Tag: poison ivy

You can look but you better not touch….. my Poison Ivy saga

tmbrickey@aol.comLeave a comment

by Terri Brickey

I love to trek about my property checking on blooms and animal tracks, listening to the birds and neighboring cows and just mucking about. I was on such a trek about a week ago when I came upon this:

Ugh. Pulled out iNat to discover it was Poison Ivy leaf mites. The mites make little galls on the poison ivy leaf like a protective sleeping bag where they lay eggs that eat the inside of the little bumps once they hatch. The mites are harmless to humans and unfortunately don’t kill the aggressive, hardy perennial vine. Which brings me to the main topic – the  poison ivy itself. It could have been lurking deep in that forest patch and I just never encountered it. But this is the path I used to travel back and forth to my bee hives. Since I sold them a couple months ago, I have not walked this route or maintained a clear path like I had for the last 5 years. It was now overgrown and poison ivy was coming out of the woods and crossing toward the fields.

I need to eradicate it! But remember, I am not a country girl. I can tell you all about cautionary things in my world of beaches and oceans, but I have never faced off with poison ivy. So I did my research to find out the urushiol oil from the plant can stay active on the dead plant, your clothes, tools and anything else that comes in contact with it for YEARS! I worry the dogs will be exploring and bring that oil back into the house on their fur. The grandkids will unknowingly make contact.

So last Monday I got up early and dressed defensively with double gloves, glasses, hat, long pants and long sleeve shirt and tall boots. I had read that you should NEVER burn poison ivy: Burning vaporizes the urushiol oil. Inhaling the smoke can cause severe, life-threatening allergic reactions in your lungs and airways. AND DO NOT weed-whack: String trimmers chop the plant into tiny pieces and spray toxic urushiol oil into the air, onto your clothes, and onto your skin. So I chose my tools, set up a big garbage bag and started cutting everything back to clear a path and expose the devil.

But first I took some cool creature pics on the path (as identified by iNat):

Yellow garden spider

Longhorn bee with full pollen saddlebags

Common whitetail dragonfly

tiny Tumbling Ragdoll on Spotted Horsemint flower

I was very careful and purposeful and I worked cutting and bagging for two hours. Then I had to stop. If you ever see me working and I look like this

I need to stop, please make sure I do as this lack of tolerance for heat (the temp was creeping up as usual) was part of why I needed to quit beekeeping. I rested in the shade, drank water and cleaned up. I had worked hard and had cleared the path

I cleaned all my tools and boots with degreasing Dawn soap. I stripped down and washed all my clothes with strong degreasing detergent. Then I showered and washed my skin with dawn and soap.

I knew there really was no way I did not get touched at some point in all that digging and bagging, but no blisters appeared. I read that approximately 15% to 25% of people are not affected by urushiol oil. While the vast majority of the population will experience an allergic reaction, this small minority is genetically resistant because their immune systems do not register the oil as a threat. Maybe I am one of these lucky ones.

BUT then two days later

I eventually ended up with 4 itchy blisters on my forearm that I am treating with hydrocortisone. The worst part is there is still a huge crop of poison ivy there

And it goes deep deep into the tree line. I will need to get something to spray on it. Please share your best treatments and poison ivy tales with me in the comments or at tmbrickey@aol.com.

Until then, I will look but I better not touch….

Cool Caterpillar

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

 by Donna Lewis

This Pandora Sphinx was a very interesting caterpillar I found one day while walking around our place.

Pandora sphinx moth from 2015.

It’s rust colored, very fat with bright yellow almost tear-drop eye patches. I had never seen one before or since then.  I was excited to find it.

It was eating leaves on a Virginia Creeper vine, a vine with five leaves.

Here’s a picture of Virginia creeper taken by Ann Collins from iNaturalist (Creative Commons copyright).

The Virginia Creeper is a great  native vine to have around.  It tolerates most soil conditions and climates  It has many uses for wildlife, and can be used as a vine in gardens.

Many birds such as Bluebirds, Titmice, Cedar Waxwings, Robins, Chickadees, and more love its berries.  Several species of Moths and Butterflies use it as a host plant.

This is also the vine that created the saying we were taught as children.

Leaves of 3 leave it be, leaves of 5 let it thrive….

Poison ivy near Cameron, by Sue Ann Kendall from iNaturalist. Creative Commons copyright.

This vine is often mistaken for our favorite vine, Poison Ivy, but Poison Ivy has three leaves.

Right now you can find both vines just about  everywhere in the country especially around wooded areas with part shade, so be careful to identify which one you just touched..

I have personally found that an over-the-counter product called “Tecnu” Poison Ivy Scrub. If used within 8 hours, it can really help get rid of the oil that causes the itching.

I should buy it by the case!  I never learn.