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Poison oak, poison sumac, poison ivy, chiggers, and ticks. A great way to be misery!

I was told by a dermatoligist that once you wash the oils off (using rigorous scrubbing with soap and washcloth), take a super hot shower, this causes the affected area to itch like mad for a few seconds, but then it fades away, and will not itch again for 8 hours. This is caused by the histamines being excited by the hot water, much like they are by scratching the wounds. I do this anytime I get a rash from Poison Ivy, and it seems effective, never had to use any calamine lotion or such since she told me this trick- and I used to get nasty rashes.
 
Not only are people somewhat "immune" to poison ivy (like myself), but I also have heard that certain people with certain blood types are "immune" to ticks as well. I should knock on wood right now, but I have never had a tick on me and I've been hiking for over 30 years and playing disc golf for 11 years. Every time I play with friends, they will have ticks embedded, but somehow I escape the terror. Ticks are smart little buggers and can see their chosen host walking toward them from almost 50 feet away. I'd rather see a bear on the fairway then to see a tick embedded in my skin! Lyme disease is a serious thing!

There is a weed up in the Newburgh/Poughkeepsie area called Fireweed. Wow, that's a plant I am not immune to. It burns like hell, as the name implies. It will only last for 5 minutes and then subsides, but it's a hell of a 5 minutes.
 
On the steroid pack right now for poison ivy. From my ankle to my knees are painted with red stripes. Gotta love the ivy.

Luckily I've been tick/chigger free this year, we've had a wicked year for ticks. Friends took their dog for a walk in a park with about a 10 foot wide cut path, and came home with 30 ticks between them.
 
NovaDiscHead said:
I was told by a dermatoligist that once you wash the oils off (using rigorous scrubbing with soap and washcloth), take a super hot shower, this causes the affected area to itch like mad for a few seconds, but then it fades away, and will not itch again for 8 hours. This is caused by the histamines being excited by the hot water, much like they are by scratching the wounds. I do this anytime I get a rash from Poison Ivy, and it seems effective, never had to use any calamine lotion or such since she told me this trick- and I used to get nasty rashes.
Click to expand...

Yikes, I beg to differ with the hot shower! That is opposite of what you are suppose to do. The hot water opens up the pores of the skin and allows the oils in. Everone I have ever talked to says to Rinse with cold water and without soap, because the oils can travel to other parts of the body within the soap.

I have been on prednisone for the last two weeks to help control my reaction to posion ivy. I get the stuff every year.
 
She comes on like a rose but everybody knows
She'll get you in Dutch
You can look but you better not touch

Poison iv-y-y-y-y, poison iv-y-y-y-y
Late at night while you're sleepin' poison ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound

She's pretty as a daisy but look out man she's crazy
She'll really do you in
If you let her under your skin

Poison iv-y-y-y-y, poison iv-y-y-y-y
Late at night while you're sleepin' poison ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound

Measles make you bumpy
And mumps'll make you lumpy
And chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch
A common cold'll fool ya
And whooping cough can cool ya
But poison ivy, Lord'll make you itch!!

You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion
You'll be scratchin' like a hound
The minute you start to mess around

Poison iv-y-y-y-y, poison iv-y-y-y-y
Late at night while you're sleepin' poison ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound

Measles make you bumpy
And mumps'll make you lumpy
And chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch
A common cold'll fool ya
And whooping cough can cool ya
But poison ivy, Lord'll make you itch!!

You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion
You'll be scratchin' like a hound
The minute you start to mess around

Poison iv-y-y-y-y, poison iv-y-y-y-y
Late at night while you're sleepin' poison ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound


la da la da la da
 
mike_riewer said:
Yikes, I beg to differ with the hot shower! That is opposite of what you are suppose to do. The hot water opens up the pores of the skin and allows the oils in. Everone I have ever talked to says to Rinse with cold water and without soap, because the oils can travel to other parts of the body within the soap.

I have been on prednisone for the last two weeks to help control my reaction to posion ivy. I get the stuff every year.
Click to expand...

The hot shower idea is AFTER you've washed the oils off, using cold water and soap and a washcloth. It's a way to relieve the itching.

The Oil from the plant is what causes the allergic reaction, and once it's gone, you can't spread the rash by iscratching or any other means- that's an old wives tale. Usually when someones poison ivy spreads it's because they didn't wash the oil off, or they got it on some clothes, bed sheets, car seats, etc.
 
Do chiggers give you hard little itchy bumps a few days later?
 
For me -- I have not had a bad reaction to P.Oak or Ivy, but the other "three" leaf plant gave me the serious itch. Stinging nettles is what they call them out here on the left coast (West Coast) or on the PNW. Also what drives me crazy are the blackberry thorns/rose thorns.. just the "stab" itself is annoying. I agree about the misquotes -- they're annoying.
What can I do in the future to help me from itching the stinging nettles?
 
For nettles - wash down liberally with plain ole white vinegar. It'll make the itching stop really quickly.

For ticks - DO NOT....I repeat....DO NOT just pull them off with your fingernails or tweezers. That merely separates the head from the body, leaving the head still buried in your skin! YUCK!! Use alcohol, vaseline, a hot pin, anything that will suffocate it or make it back out of your skin on its own, then burn it or dispose of it in a sealed container. They can live through lots of stuff and they carry many VERY nasty diseases. Even here in Michigan we're finding a huge outbreak of them this year. Bleck!
 
volklgirl said:
For nettles - wash down liberally with plain ole white vinegar. It'll make the itching stop really quickly.

For ticks - DO NOT....I repeat....DO NOT just pull them off with your fingernails or tweezers. That merely separates the head from the body, leaving the head still buried in your skin! YUCK!! Use alcohol, vaseline, a hot pin, anything that will suffocate it or make it back out of your skin on its own, then burn it or dispose of it in a sealed container. They can live through lots of stuff and they carry many VERY nasty diseases. Even here in Michigan we're finding a huge outbreak of them this year. Bleck!
Click to expand...

which is ANOTHER reason why I don't wanna drive up to the friday league in three rivers lol...that and im sick of driving 45m up there when the next day I have to travel a few hours for a tournament!
 
From what I have read you want to keep the tick alive if you can and put it in a small bag with some moist cotton and bring it to you local "mosquito and vector control" office (or what whatever they call it in your area). This way they can examine the tick and see if it carries any disease. The good news is the tick has to be attached for a few hours before any disease is transmitted.

Here is a link to our local vector control...about half way down on the left there is a link for ticks.
http://www.agdept.com/mvc.html
 
At a recent festival in north Florida the tick were out of control. On one hole I had left my Mt Dew on the holes sign and had to run back to prevent littering and to quench my thirst. 3/4 of the way back I stopped as I saw something on my face. I then brushed of 7 ticks from my arms and one from my face.

I have been camping most of my life and tick have always been a thing you check for every time you strip of your clothing. Well sometimes you forget for one reason or another. One such occasion was at the same festival. After spending some quality time with a Girlfriend we were lying down cooling back off. When I noticed something on my upper thigh. I grabbed a flashlight and found it was a tick. Which prompted a search of the rest of my body. Then I found the 2 ticks that were latched on to One Eyed Willie. I was freaked and wanted the gone as quick as possible. The female beside me freaked even more than I did and couldn't even hold the light for me... Normally I would use a hot stick from the fire but.... not this time...
 
I got a bad case of posin Ivy last year and ended up needing a shot and antibiotics. I had it in my eyes, nose...everywhere. That's why I now have Ivy Block in my bag.
 
Best idea I've had so far this year: permethrin on the bag. I've got my whole bag coated in permethrin spray, which pretty much eliminates the odds of anything crawling onto the bag and then onto me. Follow that up with tall-socks coated in permethrin and it will eliminate 90% of the creepy crawlies from getting onto you, since I'm convinced that most bugs (ticks/chiggers especially) come from the bag or crawl up the legs. If you cut off those two means of entry, you eliminate most of the worst bugs. Mosquitos respond to DEET, but Ticks pretty much ignore it. Permethrin is the best defense against ticks -- that and checking yourself head to toe religiously after every outing.
 
I've heard that about the permethrin. Are there any commercial (read: easy to find) sprays with that in it that you've had luck with?
 
Physical contact is the only method of transportation for ticks. Ticks do not jump or fly, although they may drop from their perch and fall onto a host. Some species stalk the host from ground level, emerging from cracks or crevices located in the woods or even inside a home or kennel, where infestations of "seed ticks" (the six-legged stage of newborn ticks) can attack in numbers up to 3,000 at a time.

Down here you will get them by them dropping on you or climbing up...
 
I3ooI3oo said:
Physical contact is the only method of transportation for ticks. Ticks do not jump or fly, although they may drop from their perch and fall onto a host. Some species stalk the host from ground level, emerging from cracks or crevices located in the woods or even inside a home or kennel, where infestations of "seed ticks" (the six-legged stage of newborn ticks) can attack in numbers up to 3,000 at a time.

Down here you will get them by them dropping on you or climbing up...
Click to expand...

that just makes me cringe...I felt like a little girl..lol...imagining 3,000 of them dropping off trees...I would freak the hell out...
 
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