poison oak

[nachoqtpie]

Well who woulda thunk it!

 

[Jared77]

If the poison oak is that big have you tried girdling it? Remove a band of the bark all the way around the trunk of the plant maybe a foot in width? That way it dies. I know its the only way to get rid of Willows and Black Locust trees anything that throws up suckers. It takes a bit but you won't have it coming back.

The smaller stuff Id try some Round Up or other herbicide (Napalm? maybe? lol) and use a paint brush and paint the branch once you've cut part of it off. That way the plant takes it in and kills it. I had to do through a trip to the ER and 5 packs of steroids from my run in with poison sumac. I was clearing brush for a horse pasture for a girl I REALLY liked in H.S. and I scratched up my forearms good. Few hours later they were oozing and swollen up so bad I looked like Popeye the Sailor. My folks found me in the shower trying to wash the oils off with dish soap to break up the oils. But at that point it was too late. I feel for your husband Mama, I haven't been exposed since and I work hard not to catch it again. Best of luck to you.

 

[digitS']

Poison Oak and Poison Ivy are just different varieties of the same species. They cross. I think most patches are mixed and crossed versions.

Their Family name is Anacardiaceae. Cashews are in the same family, and Cashews get a special treatment to remove the toxic oils before we buy them in cans at the store. Djaknowthat?

Sumac Landscape shrub is also related.

No, I didn't know that! You don't suppose that the allergic reaction to the kashew is why some people call them "sneeze nuts?" No, I don't suppose that's it . . .

This entire thread makes me itch! And, burn! . . . oh, I use to get into the poison oak so bad as a kid in southern Oregon! Calamine lotion sure didn't do much! My love affair with Aveeno bath "treatment" began here. I had enuf trouble with the rashes from rheumatoid arthritis not to be getting into the poison oak! Learned . . . luckily, experience wasn't necessary with rattle snakes altho' having harmless snakes try to take bites out of my rubber boots might have helped.

A dear school, experience is.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

might look up 2-4D. Generic chemical that won't hurt grasses but will kill broadleaves.

I agree with seedcorn, 2-4D works great on young tender poison ivy, but not so well on the large stuff. There is another brush killer particularly for woody shrubs, poison ivy/oak and tree trunks. It's chemical name is triclopyr; put out by several different companies. This is the stuff that you can paint on the freshly cut trunks. It does take quite a while to kill, but it kills the roots, too. Pretty sure it leaves grasses alone. This is what I would use if needed. I have seen folks mix round-up and triclopyr, but I don't think the triclopyr would work itself down to the roots if the tops were killed off. Not sure about that. All I know is, don't use a weed wacker.