HelpfulGardener.com

On the 4th of July my grandfather attempted to yank a vine. He couldn't do it and my mother got worried about him on a ladder so she yanked the vine down herself. My brother also touched it, probably by wheeling the trash can it was in to the road. A short time after that my mom got a rash on her face and neck, and thought it was poison ivy. Turns out my grandfather has it on his legs, arms and face and my brother has it on his legs. Turns out may not be poison ivy, it maybe poison oak, sumac or something else. Everyone's heading to doctors because the rash from its getting worse and spreading and its very painful. It may be common sense and I'm pretty sure everyone knows this already but please wear some form of protection with plants you aren't sure about. Even if takes more time, you think its too hot out so on. Wear something, gloves at the very least. You could save yourself a lot of pain and discomfort.

Thanks for the reminder... I hope everyone recovers with minimum discomfort -- not fun to have this during the hot time of the year.

I'm dealing with poison ivy rash myself. Keeping from spreading but -- oh so itchy!
..and eye-ing some more poison ivy that have sprung up / resuscitated in the garden with loathing.

I sometimes erroneously convince myself that "it's only a seedling/a little plant and if I hold it carefully by the undamaged stem and not touch leaves or anything, it won't get me even though I'm not wearing gloves...."

oh, apple... you should know better! Some of the worst poison ivy cases I've gotten have been when I've been out clearing brush in very early spring, before it is leafed out. Very hard to spot then, but if you come in contact with that bare vine, it will still get you!

Another precaution to remember. If you take out these vines and are allergic to them-DO NOT burn them!! My son is highly allergic to poison Ivy, his cousins are not. They threw all the brush into a pile and were going to have a bon fire-and I cautioned my son about that. Don't breathe that smoke! It can damage your lungs! Thankfully, he had already thought of that!

Another warning just because it doesn't have three leaves doesn't mean its not poison! Three leaves means poison ivy but there are other plants like poison oak and sumac that can cause a lot of problems that don't have three leaves. That's how my family got into the mess, that vine didn't look like poison ivy. And take a shower right after weeding, if you got poison on you it should wash off. And thanks Applestar my mom and grandpa are getting better, though my mom's apparently extremely sensitive to whatever that plant was. My brother's is apparently spreading now. And it been 11 days! Good luck with your case hope it's pretty mild. Stay safe everyone!