what you got into until you started seeing the signs and feeling the pain, there are many remedies to choose from. Some of them are home remedies and others are medically tested and proven.

I had to laugh while researching my poison ivy affliction because I came across some doozies. In one reported cure, a 15-year-old boy who had been infected by poison ivy three times wrote that a paste made from white vinegar, baking soda and salt is the way to go. He said he applies the paste with a toothbrush and then scrubs the affected area really hard until it bleeds. This treatment, according to the boy, "hurts a bit, but cleared the rash up in two days." I decided I'd take his word for it. Some other home remedies included rubbing margarita salt into the infected area, rubbing the inside of a banana peel on the rash, using an oatmeal and baking soda paste, and gauze soaked in milk and applied as a compress as methods to alleviate the symptoms associated with poisonous plants.

I spoke to the pharmacist down the street who recommended a 1% hydrocortisone cream, Benadryl or Aveeno to relieve the itching. He said they wouldn't help clear it up any faster, but would make the irritation more bearable for the two to three weeks it would take for the reaction to run its course.

What I found to work best was the baking soda and white vinegar paste the sadistic kid mentioned above. But instead of making myself bleed, I applied the paste to the infected areas three times a day and let it set until it dried. Then I rinsed it off with cool water and applied the hydrocortisone before covering with gauze. When the seeping blisters began to subside I replaced the hydrocortisone bandage with simple Calamine lotion. This treatment provided substantial relief from the incredible itching.

According to www.pdrhealth.com, if you have poison ivy, poison oak or poison sumac on your face or over a large part of your body it's probably best to see a doctor. You should also check with a medical professional if the itching is extreme or you notice an infection.

Hopefully, you'll never need to know any of this. If you do, my suggestion after my experience with poisonous plants is to hire someone like the cocky kid down the street to clear any plants out of your yard that might be poisonous.

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