Still trying to avoid packing: I am another posion ivy fanatic...I get
it badly and one of my sons has both a terrible sensitivity to and an
affinity for the stuff. Collecting land shells or river mussels is a
great way to pick up a hellish case of it.

Interestingly, to me at least, I have begun NOT breaking out in a rash
in those few days after exposure as is typical, but two to three weeks
later on my last three "brushes" with the stuff! By that time one is not
sure where one picked up the itchy plague. This past February, I
developed a terribly itchy rash on the back of my upper thigh, and had
no idea what it was. I mean, in the winter in Kentucky, one does not
expose that part of the body out of doors! And besides, there is no
poison ivy to be seen (although dormant stalks can still impart a heck
of a rash). Finally it produced the characteristic blisters on blisters,
in rows, and I recognized the malady, but where did I get it? From an
old pair of shoes, pulled on to do some work in the basement, we think.
They must have been to the woods last fall and I must have sat with my
foot doubled under me somehow. Or something! But it WAS poison ivy.

The "touch-me-not" plant Andy mentions as a possible remedy is also
known as jewelweed, in the genus Impatiens, and comes in two species...a
yellow-flowered  or Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) and an
orange-flowered variety, Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). The
flowers look a bit like snapdragons and hang below the leaves of this
woodland plant in the family Balsaminaceae. It likes lush creek bottoms
in shade. The "Touch-me-not" name comes from its seed pods. Like the
garden variety of impatiens,  when touched a ripe pod of jewelweed will
explode and fling its seeds in all directions...fun to play with!

And it really works...so well that we used to crush it and freeze it
into ice cubes for use when the plant was not available. One can
effectively apply the juice before going into the poison-infested area
and it seems to protect against the invisible oily sap, after exposure
but before breaking out and it will prevent the formation of a rash, and
to the full blown rash. The important thing is to remove the tiny
quantities of sap that one has picked up. Perhaps the juice of the jewel
weed somehow neutralizes it? I bet the peroxide dissolves it! And Andy,
personally, I would vastly prefer to damage delicate skin a little bit
than itch and scar for sure with the poison ivy rash.

A bit of evidence which our family doctor called circumstantial: once my
badly allergic son, then a 7 year old, went snailing with Walter Sage
and Richard and me. We all rubbed down with the treasured weed before
going into the woods. Son Mike was in shorts, and I rubbed his little
bare legs extra well with jewel juice. He later slid down a bank of
poison ivy on his bottom. The only place he got poison ivy was above the
shorts line where the slide had pushed his shorts up and exposed
un-jewel-weeded skin, a sharp line of demarcation between rash and
healthy skin!

But the most important weapon against the stuff is "Know your enemy! And
avoid it!"

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY