"Elmo" wrote: (clp) If I had put a hand creme all over my body, especially my knees and ankles,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Putting it all over the body seems a bit extreme, but--whatever it takes. Realize, of course, that you are comparing a whole body treatment to the wearing of gloves. I would try using the cream on hands, forearms and other areas where you have experienced the problem, and rely on some kind of coveralls for full body protection.
I didn't mention it but I subscribe to the multi-layer approach with respect to the whole body.
So I wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt under my mechanics overalls (coveralls?). And I wear nitrile gloves under the goatskin gauntlet style mig/tig welding gloves.
Still, I'm so covered in the urushiol catechols that my wrists have visible phenolic black marks from scrapes with the oxidized and polymerized urushiol, especially when it's wet or when I sweat a lot.
So, the hand creme might be a good third layer on my wrists.
About the only part of my body exposed to the elements is my face, neck, and ears ... but for some reason, they don't seem to get the rash as much as my wrists, between my fingers, and on my ankles and toes.
Don't forget your suit of armor and chain mail hauberk and coif.
Some folks with Indian blood are immune, you can get them to remove it for you. Or, apply Roundup, repeat every 2-3 weeks if needed. If I needed to actually handle it myself I'd use rubber surgery gloves.
Everyone keeps suggesting Roundup. Maybe I'm missing something basic here.
Remember, we're talking a JUNGLE of intertwined vines. How am I supposed to get Roundup a hundred yards from where I can't access, let alone five feet from the thicket I'm trying to penetrate?
What am I missing that more than one person says Roundup will do the job?
We're talking hedgerow-thick impenetrable chaparral so thick a human can't get more than a couple of feet into it before being stopped by the vines, many of which are an inch to two inches thick along with the thinner stuff as shown in the pictures previously posted.
Maybe they know of a dissemination method that I haven't thought of, being that there's no way to disburse Roundup a hundred yards from what you can actually acess, let alone five to twenty feet from where you're standing.
Or is there???? How can Roundup possibly be disseminated thru these impenetrable thickets (see the pictures)???????????????
I was thinking helicopter since the canyon sides may be too steep to get a bulldozer in there ... :)
Seriously, I do have a pressure washer, but, wouldn't it use a LOT of Roundup since it feeds from a garden hose? The garden hose is problematic since there isn't a faucet within 500 yeards of the thicket I'm trying to hack my way through. Plus, I'm not trying to clear a square area; I'm cutting a path along the bank of a small stream where the stream itself is choked with poison ivy so the first pass is the stream, the second pass is the bank.
Lately I've been using a chain saw as my "light saber", standing in the center of the stream channel, holding the chain saw high above my head and slashing down to allow myself forward movement. I only need to cut a man-sized tunnel so I don't have to get all the vines that are above 7 feet or so.
I also use the chain saw to slash the ground as there's about a foot of intertwined dead poison oak vines on the floor of the chaparral canyon on the sides of the bank - much of which scrapes against my ankles causing rashes when I am not careful enough.
Likewise, fire seems problematic because I wouldn't know how to keep it in a straight line and it's dry chaparral besides ... which, if it went up in flames, could be very dangerous.
Back to the roundup ... I guess I could slash my way through the stream channel ... and THEN I could apply roundup to the sides of the bank. But I'd still have to wait a year or so for the urushiol to "weather" out of the vines (some say it never weathers out, others say it does). And, after that year has passed, then I can clear off the dead vines.
But, that doesn't seem to be any less work than slashing my way through the vines with all the cutting tools at my disposal. Or maybe I'm missing a key point???????
Elmo:
I come very late to this discussion, but have been reading your posts for years and know you are very determined and usually find a solution.
In this case, I have worked, lived, played, even had ...hmm, a few "intimate experiences" in and around poison oak.
So, that's some 42 years, if you count from about 8 years old.
The messages saying that the oil disappear after about a year or so, are true in MY experience. I can't guarantee it for you and your particular bushes. Maybe you have cream of the crop, top quality hybrid poison oak and the oils last for centuries.
But for my Oregon poison oak on MY ranch, it lasts a year or so.
Unlucky enough to "get a rash." Zanfel is a wonder drug. Technu makes a competing product that works just as well and is usually a little cheaper. But neither are cheap. A small tube of the stuff is $25 or more, but compared to poison oak misery, it's worth it. Just make sure if you buy the Technu brand you are NOT buying just their cleaner.
What you want is Technu EXTREME. You can google both Zanfel and Technu to read about them.
A trip to the doctor also works, but is even more expensive and then you get ultra high doses of steroids, which I prefer to avoid.
Finally, you'd be amazed at what a GOOD heavy equipment operator can do for you, or the suggestions they can make. It wouldn't hurt to call one to take a look. Pricewise, and misery-wise, you could come out way ahead
Tim
Dumb question- why do you need access to this creek bed? Simple contrariness, and a desire to walk wherever you please on your property? Your best dog keeps getting stuck down there?
Mother nature has clearly labeled that a no-human zone. I'd be inclined to post a few signs and say the hell with it. A whole lotta work to kill it and remove it, and keep it from coming back.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the well worded advice. Maximum mysery, for me, seems to occur three to five days after a heavy exposure to the three-leaved devil. I have used the prophylactic ivyblock but not the Technu yet (didn't know about "extreme" ... will check that out). My strategy is to prevent the resinous catechols from touching my skin, hence the persistent need for gauntlet-style nimble gloves.
On the topic of the method of clearing, I do think airlifting some heavy equipment out there might work ... save for the cliff (as yet unknown whether it's climbable) ... but, truth be told, I actually enjoy the challenge and the exercise of hand clearing the land for the path along the ravine brook.
Like you, the neighbors tell me to just hire some of the "day workers" (they use a slightly different term) who frequent the hardware stores around here so thickly that you'd think you're the object of adolation, at least while driving up the driveway to the Home Depot.
I'm told "they are immune" or "don't know better", and for the $10/hour (cash only for some strange reason) it costs per man, a crew of five would likely clear the path in a day or three.
However, I do my own work, and enjoy it. The price is always to be paid, and, in this case, the cost is the learning that must be done to deal with thine enemy - that resinous sap of the redoubtable Toxicodendron diversilobum species!
Elmo
Just to enjoy a meandering walk along its banks.
Okay, that puts it in same class as mountain climbing- 'because it is there'. Well, unless you kill yourself with the hazmat side effects, I guess it is cheaper than a gym membership. :^/
Not a flame, mind you. I do understand. No SWMBO with a honey-do list, on the premises?
I do consider it healthy exercise.
Just climbing out of the ravine gets me huffing and puffing.
Plus it's a few thousand feet up already (I don't know when the air gets thinner noticably though so the height may not matter).
An F/A18-E fly over dropping a couple 500lb napalm bombs from wing pylons should clear out the creekbed.
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