Is there a better way to remove a poison oak plant than with a chainsaw?

Hi Frank,

2,4D (aka Agent Orange) might work, especially if I could drop it out of the sky like they did in Vietnam - which - is my real problem with weed killers.

The poison oak plants I have are 20 feet long by something like 5 to 10 to 20 feet deep, so, there's just no way a normal weed killer sprayer is going to go the distance.

Today I tried to see if I could get my pressure washer to suck out of the

5 gallon pesticide jug - but I couldn't figure out how to do it.

Does anyone know how to get a pressure washer to spray the stuff?

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Reply to
Danny D.
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I'd say this poison oak plant I just cut today is pretty "woody"! See this picture of the urushiol literally dripping out!

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8 ounces can infect everyone on earth - and - if you look at this one stem, I'd wager we could get that 8 ounces out of it in an hour!

Reply to
Danny D.

I'm not sure I've adequately explained the MAGNITUDE of my problem. :(

Please look at this picture I just took today of the other side of the poison oak plant I'm trying to kill.

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is the full-size picture, just so you can SEE, up front, what I'm dealing with, face to face, man to land:
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sheer number of toxic vines is tremendous, so, cutting each one individually and painting them with weedkiller would certainly work - but

- it would take a very long time!

Reply to
Danny D.

Now that's a new idea!

I'll google to see what the heck a fruit-tree sprayer looks like!

I failed today to get my pressure washer to work because I couldn't figure out how to get it to suck from the jug instead of from the hose.

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Reply to
Danny D.

The truck-mounted sprayer 'might' work on the curbside plant, if I could afford it - but - look at this picture to see the magnitude of the problem I face.

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is just no way a truck is going to get down there!

Reply to
Danny D.

I like the idea of a truck mounted sprayer.

But there will still be tons of poison oak in the inaccessible places like this one I snapped just today about 100 feet below where the pictures were taken yesterday.

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don't think a truck can get down there, unfortunately.

Reply to
Danny D.

On 08 Jan 2013, "Danny D." wrote in alt.home.repair:

looking at it. Even looking at your pictures gives me itchy blisters.

Those things look malevolent, like they're aware of and looking to catch and kill human beings.

Reply to
Nil

They make cutters that mount on excavators look here

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you get it cleared you'll want to keep it sprayed until it quits regrowing.

Reply to
Pat

Even better, dairy goats. Drinking the milk of goats that eat poison oak tends to give you a partial immunity.

Reply to
Wes Groleau

Funny you should say that, because I treat it like a battleground! :)

I dress up in my protective gear, and I fuel and oil my weapon, and then I survey my enemy, looking for the weak spots in his fortress.

As I attack, he reaches out at any bare skin with chemical warfare (1 cup of urushiol can poison everyone on the entire planet!) and I coil back in fear when it slaps me in the face.

But, while slashing away at the outliers, soon I spy the leadership, a thick set of vines, each the thickness of a baseball bat, and I aim at them as Alexander did Darias, to fight my way past the wounded weeping tendrils guarding the lair, until I can get close enough to strike deep and hard at the core!

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the end, I win, and hold up the bleeding trophy in my triumphant hands!
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The amount of urushiol you see dripping in that one picture can poison the entire population of the planet, according to the prior references! wow.

Reply to
Danny D.

IF you don't come up with a better method, at least get a chainsaw extender so that you are further away from the spray.

Goats, by the way (I used to raise them), will eat the leaves and softer stems, not the woody vines. If the leaves are hard to reach, they may not bother, but if they do, the trampling of the vines also helps.

They may chew on the bark of the vines--that part I can't remember. They did like the bark of some trees, but I don't remember whether they liked poison oak bark. (It was thirty years ago)

Reply to
Wes Groleau

There are other opinions. One source suggested that 15% are unaffected; another said thirty.

I reacted severely from what was in the air when I got close to it when we first moved to Oregon. But a few years later, I could pick it without gloves and have little or no reaction. Other people who drank goat's milk reported similar experiences. We believe the milk either contains an antidote, or it contains traces of urushiol so small your body has a chance to develop a defense.

But it might be something else entirely. I do think I have a strong immune system, as I never react to a smallpox vaccine. Since I had no scar, the Navy accused me of lying and vaccinated me again. And again, even though the second one (the first Navy one) was documented in my official records.

Unfortunately, my immune system is now attacking my thyroid glands.

Reply to
Wes Groleau

Nobody is immune to cell mediated immunity.

I was sensitized to poison ivy way long ago as a kid. I get it as badly as anyone does.

Now that I'm in California, it's poison oak. But it still itches like crazy.

When I get it on my skin, and I don't wash it off, I am red and yellow blisters and itching for weeks on end. Just like you are.

The problem is exacerbated when you see how much oil is in a single plant! Look at this video, for example, of a 3-inch thick vine I cut today.

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's enough urushiol right there to poison every single human on the planet! Talk about biological warfare!

PS: My camera is soaked in the stuff. I don't know how to clean it yet.

Reply to
Danny D.

I wonder if it helps to be sensitized as a child to poison ivy (back east) and then to be thoroughly exposed to poison oak (out west).

The only difference in the catechol oil urushiol is poison ivy urushiol has a 15 carbon chain while poison oak urushiol has a 17 carbon chain.

But, slight differences, can sometimes make a huge difference in cell mediated immune responses.

Note: I use free drillers bentonite instead of expensive ivy block; and I use Dawn dishwashing liquid instead of $40/ounce Technu (only the government can afford those prices!).

BTW, here's a dripping vine I cut today, the size of my wrist, just dripping with urushiol!

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Reply to
Danny D.

We're talking different things, so let's clarify. :)

  1. Nobody is immune to type IV CMI
  2. But not everybody gets the rash under normal circumstances
  3. Yet, almost everyone will get the rash if they get exposed to enough urushiol.

It gets complicated to explain in a USENET post, but let's briefly take these in turn - but this isn't the place for detailed discussions.

I. Nobody is immune. Delayed contact dermititis is a type IV CMI (cell mediated immune response), which nobody is immune to forever. Get exposed frequently enough, and you WILL get it. It's the way your body works.

II. Not every gets the rash all the time This is highly dependent on dosage! Remember the oil is NOT anywhere on the outside of the plant! The oil is protectively ensconced INSIDE the cells. Of course, chain sawing the plant in half tends to allow the oils to leak out ... like this video I just took today of just that:

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Give any human enough pure urushiol, and they ALL will get the rash! (See #I and #II above.)

Anyway, while we're quoting figures, Wikipedia says the following on percentages:

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"Approximately 80% to 90% of adults will get a rash if they are exposed to 50 micrograms of purified urushiol. Some people are so sensitive, it only takes a trace of urushiol (two micrograms or less than one ten- millionth of an ounce) on the skin to initiate an allergic reaction (Epstein et al., 1974).[6]"

Now, if you're exposed to less urushiol, all bets are off - but - given this picture below, I would safely say anyone exposed to this much potential urushiol had better take some safety precautions (as I do). :)

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Reply to
Danny D.

Hi Wes,

That is an interesting story - but I would caution anyone from actually touching the stuff because of the classic YMMV difference in every situation.

The funny thing about invisible toxins is that we really don't know exactly where the stuff is, and where it isn't.

For example, look at my red sweatshirt & TIG welding gloves today:

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I had no idea exactly WHERE the urushiol was, on Sunday, when I last wore them, but today, two days later, the oil on the gloves was sufficiently oxidized black to see it and the shirt oils were oxidized in the washing machine.

The point is - you never know if you've been truly exposed or not, as it's a statistical thing. So, a LOT of people conclude they were exposed and didn't get the rash - when - in reality - they just weren't exposed (or not exposed to enough to make black marks all over their clothes).

When I was in graduate school, I worked part time in a lab, and you'd be amazed at the strangest places we found P32 with the geiger counter. You can't see it - and when you find out where it got - you sit there and ponder how the hell did it get there.

Now, maybe the goats milk matters - because the immune system DOES work the way you said it does (i.e., when exposed at the right time in the immune system development, the immune system learns what is body and what is foreign) - so I am NOT saying you're wrong ... I'm just cautioning anyone from actually touching the stuff with bare hands on purpose!

:)

Urushiol is no different. You didn't get it from "the air". You touched something that had a pinprick drop of oil on it. What you touched could have been 'anything' (remember, the oil is known to remain infectious for

100 years ... in a laboratory drawer anyway).

The other thing to remember is that the oil is NOT on the outside of the plant. Not outside the leaves, stem, berries, or root. But it's inside all of them, so, you (and I) can pick it up (gingerly) and nothing bad will happen.

But, when you do this ... now you've gotten that damn plant mad! :)

Reply to
Danny D.

Actually, I had put a sign in Spanish & English on the green recycling bins, but, then I called the waste management company to warn them, and they told me they won't pick them up because they are a toxic waste biohazard!

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I ended up wistfully pulling all the mutilated Pacific Poison Oak vines back OUT of the bins (which probably exposed me to more than chainsawing them did!) ... and I carried the bleeding-black vines deeper into the chaparral for safety sake, cursing the day I ever got the bright idea of putting them into the recycling bins in the first place!

Lesson learned, the hard way!

Note: In the picture above, the black ring is a ring of oxidized urushiol, which weeped clear, but then oxidized to a black laquer since Sunday.

Reply to
Danny D.

Reply to
Danny D.

Hi Wes, Wow. You have a lot of good information!

If they chew on the bark, there's no way they're not exposed to the urushiol in huge amounts!

Here is a full-sized picture of what's just under the bark on a small vine, of the type they might chew on. They must have amazing guts!

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Reply to
Danny D.

When I first bought the property I live at, which is covered in Pacific Poison Oak, I researched the Internet for weeks, trying to assess my enemy. (Never underestimate your enemy when it's poison oak!)

One thing I learned is that the delayed cell mediated immune response to urushiol is such that NOBODY is ever (truly) immune.

Sure, you might not get the rash this time. Maybe not next time. Maybe not the next. Or the next after that. But, the physiology of the body's immune response is such that everyone 'can' get it at any time after the first exposure. Which is exactly what you found out! :)

What I do, by the way, after a severe exposure, is, instead of buying the expensive IvyBlock/Technu/Zanfel/Prednisole regimen, is the following:

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Reply to
Danny D.

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