Two things, there is a product called Ivy armor at any drugstore, that you can apply to your skin it's whenever you were going to be rethink you're going to be around poison ivy. The telephone lines when they came to our house and had to get through some to get to the phone linesman told me about the product. I will get poison ivy bad enough to need a steroid shots and I swell up like a character in Farside cartoons. One thing I need to note everyone thinks poison ivy spread and no it is not. What happens is that upon doing the laundry you can expose yourself to the oil to have gotten on your clothes or perhaps you set on something and transfer the oil from your clothing to the object you sat up on or you may have transfer the oil up toward your face and long arms etc. taking your shirt off things of that nature. I always have my family their clothing inside out so that when I put it in the laundry I did not get the poison ivy oil from their clothing. The fact is that what you have when you think the poison ivy has spread is in fact a latent outbreak from having come in contact with the oil sometime after your initial contact. Also, it cannot be spread from one person to another from the liquid in any of the blisters. Old Wives Tales!

I can't determine if number 3 is poison ivy, but it is definitely not poison oak or sumac. Would need an up close picture of the leaves. Number 2 is too small for me to tell, as well. I am suspicious of number 1 being poison ivy or oak, though.* None of the plants are poison sumac. That is a definite. Here is how you can tell if you have poison ivy: 1. There will be 3 leaflets on one leaf stem, continuing up the branch in sets of 3. This means that the branch will never have single leaves growing from it. (Poison sumac is different) These leaflets will NEVER occur directly across from each other, they will always be alternate. 2. The middle leaflet almost always has a longer stem than the other 2. It never has a shorter stem. 3. The leaflet's side veins (not the main vein that goes from stem to leaf tip) are alternating in pattern, never across from each other. * This is the reason I am suspicious of number 1 possibly being poison oak or ivy. 4. The base of the leaf stem will be thickened, like a celery stalk. 5. Poison ivy flowers are tiny, white or pale cream, hang in clusters. They may or may not be fragrant. They will alternate on flower stem. 6. If flowers were present, fruit may show. It will be smaller than a pea, light green when young, white when ripe, resembling a tiny peeled orange. There will be black stripes between segments on the fruit. 7. If poison ivy is injured by bugs or damaged in any way, it will exude a resin. When this resin dries, it will make pitch black spots or lines on the plant. This is an excellent way to determine if you have poison ivy or oak. Using a shovel, crush part of the stem. By the next day, you should be able to see the black resin, if it is poison ivy or oak. 8. Poison ivy does not twine around trees. It's growth is pretty much straight up. 9. Eastern Poison Ivy vines, when established (think older plant), resemble old, frayed ropes, due to their aerial roots. Western Poison Oak will not have obvious aerial roots. Stems will be strong and flexible, not wimpy. New bark is reddish brown, older bark will be a weathered gray. New leaf growth is usually red, but not always. Fall color may be vibrant or dull. You will NEVER see the following: 1. Flowers growing from the end of a stem 2. Single, large flowers 3. Flowers any color other than cream or white 4. Upright flowers 5. Fruit larger than a pea 6. Red, blue, or purple fruit 7. Leaf stalks directly across from each other on the stem 8. Sharp spines 9. A vine twining like a barber pole Here is a link that might be useful: Poison Ivy This post was edited by AuroraWA on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 0:44

Desensitizing remedies have been looked at for many years with no success. Your best defense is to know what Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac look like and avoid making contact with them, or know what to do right away of contact is made. Spraying bleach to kill plants is an inappropriate use of the product and is not an environmentally sound practice. kimmq is kimmsr

leave of three for PI .. leaves of 5 for this bird spread nightmare ... lol .. that sprig can grow 5 to 10 feet this year ... its just fine in the woods ... but not going to be great.. in your garden .. ken