This Plant Is Itching to Get Us

August 20th, 2019

   Plants are generally pretty docile and defenseless creations.

Here’s a clump of poison ivy growing up a chain-link fence.

   If your dog wants to dig up a daylily or you feel like decapitating a cabbage for dinner, there’s really not much the plants can do about it.

   Then there’s Toxicodendron radicans, better known as poison ivy.

   This is a plant that not just defends itself but goes on the offensive.

   Judging from the number of people I’ve heard complaining about it, this season seems to be a banner year for this gardener’s plague.

   Poison ivy’s key weapon is a potent oil called “urushiol,’ which causes an annoying to dreadfully painful skin rash in an estimated 85 percent of people who come into contact with it.

   The plant itself is a tough, adaptable, native vine that lurks most everywhere, from shady wooded areas to roadside banks to that forgotten corner of the backyard.

   The dreaded itching usually begins within 24 to 36 hours of getting the oil on your skin. Exposed areas turn red and may blister, then typically crust over and heal within two weeks.

   That’s bad enough. But for about one in 10 people, the rashes are severe, painful and in extreme cases, even life-threatening.

   Randy Connolly found that out when he was 7 years old. He nearly died when he breathed in smoke from a neighbor who was burning brush that included poison-ivy vines.

   Ever since, he’s had immediate and severe reactions to any contact with urushiol.

   Connolly and his wife, Heidi Ratner-Connolly, who also reacts to urushiol, are co-authors of a 2004 book called “10 Things to Know About Poison Ivy, Pets and People.”

Poison ivy grows in clusters of three leaves.

   The Connollys say our best bet for beating poison ivy is knowing what it looks like and avoiding it.

   Poison ivy leaves grow in clusters of three with the middle leaf being slightly bigger than the two on either side.

   The leaves start out reddish in spring, then become shiny green in summer before turning various attractive shades of red, orange and yellow in fall. Small, waxy white berries also form in late summer and turn red in fall.

   The vines suck onto trees or other nearby climbing surfaces, but if there’s nothing to grab onto, poison ivy will grow into a floppy shrub. As the vines age, the stems become woody and put out distinctive “hairy” root growths.

   Much of the time, people develop rashes without ever realizing they came into contact with poison ivy.

   It doesn’t take much. Urushiol is so potent that even a quarter of an ounce of the stuff is enough to give a rash to every person on the planet, the Connollys say.

A painful rash caused by the oil in poison ivy.

   The oil is in every part of the plant, not just the leaves, and it can remain viable for as long as five years after the plant has died. So don’t assume you’re safe yanking dead vines off a tree.

   Direct contact with a vine isn’t the only way you can get a rash.

   The oil is easily transferred from plants to objects to people – including tools, clothing, shoe bottoms, even stray baseballs and soccer balls retrieved from a weedy area.

   Obviously, one of the best ways to lessen the threat is by eliminating nearby poison ivy plants.

   That’s not easy, but it’s possible.

   “Diligence is the key,” says Ratner-Connolly. “You have to get every bit of the plants, leaves, vines and roots, or they will simply sprout again.”

   The earlier the better.

   “Repeated cutting to the ground will eventually starve out the plant’s root system,” Ratner-Connolly says. “Of course, the hardest part is trying to avoid poisoning while you’re trying to remove it. Always wear protective clothing and try to cover as much of your skin as possible.”

   If you’re a spray-oriented person, the Connollys suggest glyphosate-containing weed-killers such as Round-Up, Kleen-Up and Brush-B-Gon to kill the foliage. They also like ordinary white vinegar.

   Just be careful using any of those around “good” plants because they’ll kill most anything green.

   Whatever you do, Ratner-Connolly says, don’t mow, weed-whack or burn poison-ivy plants – dead or alive. That will only spew the oil around more.

   Protective creams such as Ivy Block, Tecnu, Multi-Shield, and buji Block help some people, the Connollys say, and so does simply covering up exposed skin with gloves and clothing.

   If you come into contact with poison ivy and its oil, Heidi Ratner-Connolly advises washing it off ASAP with lots of plain, cold water.

   You’ll probably head off a rash if you can wash within 15 minutes. After then, the oil binds to skin proteins and is much harder to remove.

   Also, wash clothing and other objects so you don’t pick up an indirect, secondary allergic reaction later, she adds.

   Randy Connolly likes to wash with soap (the laundry soap Fels Naptha is his favorite) after washing first with cold water. Another post-exposure product is buji Wash, an exfoliating cleanser that helps remove urushiol.

   If a reaction occurs, the Connollys recommend any of a variety of creams and treatments that lessen the itch, including calamine lotion, cortisone cream, Epsom salts, bicarbonate of soda, Aveeno oatmeal bath, aloe gel and/or goldenseal root powder.

   Zanfel Poison Ivy cream and buji Wash are two products that help remove the oil and speed healing.

   For severe reactions, the Connollys advise seeing a doctor for a possible round of oral steroids. Antibiotics also may be needed in cases where the rash has become infected.

   A few other poison-ivy factoids:

   * People aged 5 to 20 tend to be most sensitive to poison ivy. Sensitivity tends to lessen from the 30s on, although it’s also possible for previously non-sensitive people to suddenly develop an allergic reaction at any age.

   * Reactions usually vary depending on how much urushiol oil you’ve contacted. Higher doses and prolonged contact typically produce worse symptoms.

   * Poison ivy is not contagious. You won’t get it from touching someone’s rash or blisters. However, you can react if unwashed urushiol oil on someone else’s skin or clothing rubs onto your skin.

   * Most animals do not react to poison ivy. Many birds eat poison-ivy berries, and deer and small mammals even eat poison-ivy leaves with no ill effects.