Thanks for this tip Rita! Since volunteering at our local botanical gardens the past 1 1/2 years, I've come into contact with poison ivy a couple of times and it seems like every week I hear of another volunteer who has the awful rash. I'm making a note right now to purchase some Fels-Naptha soap to keep on hand and I'm going to take some to the gardens and leave it in the office for other volunteers as well! Thanks again for sharing this tip!

Great tip Rita! And I know you know what you're talking about.

I do know from personal experience. I can catch poison ivy pretty easily. But since I now use the soap I just don't catch it. I often pull small poison ivy plants out of my garden with my bare hands and then go immediately inside and wash well with the laundry soap. And I don't get poison ivy.

I am at war with poison ivy all the time under my oak tree.

Great tip Rita!

THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE---

I made myself immune to poison ivy! for a week, I got, every day, a tiny new leaf, when they're starting to grow and the leaves are bright red, smaller than an inch. I used (ugh) Wonder bread to make a pill, the leaf inside. One a day for a week. No ill effects, and I've never gotten a rash since. This was in a Euell Gibbons book.

Oh, I did wash my hands after handling the leaves with lots of soap and near-hot water to wash off the oils that cause the rash.

THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE!! ( I've been flamed for telling people this tip.)

That is very interesting. However I will not be trying it and will just stick to washing well if I have touched it.

The Poison Ivy plant is a food source for animals; apparently the urushiol in the sap doesn't bother them but if the sap gets inside a human mouth it can cause a rash. I know how aggravating it was to have the rash on my arms and legs ... I can't even imagine how horrible it would be to have it inside my mouth! One lady who I volunteer with at the botanical gardens got it in her eyes a couple of years ago and ended up in the hospital! It was probably transferred from her gardening gloves or shirt sleeves.

Your not even supposed to burn poison ivy as the smoke can get in your lungs. No, I think it is a VERY bad idea to get poison ivy internally.

I read the same thing about building your immunity by eating it, but that's too scary for me! Luckily, we have lots of jewelweed growing on our property, and rubbing that on your skin prevents the rash. If I'm in a spot where there there isn't jewelweed, I bring a milk jug filled with water, a bar of soap and a small towel. It's good to know what kind of soap to use, though, thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the tip! My usual MO is avoid, avoid, and avoid, but we all slip up sometimes. At least I'm not allergic to it. An allergy to poison ivy must be the worst thing a lover of the outdoors and nature can have! We also have something called noseburn that can make you itch if you touch it, but it's not too bad usually. Another plant to be cautious with is milkweed. Contact with the sap can cause a skin rash with certain sensitive people. And if you should ever accidentally get any sap residue in your eyes, it can cause some damage, so always wash your hands if you handle the plant. If sap should accidentally get in your eye (s), carefully rinse out with water or any saline solution you might have, then call your doctor. I called my ophthalmologist when it happened to me, but not until the next day because I really didn't know any had gotten in my eye. I still grow milkweed, but I'm very careful.

My entire family is immune to Poison Ivy. Our goats grazed on the plants, we drank the milk. The doctor said the goats form antibodies to the Poison Ivy and the antibodies are passed through the milk.
DH hides in the patches of Poison Oak and Poison Ivy when hunting wild turkeys. Same for all four of our children, no reaction to either plant.

That is very good. Most of us are not so lucky!

Wow, can't imagine sitting in a patch of poison ivy! My family is highly allergic to it so we won't be eating it, but that is an interesting concept.

My son-in-law is a sheriff's deputy and he had to respond to a brushfire a couple of weeks ago. He did not know that the plant he was standing next to was sumac and he got it in his eyes and some other places. He was miserable for two weeks and just looking at his eyes made my eyes tear up.

Pretty handy stuff--that Fels Naphtha is. Good for removing heavy grease and oil stains on clothes, too, just by rubbing a bar over the stain prior to washing. I get mine at the local Dollar Stores. You can find it on Ebay, too.

I have never seen poison ivy (that I know of), never knew what it looks like. Now I do. Pretty common looking.

Pretty common to find it growing also.

If it grows in the wild out here in our challenging droughty environment, it must be growing EVERYWHERE!