My gardening book says to borrow a goat - they apparently love the stuff!!! Not very helpful I know but I thought it might make you laugh.

LOL!!!!! They would probably steal my goat and eat it. If they can steal onions, who knows LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is funny!!! Hmmm, I wonder if the boyfriend can be talked into getting a goat? Can you imagaine the conversation?? LOL!!!!!!

I had to eradicate poison oak from my former house. I wore a diving suit. It worked, I got a bit warm, but the evil weed still got me around the neck. Not too bad though....

oh lord...sumac...nip that one in the bud asap or it'll be all over you.

I haven't seen poison sumac around here, but I do see plenty of poison ivy and poison oak. Luckily, none near the garden. I should plant it in a pot as an ornamental... ;)

My boyfriend said the same thing about planting it around the house LOL!

Plant poison sumac around your garden and there's your natural barrier against human garden thieves!

Anyway, it's good you found the culprit. Cortison is supposed to alleviate it pretty quickly, and in the meantime you can ease the burning and itching with oatmeal baths and Calamine lotion.

May your itching be short-lived!

Last time I got it I found that I got the most benefit from alternating treatments. I'd apply the hydrocortizone, then when I was due for more I'd use the Caladryl. And oatmeal baths are wonderful.

Taking Benedryl helps a lot, but that's not practical if it affects you like it affects me -- knocks me out for hours.

Sounds like you're lucky that you didn't end up with it in your lungs if you've been so up-close-and-personal with it.

Find someone thats not allergic to it to do the work.

Im not. Never have been. I can roll around in poison ivy, oak or sumac and nothing. :) some of us have it lucky I guess.

Hi Cass,

I doesn't sound like your itching is so bad that you can sleep, otherwise you'd probably need to see a doctor for a shot of steroids, and a weeks worth of oral steroids.

Like the poster above, I used to be able to roll around in poison ivy with no consequences, but now it seems I've built up enough antibodies to mount an allergic response :-(
If you want to continue to take this stuff out yourself you may have to resort to a chemical extraction. I put some monkey grass around my pool a few years ago and I'll be danged if it didn't start sprouting poison ivy, which got to be problematic for me to remove. I did finally have success with Roundup Poison Ivy Plus.

Tom

Also, there are some good OTC barrier creams you can buy. Smooth it on any exposed areas; wash off when you're done gardening. Saved me many times from an outbreak, the ivy likes to pop up in suprising areas of my garden beds.

But like others have said, for a really bad outbreak, a cortizone injection is the best remedy.

I have some poison oak around my house. Just wear gloves, long sleeves, and long pants. BE VERY CAREFUL, and you will be fine. You might have a little reaction here and there, but it will pass. The truth is you should tackle it while you are broke out. There are a lot of myths about it.

Myth 1: You CANNOT spread it by scratching. Some places break out earlier than others, so it seems to be spreading.

Myth 2: Everywhere exposed will break out. Also not true. If you get the oil on your skin, and wash it off properly (and quickly) it will not break out. I generally break out once a year, always in the same place. I see a piece trying to come back and just yank it out with my bare hands. Then I wash, but I always seem to forget to remove my wedding ring. So, that area of my finger breaks out, but not the rest of my hands. One year I will not make that mistake...but not yet!!!

Im on oral steroids right now, and I already feel better!! YAY!
As for removing it, im going to just bundle up and chop it all down pretty soon....See im a good neighbor because the rest of it is technically on my neighbors side, but it is from our side, so ill get rid of it. I cant resort to checmicals because it is literally next to my garden and growing behind my garden so I if I spray the runoff will go right into my garden. Either that, or ill just let it grow and CAREFULLY trim it away from the garden and leave it be. I dunno....
I used to be able to roll around in poison ivy myself. At my condo me and my ex husband used to have I would always clear it away because I never reacted to it. My ex was extremely allergic to it.
I guess now I better be careful!!!!
But boy those steroids have helped me tremendously!!!!! -cass