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

[Brooklyn1]

high pressure settings, and can set the suck rate. Love it:

[Danny D.]

Wow. That looks like a mean pruner! This is the FIRST suggestion which is actually affordable (i.e., $80). I do have a 20 inch hedge clipper - but it gets hung up on the vines all the time, so I didn't even mention it. But THIS pruner, wow, it sure looks like it might do the job if I can get an 18-inch long jaw.

I've researched the chemicals in those expensive creams in great detail. What I use is the cheaper base alternative shown in this photograph: Bentonite clay (IvyBlock), Dawn Dish Detergent + alchohol (Technu/Zanfel)

my very humble opinion, only people who work for the government (e.g., firemen) can afford these expensive $40/ounce solutions.

The problem with IvyBlock (or my driller's clay) is that you have to put it on ahead of time; and the problem with Technu (or dish detergent + alcohol) is that it mostly works in the first 15 minutes.

But, I just found this patent which will give me a great new solution!

- United States Patent 4,594,239, June 10, 1986,

- Method for neutralizing offensive chemicals

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can take diluted bleach (or pool trichlor) and mix it with rubbing alcohol (or acetone) as a wetting agent, and that will oxidize the urushiol sap just enough so that the body's T Cells won't recognize it anymore as offensive.

The beauty of this (new to me) approach is that I can afford to slather this new decontamination solution on my face, hands, wrists, ears, and neck every fifteen minutes while working in the ravines.

The amazing thing is that I had never heard of this decontamination solution until just yesterday! I found it out on rec.photo.digital when I asked how to decontaminate my expensive Nikon SLR which is clearly covered in urushiol sap by now!

[Ripple Whine]

What is butyl acetate and where would you get it?

[Stormin Mormon]

I thought you were going to spray it on the plants.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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United States Patent 4,594,239, to Pluim, Jr., on June 10, 1986 Titled: Method for neutralizing offensive chemicals

Urushiol causes dermatitis by changing the surface proteins in the skin so the body no longer recognizes the skin as human, and attacks it.

That effect is actually fairly easy to interfere with. Pretty much any change to the urushiol molecule would probably prevent dermatitis.

Chlorine bleach is a strong oxidizing agent, and should easily do the trick. Getting it into the oil would be aided by adding alcohol or acetone as a wetting agent, but a strong surfactant should also work.

The patent prefers a solution of acetone + butyl acetate + trichloroisocyanuric acid for neutralizing urushiol on skin, clothes, and equipment; but if I preferentially select just the common household chemicals discussed, the patent seems says that 2% to 6% common bleach alone or combined with 5% to 20% rubbing alcohol (or acetone) as a wetting agent will neutralize urushiol in about 1 minute.

The patent even explains how adding certain ferrous compounds will actually make the toxic urushiol glow green, while the decontaminated urushiol will not.

Armed with this information, I can create a decontamination mix out of the prescribed pool chemicals and rubbing alcohol, which I can use to wash my face, hands, neck, ears, and wrists every 15 minutes, while removing the poison oak in the field!

[Pat]

Look around. Someone in the area will have one. Hire him.

[Pat]

A excavator can work a steep slope with a second rig on top with a winch. A tow truck can be used.

[Wes Groleau]

Or as my four-year-old sister said, "There's no such thing of that, 'cause I never heard of it!"

They said no one is immune to smallpox--your lack of scar PROVES you were never vaccinated. So they did it again.

Two years later, same argument, same result.

My sensitivity to poison oak DEcreased from 1967 to 1972. Don't know why, but I've posted my hypothesis already.

[Wes Groleau]

TRUE--but many accidental exposures had appeared to confirm the goat's milk hypothesis. So, being young and foolish, I assumed I was immune and abandoned precautions. And got away with it.

When it was my son's turn to be young and foolish, he formed the hypothesis that he could immunize himself by limited contact. If you know where to look, you can still make out the scars.

Ah, I would question that as well. Before my resistance developed, the slightest contact had severe effects.

By the way, some of that resistance has gone away over time.

[Wes Groleau]

Well, remember your posts about changing the chemical structure. Hydrochloric acid and whatever else is in goats' stomachs would probably do that.

And they don't chew much at first. Like cows, they pick and swallow rapidly, then they relax somewhere, cough it back up and chew it thoroughly.

[Danny D.]

Nope. That's the whole point. I don't have to clean up any of this poison oak. So, I can take my time.

Basically, when I get in the mood for a good fight, I head down to the ravine for battle. It's really more of a hobby to figure out how to defeat the poison oak, to beat it at its own game - and not get rashed in the process.

It has been a tough battle - but I've learned a lot in just the past few days, so, eventually, I'll know the secret.

Today I talked to a pharmacist. I must have gotten a bad apple because she kept telling me it's for women and that it won't work on the skin and that it wasn't an "approved purpose".

I need to find a pharmacist who can actually think out of the box. (It doesn't seem to be their specialty as all they do is follow the rules.)

[Wes Groleau]

I once argued for five minutes with a pharmacist who didn't want to fill my prescription for four 85 cc doses of Lovenox. "Only comes in fifty and a hundred." I finally convinced him I am capable of squirting fifteen CC into the sink.

[Stormin Mormon]

I have a similar "while I have the time" project. I collect rocks out of a farmer's field, and fill mudholes with them. One I've been working on, is where the utility guys pull off the road to do phone wiring. The mudhole is probably four by 10 feet or so. I've put in a bunch of buckets of rocks, and I'm falling behind. The mudhole is still there.

A few years back, I used buckets of rock to fill the sink holes at my church, next to the storm drain.

Farmers are better off without the rocks, and the rest of the world is better off without the sink holes. I only harvest rocks between crops, won't walk on shoots or harvestable crops.

I also am not all that impressed with "in the box" thinkers.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Nope. That's the whole point. I don't have to clean up any of this poison oak. So, I can take my time.

Basically, when I get in the mood for a good fight, I head down to the ravine for battle. It's really more of a hobby to figure out how to defeat the poison oak, to beat it at its own game - and not get rashed in the process.

It has been a tough battle - but I've learned a lot in just the past few days, so, eventually, I'll know the secret.

Today I talked to a pharmacist. I must have gotten a bad apple because she kept telling me it's for women and that it won't work on the skin and that it wasn't an "approved purpose".

I need to find a pharmacist who can actually think out of the box. (It doesn't seem to be their specialty as all they do is follow the rules.)

[Danny D.]

It depends a LOT on what's in the milk, and, what your body does to it. The entire process is complicated, and I don't profess to fully understand it.

But, it starts with urushiol & T cells.

The actual urushiol is a benzene ring with two hydroxides (i.e., a catechol), with a specific alkyl group which is slightly different depending on species (e.g., poison ivy = 15 carbon chain, poison oak = 17 carbon chain). This molecule is harmless, and it, in and of itself, does not provoke the immune response.

The immune response is complicated in so much as the longer carbon chains in poison oak sap appear to have a greater immune response than the shorter ones of ivy ... and ... the more unsaturated the chain (i.e., double bonds), the more our immune systems react to it (at least it says so in Wikipedia).

Once on the skin, the oil penetrates to the lower antigen-presenting immune cells whose job is to capture foreign invaders and transport them to the lymph notes to be presented as evidence to the specific white blood cells which had matured in the thymus in front of your heart, and which play a role in the cell mediated immune response.

Since T cells, which originate in the bone marrow, randomly mutate in the thymus, some of those mutations select for "self" proteins. But that's bad news for the body, so the thymus has a system for weeding out these miscreants.

Unfortunately, what the thymus lets out are T cells who have receptors that key for the quinole that the urushiol oxidizes to. Hence the rash.

Point is, this is a complicated mechanism, which, we have only two basic approaches to combat:

1. Build up an immunity (i.e., don't create Tcells coded for the quinone) or
2. Remove the quinone from the body as soon as you can

I'm working on the second approach ... you've resolved the first.

[Brooklyn1]

Every power washer I've ever seen has a place to attach a tube for sucking up liquid, often there's a port right on the spray gun housing ... most normal brained folks would ask the power washer's customer service department... and it's really dumb to ask about a power washer without indicating the brand/model number.

[Danny D.]

If I had a sprayer that went 20 feet, that would go a long way toward killing (at least half) the Pacific Poison Oak I want dead.

I tried getting my Honda pressure washer to spray from a 5 gallon jug, but I haven't figured out the controls to do so.

The best time to spray, I'm told, is when the fruits are out.

[Danny D.]

This power washer has not only a place to suck up liquid, but it already has a hose attached. It's just not sucking up the liquid!

I'm sure it's because it needs a switch (somehow) flipped!

Here's a picture of the PowerStroke washer I just took for you.

uses the Honda GC160 engine, if that helps.

Here is a closeup of the markings & the valving apparatus:

anyone has ever used their pressure washer to suck out of the hose, they would probably know what the secret configuration setup might be.

[chaniarts]

i have a weed sprayer container that sucks via an venturi, that attaches to a regular hose that will easily shoot 20' in a stream, or can be adjusted to spray in a fan. it only cost a few dollars at the borg.

[Brooklyn1]

Instructions are likely in the owner's manual. This looks like the same unit... it automatically mixes concentrates. Powerwashers usually suck concentrate only with the lowest pressure tip, because they're designed to apply the cleaner and then let it sit, not wash it right off. If you can't find instructions in the owner's manual phone the manufacturer.

[Danny D.]

Thanks for the picture of that weed sprayer. It appears to use a garden hose as part of the apparatus?

I mentioned somewhere in this thread that this infestation of poison oak starts something like 400 or 500 feet from the house (I haven't meaured it but it's easily a football field away), and goes for a few hundred feet further in the downhill direction.

It's not impossible to handle 500 feet of garden hose (I probably have just about that much already) ... it's not the easiest approach.

Personally I'm looking for a more portable solution for the mountain folks like me who have hilly acreage.

[NamPhong]

Getting your pressure washer to suck out of another container may be as simple as connecting the correct nozzle on the end of the wand. Going on failing memory, once had one that required a very open nozzle to be attached to the wand to suck the correct cleaning solution from a container but without the maximum pressure. Might be worth a try.