Yep, get someone else to do it. Hire someone if necessary. I've read that it can get into your blood stream and show up on body parts that weren't exposed. And the more often you are exposed, the more sensitive you can become. If you must work around it, buy some of the yellow rubber dishwashing gloves that go way up your arms. My boss uses them when we're pulling it, and they work well (I work in lawn maintenance). Just be very careful when you take them off to not touch your arms. And be careful of the sprayed plants. The rash comes from the oil, and even if it's dead, the oil is still there. It's really best to have someone pull it if at all possible.

My boss's husband can 'feel' when it's nearby. He gets a sort of itchy/prickly sensation. He'll ask me to see if I see any, and almost always, yep, it's there somewhere.

Hubby is hyper-sensitive to poison ivy. These are some things he does....

1. Wear disposable gloves and dispose of them when done treating poison ivy. Cloth gloves should be laundered, if you choose to wear them. Cloth/leather gloves will absorb urushiol, the clear liquid compound in the sap of the plant that causes the rash. The sap can remain active in all kinds of things it has come in contact with - including your gloves. Cover yourself well with long sleeves and long pants to prevent skin exposure. Wear shoes you can also launder.

2. Wash clothing and shoes separately from other clothes A.S.A.P. if you have been working around poison ivy.

3. Take a shower A.S.A.P. liberally using old-fashioned lye soap. If you can't find lye soap use ZOTE (inexpensive pink laundry bar - just cut a 1/2" slice of it off the end because it's a HUGE bar) or Fels Naptha (also a laundry bar). You can also treat the rash with lather from lye soap. Apply to the affected area and let it dry. This is a suggestion from my mountain-biking daughter. When she gets off the bike she immediately washes any exposed skin with lye soap to wash off any sap.

4. If you discover you have a rash, take a shower or at least wash the affected area using TECNU Extreme Medicated Poison Ivy Scrub - following the instructions on the label. It removes the urushiol and relieves itching. We keep a tube of this in the shower (available at most pharmacies without a Rx, but you might have to ask for it). It's an expensive treatment, and that's why we use the lye soap instead.

5. Hubby uses a small bar towel when working outdoors to wipe his sweaty face. He found he can transfer the urushiol from his gloves to the towel, and that means "trouble" because it's on his face, neck, arms...... So he tries not to use a towel and makes sure he removes his gloves before handling the towel.

It's all about the oil in the plant. We use dawn dishwashing liquid which is an excellent oil cutter. Wash with it as soon as you think you've been exposed. If we still get a rash...not blistered or open...but the beginning red stages, we wipe it off with gasoline on a rag and then wash the gasoline off. Gasoline is the best oil cutter. It's amazing to see how quickly the rash will go away once the oil is removed. Of course, I'd never use that on my face or other sensitive parts....and we do use unleaded!

I remember my GF when we were kids made the mistake of putting a hot wash cloth on her poison ivy rash as a way to get the itching down. It only helped emulsify and spread the oil and she too got it around her eye which swelled like crazy. She was quite a mess.

But I agree that if you are that allergic...get someone else to do the down and dirty. I have pulled poison ivy out with gardening gloves many times and have had no reaction, so there are many of us who are less sensitive who should be able to help.

Yes, pulling up the vines releases the oil into the air, and that's why you got it on your face. When we first moved here I dug into soil harboring long-dead poison ivy roots, my trowel snapping some of them. The next morning I had vertigo, and the lower part of my face was covered in the worst poison ivy rash I've ever had. Thank heavens I wore glasses while digging.

Hubby uses technu all the time. He's very sensitive. You can get it on Amazon

As a child, never was sensitive to it at all ,but now I holler for my husband when I see it, because it doesn't affect him but if I even look at it, I get it. I wash off every time I come in just in case I brushed against it in the yard,

You don't always have to touch the plant to get an allergic reaction - as Alisande said the oil can be released into the air. You may have touched the plant with your clothes or shoes and then touched your face.

I use Round Up on poison ivy but I buy the concentrate and don't dilute it as much as they recommend. It may need a few treatments to eradicate.

That is what I have, the packets of Round Up powder, and I made it very concentrated. I'm going to wait a few days and see what happens. I did not realize that the oil could travel through the air.

I am very reactive to the oil. I've had to go on prednisone several times.

The best thing I was given was a prescription steroid cream which gets it under control, and prevents the horrendous rash if I apply as soon as I break out.

I hate not being able to just reach down and weed when I see something needs to be cleaned up ;-(

wash right away with COLD water and soap. Don't use warm water. Warmth makes the urisol spread real easy, as it is a oil!

I have managed not to get it all over, by washing right away, putting all my clothes in the washing machine, and take as cold a shower as I can stand, using plenty of soap again.

Moni

As a child I NEVER reacted to poison ivy. About 15 years ago I had a very bad reaction (I knew I had been weeding but didn't even remember seeing any) and had to take steroids etc. This was all new to me.

I realized after the fact that I had bathed with warm.hot water and learned like Okla that hot water seems to spread it. Use COLD water,

we have a vacant lot next to us and i'm sure that's why the yard is bad as it is...dh just doesn't understand and after 28 years you think he would! so here I sit on the puter while he's in the yard...(rebuilt our deck, with a steps for me, lol) I do feed his fish, when he's out of town...