I'm thinking a Benadryl cream on the arms and hands too, just to catch incidental contact that gets past the gloves, sleeves etc.

Given the number of reports here I'd guess something like a common soil microbe too. Fungi feels very plausible.

bagged soils-either topsoil, manure, peat hummus and cotton burr compost are giving me welts and rashes in the garden. I think that these soils are sprayed with pesticides and fungicides. It is happening more and more often and I think I've developed a sensitivity. I'm following some advice about poison ivy. The instant you feel itching wipe the area with a paper towel saturated in tubing alcohol to stop the irritant from penetrating further . Then wash with soap and water. It is happening to my ankles and shins so it is either a low plant or the dirt.

" rubbing " alcohol. The new, overactive spellcheck is driving me crazy.

Peat moss is known to cause skin reactions to those sensitive as a result of various fungal organisms it contains. Sporotrichnosis is just one. And can also be contracted from soil, twigs and rose thorns.

Rubbing alcohol in combo with soap is great with poison ivy because the PI irritant is an oil which is removed by the alcohol. I have found soap and water to work well on typical contact dermatitis for plants, fungi, and pets and is easier on skin than rubbing alcohol.

I would think microbes in the compost are far more likely to cause a rash than pesticide residues.

Presumably you mean that ingredients for the compost came from plants or crops that were treated. While they may be detectable, pesticide levels in plant residues after composting would be far below the level required to produce an acute toxic reaction like that. For the vast majority of chemicals, and people. A few people are hypersensitive, and a few pesticides are more durable.

If antihistamines help, it wasn't pesticides.

"Peat humus" is usually not mined peat, it's composted 'forest residues' which is wood chips, leaves, bark etc. from logging and sawmilling operations. Trees for lumber are rarely sprayed with pesticides.

And topsoil...few pesticides are applied to soil, most go on plants. Admittedly, some of those 'topsoil' products are mostly compost or semi-composted shredded wood. The ones that are soil could be from anywhere (sediment dredgings, river bottom land being stripped, etc.), but again I would not expect soil to have high levels of pesticides, with rare exceptions.

My understanding is that contact dermatitis can happen due to sensitivity to a lot of different things, with weird interactions. Was just reading that hogweed causes it in combination with light (and that this isn't the only combination). I don't think there's much better approach than to avoid contact with your skin if you're sensitive.

The human system can be unpredictable. I had a friend in college who went swimming in a golf course pond for golf balls. Came back and his skin was kinda red and irritated. He decided to put Witch Hazel extract on it - they used to sell that in a pint sized bottle, probably had a lot of alcohol in it. Probably his mom used to use it for rashes and such. In less than a minute, he fainted. Luckily was sitting on a bed at the time. Woke back up shortly and was fine. He did stop using the witch hazel. :-o

There is also a huge range of sensitivities with contact dermatitis. Some people can have a reaction at the barest touch and some never develop any reaction with the exact same plant or material. btw, the listing of plants that can produce these reactions is massive...........

if the reaction is only on your hands and arms which contact the soil. it is called a dermatitis. A local reaction.

If the reaction is spread beyond the parts directly exposed to soil, it is an allergy.

You have dermatitis.

Wear long sleeves & gloves to protect your skin while you work. Then, wash up immediately after coming indoors.

Wear a clean long-sleeved shirt next time you work with soil.

Dermatitis is a general term that just means skin irritation and can be an allergic reaction or may have other causes. Per the Mayo Clinic:

• Contact dermatitis. This rash occurs on areas of the body that have come into contact with substances that either irritate the skin or cause an allergic reaction, such as poison ivy, soap and essential oils. The red rash may burn, sting or itch. Blisters may develop.

There's only one part of my yard that makes me itch. My doctor said it's possibly mold since it's wet there.

Well it's interesting ... Never had any reaction from soil ever and I have had my arms looking like they are burnt for about 2wks. Started to wear long sleeves to finish the plethora of big gardens that I am doing. Soil from Home Depot - Bella. Swore by this for many years and this year troubles? Aluminum comes to mind possibly in the soil? Reason I say that is the burn look on my skin. Yes it is a rash with itchy (very) bumps. Product of Chem trails ? Only planting flowers other wise I am skeptic of using this for veggies this year after getting a reaction. Once we find out the many chemicals that have been purposely been put into any product we have bought and communities demand halting Chem Trail exposure and/or deliberate distribution of nefarious chemical into products this will stop.

Aluminum is not particularly irritating, although there are probably some salts of it that could be acidic or basic. Aluminum is the most common metal in the Earth's crust so it's already in your soil, although the concentration can vary over orders of magnitude. EPA says it is typically from 1 to 30% by weight in the US. [Link: EPA Al in Soil Document] As for chem trails, setting aside whether they are real or not: if whatever it is was settling out of the atmosphere, it seems like would be falling on you all the time, and you wouldn't just have rashes when you dig in the garden. It would accumulate on every surface too, and irritate you when you picked a tomato or pulled a weed or put your elbows on the patio table.

It's very possible for a bagged product to be different from one year to the next, even one batch to the next. Different fungi etc. growing in it in different proportions due to the ingredients, composting process, moisture content inside the bag, temperature, storage time and conditions, etc. This seems the most plausible to me.

People can change as well. My dad suddenly developed hives at about age 55. Found out he was allergic to anything corn related. Starch, syrup, meal, gluten, you name it, and it was hard for him to eat for awhile until they got it under control. None of it ever bothered him before.

If not contact dermatitis or a phytotoxic reaction to a plant or plants, it is most likley to be sporotrichosis, a common fungal infection caused by spores that live in the soil (among other places). Bumps/rashes, welts and sometime even open ulcers can be the result of cutaneous infections.

I've been getting an annual rash from brown tail moth larvae, or that's my best guess.

My hands itch when I fill containers from a bag of potting medium. I need to wear gloves or use a scoop and wash my hands straight afterwards. It’s got worse as I’ve got older. I need to wear gloves for all garden tasks these days.

I got a rash from all of 2020. Of all the things that caused it, the garden was not even on the list. :-D

Back in the garden yesterday.

Well I might add to chem trails theory (yes it is real enough information out there if you research). Aluminum is what is needed to work hand in hand with the 5G. So it works as a catalyst if there something in the dirt .... which we have a plethora of 5G on our high rise building and also in the street lights...

Just so happens they threw up the 5G last March while we were in lockdown along with 5G on traffic lights and later street lights. 5G has a little glitch and needs towers 500 meters apart. Originally was thought every third house would have tower. It has 10,000 times the power it needs for the job (makes you think doesn't it). My dirt is turning a reddish colour once it's put onto the garden within hours. Sorry this is extremely odd. Little older and a country girl and very healthy. Working in the dirt sort of speak for a number of years planting - never seen anything like it.

When it is sprayed down from the sky then it's on everything and that means dirt, mix in the 5G and it wouldn't surprise me to create a new reaction. There is also lithium in the chem trail.

Chem Trails certainly aren't for our good health and what would be the most obvious target for the drop... earth itself. Ask yourself who is doing this and why?

I can't even.

I wonder if that's what happened to my mouth?

Looks like a severe case of planaria allergy! Are you OK Annpat?

It can't be from planaria. I run a tight ship here. No slaphappy composting going on in this yard. No, it was a bee, and this photo earned me my very own epi pen.

Yikes! Was that the incredibly overpriced epi pen I heard about in the news awhile back?

How did you end up stung on the lip anyway? Were you...giving the bee some lip?

Sorry, couldn't help myself. :-P

It was my own bee, that's what hurt the most. My profile was even worse---too embarrassing to even show that Daffy Duck photo to strangers.

Oh, yes, when I first went to get the prescribed epi pen, I believe it was $600. Since I'm not convinced I'm allergic, I decided not to get it. The price has gone down now and I do have one on hand.

Good to hear. Health care is ridiculous!

I get the same and ive realised after three years of narrowing it down, its the fertilizers in the compost and also the plant food ...😉👍🏽

If you are making your own compost, it shouldn't have fertilizers added. If you're buying it, well I've never seen a bag of compost with fertilizer added. Potting mix and fancy 'garden soil' products, sure. However these are salts that are pretty much the same stuff that's in soil/compost anyway. Nitrate, phosphate, potassium etc. If your skin is irritated by direct contact with fertilizers, I'll by that. But the concentrations should be much much lower in amended soil products, and much lower than that in unamended compost.

Yes, I did gardening yesterday and my hands are itchy. I narrowed my horrible underskin blistery nightmarishly itchy hands to soil. I finally made the connection a year ago. Yesterday, I wore gloves but I wasn't super careful. I forgot and washed my tools before putting them away. I immediately washed my hands after but it didn't matter. Now I'm miserable.

So yes, soil makes me itchy

Sorry to hear! Why couldn't it happen to someone who doesn't garden?!

Along with itchy skin rashes and hives has anyone had their upper lip swell? It wasn't from a bee.

Good thread to remind - if you haven't had a booster of tetanus vaccine in last ten years (or you're uncertain), you really should. Basically wherever there's organic matter (ie compost and soil) there's tetanus.

Good advice Armoured. Me and the wife have a deal: She makes sure to get that boob-smashing exam on time and I keep my tetanus up to date. Started when we both needed to do it a few years ago, and we still ask each other semi-jokingly. I use chainsaws and a sawmill too, so it's even more important.

Because of course I read too much afterwards - seems the old talk about rusty nails and all that is not so much the disease vector for tetanus as the delivery mechanism - the puncture wound (tetanus loves growing inside the body). So because the tetanus bacteria are ubiquitous, esp in soil/organic matter - a slight puncture wound from any old thing even a thorn in your compost is likely way more of a risk than your chainsaw and sawmill.

Anyway, upshot is the same - worrying about compost stuff with outdated tetanus vaxx is foolish.

I should have completed that sentence above - foolish because having outdated tetanus shot is pretty risky.

And when I said compost more risky than your chainsaws and sawmill - I meant that only with respect to tetanus risk. )

I break out when I garden too. First I get in the dirt to get ready to seed and I break out in a itchy rash all over my hands and arms. If I keep it up my eyes burn and itch. I also get hives. I do take Benadryl or hydroxyzine but it only provides little relief. I also have lived in FL. and Ga. with no change.

Maybe you're allergic to gardening in the South. LOL

Seriously though, I feel for anyone who has this problem. Gardening already has its share of work and hassles without having to worry about hives. Geez.

When my parents were dating in the mid-40s, my father told people that "their" song was 'Don't Fence Me In.' He claimed that my mother wanted their song to be another popular tune at the time---'I Wanna Get Married', which would make my mother roll her eyes.

I wear ppe and long sleeves still got blisters on hands and feet also back and.Perlite Ore is the cause has anyone ever been diagnosed with contact dermatitis from perlite

I get the same thing from the Georgia clay soil here if left on my skin for too long. When I was a child in suburbs of Chicago I once got hives from playing in the snow. My mom rushed me to the doctor. They said I had an allergy to snow. I know that sounds crazy, but later I chalked it up to it being snow made of acid rain. When I moved to Georgia I get the same reaction to the clay soils. So my theory is I have a PH allergy to the acidicness of the clay soil. I just came inside after it happening now. It a weird way it’s good to hear others have this strange allergy. I was edging with an edger that has a blade cutter on it not the plastic string. It spit up some soil on my sweat covered leg and clung there. After a while it felt like I was standing in a fire ant mound covered in bites.

P.s. the burning itch didn’t stop after I washed it off and scrubbed at my leg right away, it took 30 to 45 mins to simmer down to a mosquito bite like itch where it is now.

Look up irritant contact dermatitis, one of the possible triggers is acids. Clay based soils are acidic, and ants spray all around in there colonies formic acid

Yes, my husband bought 4 bags and he has the same over his arms.

@MattLowrey The thing about acid rain is that it's not actually that acidic. The amount of acid in the amount of water (or snow) it would take to wet your skin is pretty small. Not saying that can't be it, just mystified (as an env. chemist).

Question: Do acidic things in the home bother your skin? Vinegar, sauerkraut, ketchup, mustard, pickles, fruit, fruit juices, coffee, soda pop, etc.?

I've never seen this thread before. I'm glad i started reading from the very beginning the original poster says this:

... I try not to put anything in my soil. It is just straight soil from the bag.

So, it's not soil from the ground, it's potting mix - AKA soil. A very different kettle of fish and yes, there is certainly something in that bag of soil that is causing a problem.

I am not seeing that comment in the original post. In any case, a number of posters in the thread have mentioned having reactions to bagged products. My theory is fungi or other organisms growing in the compost that are either directly irritating or have created conditions like low pH that are irritating. Most likely that imbalance will correct itself when the compost is mixed into the soil and exposed to air. Anyone who has had such a reaction to bagged compost or potting mix should cover hands and arms when handling it.

I am having the same reaction & I believe it is from the fertilizer. it almost appears to be a chemical burn. I am sorry Gardengal48 was rude to you. I just signed up to see answers too since it is very uncomfortable! wearing long sleeves and gloves are in my future.

I have been gardening for 30 years and just this week developed a terribly itchy rash that comes and goes on my hands and arms and I believe it is from bagged seedling starter mix. I have always potted my plants bare hands but not anymore. Its something in the bagged mix and I HIGHLY doubt its fungal. This is not a reaction to a fungi it seems chemical like when you use a new laundry detergent and break out in a rash.

wear gloves when working in soil....avoid eczema.....I learned too late