Poisonous vines on your ropes.

[n6dlh]

You are likely not allergic or are not very susceptible to it. Don't test out that theory, though. If you are in the woods a lot, you have most likely come into contact with it at some point. It has several variations. There is poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac.

I am not either. I use to walk through poision oak in CA. In 2005 I moved back east and met my wife. Her Father let me come hunt their soy bean field. They put me up in an old homemade wood stand that was covered in a vine. Kept tickling my neck. At the time all I had for a knife was a tactical knife. Well 10am hits and we had not seen anything. I whip my knife out and go to town.
I spend an hour cutting the vine by hand, peeling each piece off and carrying the pile out and throwing in the ditch. Now the stand is clear, i have this vine oil all over me, and go take a leak around the corner and head back to the truck. We get back and I am telling my father in law about my cleaning. He looks at me a smiles, you know that vine was most likely poison Ivy right?
All I had was a dumb look on my face. “You know what posion Ivy looks like right?” Im fresh from the west coast. He said you will find out in a few days. Man I had blisters everywhere what a miserable 2 weeks! Father in law gave me **** for years about that. Just lost him this week, RIP Marvin!

 

[NMSbowhunter]

My aunt was immune to the effects for decades. Her husband came home from work one day and learned she spent the afternoon pulling all of the poison ivy off the shed and had been carrying it to the road in her arms. She never had any adverse reaction to that incident. Her sister, who also did a lot of yard work once pulled a bunch of it and burned it along with some leaves and sticks. She inhaled the smoke and it put her in the hospital. Later in life, the immune aunt's immunity ran out and she came down with an awful case of it after pulling a big bunch of it off some rose bushes.

I think your immunity can abruptly end, sort of like developing an allergy to other things.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

My aunt was immune to the effects for decades. Her husband came home from work one day and learned she spent the afternoon pulling all of the poison ivy off the shed and had been carrying it to the road in her arms. She never had any adverse reaction to that incident. Her sister, who also did a lot of yard work once pulled a bunch of it and burned it along with some leaves and sticks. She inhaled the smoke and it put her in the hospital. Later in life, the immune aunt's immunity ran out and she came down with an awful case of it after pulling a big bunch of it off some rose bushes.

I think your immunity can abruptly end, sort of like developing an allergy to other things.

I never had a reaction to it at all. Walking through it ect….
Then I was clearing the wife’s old yard and cut some poison sumac. I got such a potent amount of oil on me that I had a reaction although it only effected me on my nose and backs of my ears

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Toward the end of my scout the other day I went through a stand of young pines and brushed up against what I thought was poison ivy with my right arm. As soon as I got back to the truck, I poured water over my arm and scrubbed it then poured more water over it. When I got back to the house, I immediately took a shower and scrubbed down good. I didn't get any rash. I don't play around with that stuff. If I even suspect I got it one me I wash the area as soon as possible.

 

[Weldabeast]

@Weldabeast rolls around in it. He claims it helps keep the mosquitoes away

I do think u can build some tolerance

 

[Iron_llama]

Also there's a bar laundry soap called Fels-Naptha that some say helps for the initial wash off, I've had good luck with it. I use it in the shower when i come in but it's definitely not recommended for shower use.

When I was in Scouts we were taught to pack Fels-Naptha to combat poison ivy. Fels-Naptha lake 'bappys' were a common occurrence at Many Point Scout Camp in the mid-90s. It seemed to help, rather a lot. Nobody ever told us we weren't supposed to bathe with it. I'd imagine it would work on gear, as well, but I haven't tried it that way.

I've more recently used Tecnu as well. That works also.

 

[overspined]

If I avoided sitting in trees with poison ivy, I would not be able to hunt in Illinois. Every tree has it, almost without exception in areas I hunt. I use light weight gloves, I’m not sure how to avoid it. Also, I don’t think it commonly has oil rub off on ropes/straps because I’m sensitive to it, and haven’t caught it that way.

 

[Jammintree]

I never had a reaction to it at all. Walking through it ect….
Then I was clearing the wife’s old yard and cut some poison sumac. I got such a potent amount of oil on me that I had a reaction although it only effected me on my nose and backs of my ears

I never had a reaction to it at all. Walking through it ect….
Then I was clearing the wife’s old yard and cut some poison sumac. I got such a potent amount of oil on me that I had a reaction although it only effected me on my nose and backs of my ears

The common names poison ivy, oak and sumac are challenging to talk about on a national forum like this. Regionally we use those words for different plants, sometimes interchangeably. So as we talk about this, We all need to realize that one regions poison ivy is another’s poison oak and so on. It’s very confusing.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

The common names poison ivy, oak and sumac are challenging to talk about on a national forum like this. Regionally we use those words for different plants, sometimes interchangeably. So as we talk about this, We all need to realize that one regions poison ivy is another’s poison oak and so on. It’s very confusing.

Yea we have a saying down here, leaves of 3 leave it be…. I know they all three have similar oil in them but something about the suemac (or perhaps how much I got on me) caused my first ever reaction to it. My nose and the backs of my ears were at up lol but it never caused a reaction on my hands or arms which is weird because I was holding and cutting the stuff barehanded with short sleeves on…

 

[raisins]

If I avoided sitting in trees with poison ivy, I would not be able to hunt in Illinois. Every tree has it, almost without exception in areas I hunt. I use light weight gloves, I’m not sure how to avoid it. Also, I don’t think it commonly has oil rub off on ropes/straps because I’m sensitive to it, and haven’t caught it that way.

around here, it grows a lot in good hunting areas

these are soft transitions where forest meets an old clear cut or something, the light hitting the forest floor causes poison ivy to climb the trees on that edge