It never fails. I get Poison Ivy or Pi. I have a few spots on my leg that are questionable. I am using the Jewelweed Soap on them. Absorbine Junior helps with the itch except when you scratch them..then it burns like fire..but a good feeling fire cause it burns out the itch. Usually if I make it past the 4th of July I can avoid the really bad outbreaks. Years ago I got the Pi shots and I could escape completely. Since the idiots in the FDA took them off the market I am resigned to the fact that I will have to suffer with at least one bad outbreak..maybe two. Chance picks up Pi on his fur and shares.
We sprayed along our drive and property borders last night. In Minnesota you are SUPPOSED to keep it under control along your driveway..where someone could inadvertently touch it. Let me tell you..in Minnesota we can grow some really tall Pi. We use Round Up on it for a quick kill. I like to wait for a really warm day when the plants are working hard to photosynthesize and then hit them with Round up..the results are evident in a few days. I also like to wait for a day when I am really cranky..when killing something like Pi makes me feel better. I know I am a twisted sick old woman.
Poison Ivy is a specially regulated plant. This is what the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says about it:
Must be eradicated or controlled for public safety along rights-of-ways, trails, public accesses, business properties open to the public or on parts of lands where public access for business or commerce is granted. Must also be eradicated or controlled along property boarders when requested by adjoining landowners.
In my experience, you can dig it up..or you can kill it with Round Up. I have less chance of getting it standing back four feet with a sprayer:)
Oh how awful. I have never had it, but my son has dealt with bouts of it. Hope it goes away real soon.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager I got it really bad, and then again in my thirties. But not since then. I don't even know if we have it here in the Pacific Northwest. You ARE a cranky old woman; that's why I like you! I've got company. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's bad here this year. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteSure hope this is a mild case this time. I must be a sick twisted old woman also because I love killing weeds, mosquitoes, bugs, etc. and yes, it does make you feel good when you are doing it.
ReplyDeleteYou have my permission to annihilate all the PI that you want - go ahead and get really CRANKY. The law is behind you 100%!
ReplyDeleteIt's all out war!
ReplyDeleteAnd the lady from The North Country is fighting back.....
No kidding! I had it last year and I tried the scrub but it got on my face too so I finally had to call the doc. He gave a steroid pack and that worked great! It was like 5 07 days worth of pills. It's like an automatic thing now when you get it. My doc is an hour away so I didn't have to go in. He just called it in to the pharmacy here in town. Try it...you'll like it! Yep, Roundup! I don't like using chemicals but it's jungle out there!
ReplyDeleteI hate that stuff! We used to have it, and other plants I would react to, in SC. I'd get it every year. Worst place... between my fingers! My Doctor recommended Zanfel. It really worked!
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Thanks Dreaming I have put Zanfel on my WaLmart list! It is worth a try:)
DeleteOne year my dad pulled Pi in our yard so we wouldn't get it. He claimed he was immune to it. I have clear images of Dad coming home from work, dousing his body in Calamine and wandering around in his underwear.
ReplyDeleteIt grows like crazy everywhere all over the Southeast and the South. It loves to climb trees and old buildings and fence lines.
ReplyDeleteHow good is the state at keeping it controlled?
Don't need to answer that. Being a bit sarcastic. Oops.
I feel for you because I've been there and I don't like it one bit.
I have some Burt's Bees poison ivy soap that I use whenever I've been working outdoors whether I see the stuff or not.
Get well soon!
We have poison oak, ivy and sumac here...all ugly! ALL of them! I am very well acquainted with the calamine lotion look. It isn't pretty.
ReplyDeleteLinda
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We to have poison oak and ivy here . My foot is still swollen from being in the fields with sandles on , country thing lol and it has been 5 weeks and the doc still doesnt know what it is thats causing it to swell . I had almost like a burning cut on the front of my anckle that itched as well , stopped that and it has just scabed over now but the foot still swells from time to time . I have never had poison anything not even on the farm . Guess being older now I have had a reaction to something . I have heard antihistameans like Reactin are good to take for this . Hope yours goes away . Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteI never "caught" it, but I was sure surprised to see it climbing trees as a huge vine in SE Minnesota. Otherwise, I've only seen the low growing plants. None near my house, but some is in the neighborhood. Can you catch it from your dog's fur?
ReplyDeleteYes you can get the oil off of your dogs fur and also off of other peoples clothing or gloves..like when Far Guy weed whacks and then I put his jeans in the washer with a stick instead of my hands:)
DeleteSounds awful. I've never seen poison ivy - thank goodness!
ReplyDeleteI have never had poison ivy and I sure don't want to get it. Hey, I fall in the category of cranky old lady. LOL
ReplyDeleteI am with you on this one. I have had it and suffered miserably with it. But I don't go anywhere that I might touch it. Shame that Chance gets it on his coat. I like Roundup for controlling and killing certain weeds and plants.
ReplyDeleteI hate you suffer so bad from PI because it grows out here too like crazy. I really do need to get myself some round up.
ReplyDeleteChiggers are so bad this year that I have been told to put the absorbine jr on those.
Sorry I am behind coming by and visiting. It seems my blogging days are slower now that summer is here and I am mowing all the time.
Hope you are well and that you have a wonderful weekend
Maggie
I don't know how I have avoided it all these years, but I have never had it despite being with people who ended up with it. Maybe I'm immune? Is that possible. But I've seen the torture it causes poor innocent folk who suffer with it. That's just crummy that you have to deal with it at all. :(
ReplyDeleteI am so happy we have very little poison ivy here. Hope your case clears up quickly.
ReplyDeleteI need to find some of that soap. The hubby got into some Cow Parsnips and his feet are a mess, he has had it now for over a month and can't seem to get rid of it. We have tried everything. The stuff is pretty nasty, I think it is worse than Poison Ivy.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell my wife but I used Weed be Gone today to get rid of some weeds in the alley. They get tall and have a horrible itch from them when you get it on your skin. I get all messed up when I try to cut them down. I remember Pi was all over the lake shore at Pokegama Lake. Good luck with it and happy weed killing
ReplyDelete