No good deed ever goes unpunished!!! - Part II 😜

[shawluvsbirds]

Hi Friends!

Those »Ferengi Rules of Acquisitions« are so true, especially rule #285…

My last good deed was rewarded with a broken foot, since then i am a Titanium strengthened cyborg and i still have not learned the lesson‼ Two weekends ago i performed another good deed for the Duckies:
It has been hot and much too dry here in Big Chimney, West Virginia! That Sunday the mercury climbed to over 35°C (95F) without even a hint of a breeze. It felt like being in an oven outside and the Duckies were hunkering down in whatever shade they could find, panting with their tongues hanging out of the side of their bills.
The duck-pool had sprung a leak and wouldn't hold water, so i decided to install a large sun-sail between the humon-house and the duck-house so that the bowls of water i was filling up multiple times a day, would in the shade.
Three corners of the sail were easy to attach: Two went to the posts of our screened-in porch, one was attached to a post of my work-platform, yes and the last one was a more difficult:
It had to be attached to one of the pine-trees, so i grabbed the ladder, climbed up and hugged that tree at a height of ~3m (10ft) to loop the rope around it. Little did i cared about that green vine, winding up the tree on one side, i was in full hugging mode and hugged that vine too.

☠ BIG MISTAKE!!! ☠​

The sail went up without problems, at first the ducks were afraid of that big evil thing in the sky, obviously just waiting to snag an unsuspecting, or careless duck and swallow it whole… - A few bites of cat-food later all ducks were enjoying the water bowls and the shade. And the humon (me) went on with his outside-duties for the rest of the day.

It started on Monday morning: My upper right arm started to itch and without any thoughts i scratched. The itch got worse and i scratched more. The itch got even more worse and i developed a reddish/orange rash on my arm. Later that day my chest started to itch, in the evening the whole right side of my body was one itching uncomfortable mess and i developed chills. On Tuesday i went to the doctor, thinking i have an allergic reaction to something i drank or ate and was told just two words: »Poison Ivy«
When i hugged that vine, some of the resin must have gotten on my upper arm and due to profoundly sweating on that day i literally spreaded it all over my right upper body, about ¼ of my skin was affected.

I can hear y'all laughing already, but believe me it was not funny at all!!!

Yes we Europeans all have heart »poison ivy« in countless Hollywood-films, TV-shows and jokes, but we don't know how sneaky and mean that stuff is!
We all think about it as another kind of stinging nettle, you touch it, you get stung, have a reaction immediately, realize what has happened, act immediately.
I did not know that so much time will pass between touching a poison ivy plant and having the reaction!

And what a reaction that was: Even after multiple cortisone injections, lidocaine spray and cream, applying cortisone creams i was tempted to use a wire-brush to remove the skin on the entire right half of my body.
I was unable to sleep!
I filed my fingernails dull to prevent me from scratching myself bloody!
I was about to go insane!
The only relief for short durations was a Muscle Rub gel, containing Menthol, relieving the itch for a short time by cooling the skin.
That were ten days of pure HORROR!
Most of the time i just tried to sleep, using sleeping pills.

I'm still itching, but it is bearable.

That poison ivy plant was sentenced to death, but i have not decided yet how to execute the sentence. Dynamite is not an option, i need that tree for the sun-sail and the tree's innocent. Maybe a Magnifying glass, slowly roasting it from the top leaves to the roots…

Btw: Is poison ivy dangerous for Ducks?

Omg hillbilly.
I feel your pain. Quite literally. Here's a pic of my arm from a couple weeks ago. I had it several other places as well. But but the arm got it the worst.

Your husband is right! - Compared to what you find here, nature in Europe is child's stuff:

• Many kinds of poisonous snakes, with rattlesnakes being my personal worst. Never got bitten, but came close to it several times while i lived in Texas
• Cougars, Coyotes, Wolfes, Brown-, Black and Grizzly bears who all would not hesitate to eat you alive
• Dangerous insects like scorpions and (my personal enemy #1) fire ants. I still have the scars from them on my legs after 12 years.
• Poisonous plants like ivy, oak, sumach and whatever else i don't know (yet)

There is nothing like that in Europe, just one mildly poisonous snake and plants are only dangerous when eaten. Well the Wolf is coming back from the east…

As said, i knew about poison ivy, but not the details. There is an article called »Urushiol-induced contact dermatitis« to which is linked from the article about Poison Ivy and only there one can find a hint about the delayed development of the rash and the itch, see 2. Cause: »For people who have never been exposed or are not yet allergic to urushiol, it may take 10 to 21 days for a reaction to occur the first time.« - Well i certainly have not been exposed before and i do hope that there won't be another reaction next weekend, when i hit the 21 day mark…

It was too wet here this week to destroy the plant, but this weekend... The spray-bottle with Glyphosate is waiting in my shed. I bought the really evil stuff from Monsanto! I will fence off the area to [protect the duckies and then have my satisfaction!

It sometimes takes about a week for me to know I have it. Everyone thinks that you spread it by scratching the rash or that they can get it from your rash.
Not true! It is spread when you spread the oil around on your skin. This plant oil is truly evil.
some parts of the skin are more sensitive to than others and react faster. And then there is the factor of items you may have gotten the oil on that will be there until you wash it off..(think shoes gloves dog steering wheel of your car etc) and did not realize it and now you have touched that item over the course of several days, so you end up with rashes at various stages.
I also got a shot and had to go back and get pills that keep me awake at night if I'm not already awake from scratching.
As If it isn't miserable enough having it, you get sleep deprivation on top!

Don't even touch the dead vine.

 

[Cheeki]

Hi Friends!

Those »Ferengi Rules of Acquisitions« are so true, especially rule #285…

My last good deed was rewarded with a broken foot, since then i am a Titanium strengthened cyborg and i still have not learned the lesson‼ Two weekends ago i performed another good deed for the Duckies:
It has been hot and much too dry here in Big Chimney, West Virginia! That Sunday the mercury climbed to over 35°C (95F) without even a hint of a breeze. It felt like being in an oven outside and the Duckies were hunkering down in whatever shade they could find, panting with their tongues hanging out of the side of their bills.
The duck-pool had sprung a leak and wouldn't hold water, so i decided to install a large sun-sail between the humon-house and the duck-house so that the bowls of water i was filling up multiple times a day, would in the shade.
Three corners of the sail were easy to attach: Two went to the posts of our screened-in porch, one was attached to a post of my work-platform, yes and the last one was a more difficult:
It had to be attached to one of the pine-trees, so i grabbed the ladder, climbed up and hugged that tree at a height of ~3m (10ft) to loop the rope around it. Little did i cared about that green vine, winding up the tree on one side, i was in full hugging mode and hugged that vine too.

☠ BIG MISTAKE!!! ☠​

The sail went up without problems, at first the ducks were afraid of that big evil thing in the sky, obviously just waiting to snag an unsuspecting, or careless duck and swallow it whole… - A few bites of cat-food later all ducks were enjoying the water bowls and the shade. And the humon (me) went on with his outside-duties for the rest of the day.

It started on Monday morning: My upper right arm started to itch and without any thoughts i scratched. The itch got worse and i scratched more. The itch got even more worse and i developed a reddish/orange rash on my arm. Later that day my chest started to itch, in the evening the whole right side of my body was one itching uncomfortable mess and i developed chills. On Tuesday i went to the doctor, thinking i have an allergic reaction to something i drank or ate and was told just two words: »Poison Ivy«
When i hugged that vine, some of the resin must have gotten on my upper arm and due to profoundly sweating on that day i literally spreaded it all over my right upper body, about ¼ of my skin was affected.

I can hear y'all laughing already, but believe me it was not funny at all!!!

Yes we Europeans all have heart »poison ivy« in countless Hollywood-films, TV-shows and jokes, but we don't know how sneaky and mean that stuff is!
We all think about it as another kind of stinging nettle, you touch it, you get stung, have a reaction immediately, realize what has happened, act immediately.
I did not know that so much time will pass between touching a poison ivy plant and having the reaction!

And what a reaction that was: Even after multiple cortisone injections, lidocaine spray and cream, applying cortisone creams i was tempted to use a wire-brush to remove the skin on the entire right half of my body.
I was unable to sleep!
I filed my fingernails dull to prevent me from scratching myself bloody!
I was about to go insane!
The only relief for short durations was a Muscle Rub gel, containing Menthol, relieving the itch for a short time by cooling the skin.
That were ten days of pure HORROR!
Most of the time i just tried to sleep, using sleeping pills.

I'm still itching, but it is bearable.

That poison ivy plant was sentenced to death, but i have not decided yet how to execute the sentence. Dynamite is not an option, i need that tree for the sun-sail and the tree's innocent. Maybe a Magnifying glass, slowly roasting it from the top leaves to the roots…

Btw: Is poison ivy dangerous for Ducks?

I’ve been doing extensive yard works and that includes cutting head high weeds with a push mower and crawling around in brambles and bushes. I had never seen poison oak, poison ivy or sumac, so I paid no mind to my surroundings. A day or two later I noticed itchy spots and rash that looked painted in. I figured I had poison oak or poison ivy, so I looked up pictures of them so I’d know what areas in my yard to avoid while I finish the yard. I ended up with pictures of sumac as well and discovered I have all three in my yard. Sigh. So I got the calamine lotion and made sure I got an extra bottle because phase two of my project involves pruning back bramble from the living areas of the yard. I have a feeling I’ll have a lot of itchy spots for a long time this summer.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I’ve been doing extensive yard works and that includes cutting head high weeds with a push mower and crawling around in brambles and bushes. I had never seen poison oak, poison ivy or sumac, so I paid no mind to my surroundings. A day or two later I noticed itchy spots and rash that looked painted in. I figured I had poison oak or poison ivy, so I looked up pictures of them so I’d know what areas in my yard to avoid while I finish the yard. I ended up with pictures of sumac as well and discovered I have all three in my yard. Sigh. So I got the calamine lotion and made sure I got an extra bottle because phase two of my project involves pruning back bramble from the living areas of the yard. I have a feeling I’ll have a lot of itchy spots for a long time this summer.

Watch out for Virginia creeper vines as well. I am also allergic to this stuff.

"Although it is not as allergenic as poison ivy, raphides, the sap of Virginia creeper, can cause skin irritation and blisters in sensitive people when it punctures the skin."

 

[NatJ]

That poison ivy plant was sentenced to death, but i have not decided yet how to execute the sentence.

A targeted spray of Roundup (mixed in a spray bottle) to the leaves will kill the monster and spare the tree.

I suggest you cut through the vine at its base. I use a pair of wire-cutters, or limb-loppers like you'd use to cut limbs/branches off trees. Which tool is decided by how big the vine is. For poison ivy, I would not use a power tool, and not even a saw that makes sawdust. Just snip and then go clean the tool.

The top will die when it has no more connection to the roots. Yes, you will want to get it down from the tree sometime, but you would have to do that no matter how you kill it, and at least it will stop getting bigger.

If you're worried that the top and roots will grow back together--cut twice, a few inches apart, and use a plastic bag to grab that piece and throw it in the trash. It won't grow back together over a several-inch gap.

The roots will still be alive, and it will start trying to grow new leaves near the base. You can put Roundup on the stem when you cut it, or wait for it to make a few new leaves and put Roundup on them. Either way will hopefully kill the entire root system. Much easier than trying to get Roundup on the leaves way up in the top of the tree. Or you can just keep cutting off the new growth until the roots run out of energy and die, but that takes a LONG time, and you have to keep doing it over and over.

Btw: Is poison ivy dangerous for Ducks?

I think just people. And apparently goats really do like to eat the stuff! So if you know anyone with a goat...

 

[K0k0shka]

You don’t have to spray all the leaves up the tree to kill the plant. The idea is to spray some of the leaves and let them drink up the poison and carry it down to the roots, and spread it around the plant. The more surface area you spray, the better, but leaf surface, so it can absorb. Not sure if a cut stem can keep absorbing from the top and how much it will take in...

 

[DukesDucks]

I was also going to suggest clipping it off at the base. That's the way I am trying to control an invasive vine here. Nicknamed Dog Choke Vine because it is really tough to break. Multiple stems quickly cover the ground and climb trees to the point of killing the tree. Clip the bottom, wait a few days until it dries, then it pulls down easily. At least it is not poisonous.
I can add Poison Parsnip to the horrors of Poison Ivy and nettles here. If the oil gets on your skin, and then the skin is exposed to sun, there is permanent scaring. Best immediate treatment is a good wash with Sunlight soap - the yellow bar kind. Works for poison ivy too.
Don't forget ticks, mosquitoes, horse flies, deer flies, wasps ...
It's a wonder we ever go outside.

 

[K0k0shka]

Roundup has a poison ivy special:

 

[DukesDucks]

I think RoundUp products are banned in Ontario.

 

[Galeann]

I have killed poison ivy with bleach.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I have killed poison ivy with bleach.

How? Full strength? Poured on the ground around it? Details, Woman, we want details!