A wet spring and a hot summer have managed to cook up a bumper crop of poison ivy, according to news reports.
And if you are like me, you can never remember what the stuff looks like!
Another theory is that the increase in carbon dioxide in the air that encourages all plants to grow has also increased poison ivy's toxicity.
This summer, the sale of over-the-counter treatments is up and so are doctor's visits - and repeat doctor's visits - for people who have come in contact with the irritating weed.
Gardeners and people with pets are particularly vulnerable, because both can stumble upon it in the yard without knowing. People can develop the rash after contact with animals who have been exposed to poison ivy's oil.
Some poison ivy facts for you:
- Clothing - long sleeves and long pants and gloves - are the best protection against the plant secretions that cause the red rash, the blisters and the itching.
- That rash can either appear immediately, or within a couple of days.
- Poison ivy is stubborn and the reaction can take as long as four weeks to clear.
- Calamine lotion and oatmeal baths - the same things your grandmother recommended - can sooth the itching.
- Poison ivy can appear in a clump, or as a vine.
- You can't spread poison ivy by contact with another person or another body part as long as you have washed the area of initial contact and removed the irritating chemical.
- Among the products you can use for cleansing your skin of poison ivy oils are Tecnu Extreme Medicated Poison Ivy Scrub and Zanfel Poison Ivy Wash.
- There are landscaping services that will remove poison ivy for you.