Poison Ivy Vaccine?

Saw this a few months ago at a local pharmacy. They called it "Rhus Tox" and its an oral solution taken every day for three weeks then once a month during the summer.

To me it did not sound like a "vaccine" just a way to acclimate your body so that it wont react as severely when it encounters urishiol.
 
Both arms are like this, plus the fingers on my left hand. I wash thoroughly multiple times if I see that there is even any growing on the ground where I may be picking up rakings, let alone known direct contact. I'm sure it'll look awesome tomorrow. image.webp
 
I'm convinced my body has become immune to it, I still have it on some part of my arms from april - September but it doesn't spread and I guess you could say I've learned not to scratch it and learned to live with it... I used to go to the doc once or twice a year because it basically overtook my body but haven't had to go in a couple years. Or I've just known how to cut it away with the silky...
 
I greased up with the avon skin so soft and only got a few spots. I think the oil layer worked to make the pi oil come off and not get into the skin. seems to work well considering i was macheting the shit everywhere for an hour or so and both types the climber and the ground cover.
 
Stephen Moore said:
It only grows on the banks of creeks and rivers in really sandy soil here. Not super common.
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Biggest I have seen here is 8” diameter climbing vine. Up to 50 feet up the tree with branches beteen 6 and 8 ft off the vine. Turned that job down a month or so ago. Told them I was not in the business of sending my guys to the hospital.
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
Biggest I have seen here is 8” diameter climbing vine. Up to 50 feet up the tree with branches beteen 6 and 8 ft off the vine. Turned that job down a month or so ago. Told them I was not in the business of sending my guys to the hospital.
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Really?! That’s interesting! I would love to see a photo of the vine in a tree! Is it still leaves of 3 leave it be? Or does it look different?
 
RopeShield said:
yeah similar to climbing hydrangea in woody id but not nearly as stout, slender and more hairy in appearance.
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Oh ok I looked it up. Eastern poison Ivy. That explains it. I’ve never seen that type here in the western part of Canada. Perhaps it exists like that in Vancouver or Victoria and I just never noticed ?
 
Stephen Moore said:
Really?! That’s interesting! I would love to see a photo of the vine in a tree! Is it still leaves of 3 leave it be? Or does it look different?
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Yup looks identical leaf wise. It’s nasty around here. I try my damnedest to steer clear but I’ll look for a picture in my archives. I used to work in New England and it was only a ground cover there as well. Learned in a hurry what the climbing vine looked like down here!
 
Last post in this thread appears to be 2016 so I don't know why this came up when viewing TreeBuzz on my phone. But anyone suffering with being "allergic" (reactive) to poison ivy/oak can get that cleared. The post here about the body changing every 7 years etc points to a clue about it. An energetic reshuffle of how your body reacts to any given thing. You can do it by choice and at your timing through a process called N.A.E.T.

Also there is a great youtube vid I saw recently by a researcher into Urisol (sp), the active irratant. He demonstrates that wiping off the oil with fresh clean rag/cloth removes the most at the time.
 
Yes that's it exactly. Thanks for putting that up Barc Buster. I didn't rewatch the whole thing but, I think it tells of the importance of getting the urushiol off your skin within a certain period of time. (The thinner skin you are and the more reactive, the more important to get it off soon.)

One thing he says that I disagree with is that he disparages the use of "expensive products". I will climb through the stuff if I needed to to complete a job but, I want everything possible in my favor. I will fill my pores for any area of contact before hand with Tecnu, wear a Tyvec one time use suit over my clothes, when complete with work wash off with more Tecnu and a garden hose, use Tecnu Extreme to absorb any more bulk urushiol, and use the more expensive Zanfel product to absorb any missed urushiol when I shower and if any missed oil starts to cause irritation - as more oil surfaces.

I went and bought the Grime Boss wipes he speaks of and will start to incorporate that into my regime just after garden hose or when no water available on job site.
 
Damn! All we have is insects that bite and sting to worry about! That must suck! Although, if you know what devils club is, you might prefer poison Ivy?
 
Merle Nelson said:
Yes that's it exactly. Thanks for putting that up Barc Buster. I didn't rewatch the whole thing but, I think it tells of the importance of getting the urushiol off your skin within a certain period of time. (The thinner skin you are and the more reactive, the more important to get it off soon.)

One thing he says that I disagree with is that he disparages the use of "expensive products". I will climb through the stuff if I needed to to complete a job but, I want everything possible in my favor. I will fill my pores for any area of contact before hand with Tecnu, wear a Tyvec one time use suit over my clothes, when complete with work wash off with more Tecnu and a garden hose, use Tecnu Extreme to absorb any more bulk urushiol, and use the more expensive Zanfel product to absorb any missed urushiol when I shower and if any missed oil starts to cause irritation - as more oil surfaces.

I went and bought the Grime Boss wipes he speaks of and will start to incorporate that into my regime just after garden hose or when no water available on job site.
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Wow, amazing post, Merle. Thanks for laying out all of the measures you take to prevent problems with the stuff. I've never been afflicted with the rash, only due to a lack of exposure. Purely by luck, I would guess, as I would not know what it looked like if it came up and bit me. I guess I'd better learn.

I'm wondering if you charge customers that have trees that are infested with the stuff a big premium on the price of the tree service that you render to them due to the increased risk to yourself plus all of the extra measures you must take to operate safely. It sure seems to me that that cost should be absorbed by the customer, and not you. Thanks for your time.

Tim
 
To the OP: I used to get it something terrible. I did the homeopathic thing for a summers in a row in late 90s/early 2000s and haven't gotten it bad since. That was my early 20s. Was the change the medicine or changes an early 20-something goes through? I don't know.

I do still get it. I am pretty careful to scrub like mad when I know I have been in it.

Finally, Zanfel works. Contact them and tell them you run a crew (or are part of a crew). They'll probably send you a free tube and some literature to go with it. I gave them my card at the TCIA show last November and they sent me such a packet. $30 for a tube sounds expensive...until you have it, then it sounds dirt cheap! Scrub with it as soon as you start to see some red and itching 2 or 3 times a day for 2 or 3 days. I had a spot that looked like it was about a day from going full on blisters, sore, nasty, pusie (how do you spell that - "full of puss"...I'm thinking one way NOT to spell it - but apparently Websters says that is it...), nuclear patch even with the Zanfel scrubbing. Then it started to fade and was nothing but a red area that felt like nothing 3 days later.
 
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