How to Identify, Clean & Treat Poison Ivy, Oak + Sumac
Spring is here, summer’s around the corner! We are super excited to see everything blooming and all the trees getting green again, BUT that also means other plants are coming back: poison oak, poison sumac, & poison ivy.
If you've gotten these plants on your skin and gotten a rash, you know it's not exciting.
Today we’re going to learn:
How to identify these plants
How to clean your skin after contact to prevent a rash
How to treat that rash should you get it
Links to products listed above and in the video:
CLEANERS
ANTI-ITCH
- Calamine Anti-Itch Lotion (pink)
- Caladryl Anti-Itch Lotion (clear)
TREATMENT
- Zanfel Poison Ivy, Oak, Sumac Wash
IDENTIFY
The first step is identifying these plants. These plants should be avoided at all costs! Let's take a look at them.
Poison Ivy
Poison ivy exists in most of the United States except for California and the Pacific coast.
Poison Oak
Poison oak exists in the Pacific coast and southeastern United States.
Poison Sumac
Poison sumac exists in the wetlands and swamps located in the eastern US
These plants grow in places that you might not believe that they could. They also mix around other plants so that they can be disguised. The leaves change colors during the seasons and depending whether or not there's a lot of water or there's a drought.
Try to help the people that you're with in identifying these plants. “Watch out there's poison ivy right there!” “You don’t want to touch that”
If you're doing trail work or even just getting in your backyard, this stuff can creep up trees or it could be a bush and it can look like other plants around it so please be careful.
WASH UP, SCRUB DOWN
If you think that you've come in contact with the plant, you have a certain amount of time to wipe it clean. It could be 10 minutes or six hours that you have to clean that off of your skin before it starts digging in and causing a reaction.
SOAP AND WATER: The best way to do that is soap and water. Make sure that you apply a generous amount of soap and scrub a lot! I imagine the oils in these plants are much like car grease, except for they're not black - they’re clear - which is really deceiving. So imagine you have clear car grease on your skin and you have to get it off. It's going to take a lot of scrubbing.
USE A TOWEL [Buy Here]: Make sure that you scrub with a towelette or a loofah or something like that that can really scrub.
ALCOHOL WIPES [Buy Here]: Also make sure to keep alcohol baby wipes in my truck at all times is really helpful in a lot of situations but also for these plans.
TECNU SCRUB [Buy Here]: Now there are also products that you can use to remove the oils before they settle into the skin. Tecnu makes some of these products and they’re actually expensive and don’t do that much better than soap and water.
*HEAVY DUTY HAND CLEANER [Buy Here]: I trust in mechanics grease remover! This is the orange goo that your mechanic uses to get car grease off their hands and it works amazing. There are tiny granulates inside of this lotion that really scrubs and gets the grease off. This works well for poison ivy, oak and sumac. It's also very cheap so you can pick it up at your local hardware or auto store. Just stick it in your car and you won't regret it.
RASH TREATMENT
Congratulations! You have a rash and rashes are awful. They are no fun especially if they're really big or in rubbing parts like under your arm or between your legs or god forbid your genitals (ouch)!
The most common way to deal with the rash is just to cover it up with something that doesn't make you itch.
DON’T ITCH IT!
The first thing I do is trim my fingernails; cut them really short and make sure someone's there to slap you if you ever scratch your rash! LOL
CALAMINE [Buy Here]: One way you can stop yourself from itching is calamine. This is the pink stuff we all know very well if we've ever gotten a rash before. It's runny and tends to work pretty well but you gotta apply it quite often.
*CLEAR CALADRYL [Buy Here]: Now if the rash is in a really obvious place like your outer arm or your neck or if you're wearing shorts it's on your legs and you don't want to wear pink stuff around, they do make a clear version of calamine.
TECNU GEL [Buy Here]: Tecnu also has a gel and this lotion is not as runny but it is a little bit more expensive.
CURE
*ZANFEL [Buy Here]: Now the only real cure to poison ivy, oak, and sumac oils that I've ever found is Zanfel. This stuff is amazing however it does cost $40 for this tiny little tube. But if you have a bad case of these poisons, it is well worth your money to splurge because it does one thing uniquely that no other lotion does. Zanfell attaches to the chemical that causes the reaction: urushiol. Urushiol is the stuff that gets under the skin and causes the allergic reaction. Zanfel bonds to urushiol and releases it to the surface of the skin so you can wash it away. This stuff has saved my life so if you are desperate, drop the 40 bucks.
NOTICE
SEEK A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL: If you have a really bad rash I will advise you to talk with a medical professional. I have been on steroids before because I got it so bad. The poison can actually enter your bloodstream if it gets really bad and can start spreading all over your body. Talk about a nightmare, trust me!
Take this information and start from the identification of the plant so that you don't get the rash. Hopefully you won’t ever get a rash because 1. You know what these plants looks like and how to avoid them2. You know how to clean yourself after you've been in a likely area where this plant exists
Now, get out there and enjoy yourself in nature
Outdoor Goyo, OU
