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

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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. View attachment 2259948

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.

THAT. LOOKS. REALLY. BAD!!!
At least i did not develop blisters!
What is so scary about these plants is that the reaction comes so delayed! I actually first thought i cought scabies, because the rash seemed to spread from my arm to my chest, like a parasitic infestation would do.
And i have found this plant in multiple areas around the house! I will use a single-use paintbrush to paint the concentrated Round-Up on to the plant's leaves, but what should i do with the dead plants?
Burning is a no-no, the fumes can kill you - yes kill you! So i read in multiple sources.
Composting also would not work, those oils stay active even in compost for 3-5 years.
What a sneaky and mean plant!

 

[Friendly_Lurker]

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?

Not dangerous for ducks. FYI, humon is spelled human. I feel for you about the poison ivy, I had to go to urgent care once because I got it in my eyes.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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.

Please be very careful!!!
I found several sources that claim the allergic reaction becomes worse every time until life threatening symptoms may occur!
At least, please protect your eyes - Urushiol can blind you and wear a mask, especially when using the weed-wacker or the mower, so that you won't accidentally inhale or swallow parts of the plant - which can also cause severe sickness.
I assume i had contact with one of these plants earlier, when i was cutting the grass on the half acre around the house, using my electric trimmer. In the future i will wear rubber boots, at least. I remember i was wearing sandals and my lower legs were burning for days.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Watch out for Virginia creeper vines as well. I am also allergic to this stuff. View attachment 2260187
"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."

My yard is full of those! They even come creeping out from under the patio.
I guess i need something like a »full body condom« before i ever do yard-work again!

 

[WallyG74]

Humon reaches back to the first post with the Ferengi reference. Obviously a Star Trek fan.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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...

That's exactly what i want to achieve! Kill the whole plant including the root so it shall never come back. (wishful thinking...).
Tomorrow is supposed to be a very hot and dry day here, where thirsty plants gladly absorbe something to drink with their leaves…

 

[K0k0shka]

That's exactly what i want to achieve! Kill the whole plant including the root so it shall never come back. (wishful thinking...).
Tomorrow is supposed to be a very hot and dry day here, where thirsty plants gladly absorbe something to drink with their leaves…

Yes, the hotter the better! Not only will they be thirsty and will drink more, but they will also be stressed, and a stressed plant will die faster. That's how I killed (some of) my poison ivy last year. Sprayed the leaves I could reach, and then we had a heat wave. It did take quite a while for it to die, so don't get discouraged - it won't drop dead right away. It might take a few days for you to start seeing results. Some leaves turn yellow, then some more turn yellow, and little by little, eventually the whole plant shrivels up and dies, because once the poison reaches the roots, it's game over. My poison ivy did not come back from that. Unfortunately I found new plants in a different part of the yard, so the war is not over yet... But that one plant is GONE!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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.

We have an invasive plant back in Europe, called giant hogweed here. If you get the sap on your skin, it will make your skin 100 times more susceptible to sun-burn! Literally you can see your skin being burned to a crisp in front of your eyes! - I have several old scars from that…
Insects are no problem here: My ducks take good care of those! - Except for horseflies, they move too fast even for Blanca Duck. But if i smack one and offer it to her, she gladly crunches it like pop-corn.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Roundup has a poison ivy special:

View attachment 2260354

Wow! I wish i had known this b4! Haven't seen this at the home-depot.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I think RoundUp products are banned in Ontario.

I do not use any chemicals here, with two exceptions:

1. RoundUp - only for the cracks in my ½mile long driveway. Would i rip out the roots with force i would damage the concrete even more.
2. Permethrin - inside the duck house during the warm months to keep the insect population down, especially gnats and chiggers

Entirely banning a product like RoundUp is kind of stupid: People will either smuggle it in from other provinces or the U.S. or will use far worse chemicals, for example Sodium Chlorate which is bad for surface water bodies. Limited use of RoundUp is kind of safe.