“Mom, Jenny’s intentionally stepping in the poison ivy and rubbing it on her hands!”
No vicarious learning around here, no sir. She’s just.like.me.
Katie has been scratching at a rash for several days. I identified the rash as likely coming from poison ivy. I’ve had poison ivy rashes. No fun.
Billy mentioned he noticed some three-leaved plants near the fence. I investigated and confirmed their nefarious “roots.” I brought Katie outside, showed her the plant, and said, “Know thy enemy.”
Then I made the mistake of mentioning to the kids that they should wash with soap and water if they thought they had touched a plant. That might prevent the rash, I said. After handling the poison ivy, Jenny went and washed up to see if that took care of it.
Very risky.
The plants will remain in place until this weekend when Bill will get to them. Even though he has never had an allergic reaction to them, he will wear gloves and be very careful. Why tempt fate? Since I have him, I won’t go near the plants. If he were gone for an extended period, I would have to do something, but I would wear long pants, long sleeves, socks and shoes, disposable gloves and put all clothes in the wash immediately afterward (right after I showered using this product, which I recommend).
That Tecnu stuff helps relieve itching as well. It’s a good thing I own some. Jenny may be very miserable tomorrow.
Reit This Way 
Gloved with gardening gloves, put your hand inside a plastic garbage bag (thick black best), grab the poison ivy — all you can find — and in one move, turn bag inside out. Knot it tightly. We have lots of it and I do this once a week or so so keep the kids from stepping in it and carrying the oils, and to keep the dog from bringing it in on her coat. We are very allergic.
Thank you so much for this suggestion. My husband is very allergic to poison ivy and seems to get it just from looking at the stuff…even in March which is not easy to do in Ohio! I'm off to stock up!
Good ideas, Barb. I will still leave it to Bill.
Hope the Tecnu works for your husband, jjandhsmom. I scrubbed my friend's son down after he played in one infested part of our backyard, and he didn't break out despite a severe allergy. Unfortunately, I have found, you don't usually know you've encountered poison ivy until the rash appears.
I vouch for the Technu.
Poison ivy is the only reason my organic-conscious husband will ever use Roundup.
My very allergic friend made the horrified comment that our back yard is full of poison ivy. I had begun to suspect this (by looking at it), but we're obviously not allergic. Literally, it seems that half our back yard is poison ivy. I knew I wasn't allergic, but wasn't sure about the boys. Now, I know for sure. I'm very thankful, but I guess I'll have to do something about it for our friends. Thanks for the tip, Barbara.
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for that product recommendation. Poison ivy is suddenly exploding all over our yard and it seems like every two minutes I am squealing to the kids, “You can't go over there!!!”
I believe it goes with her name…my daughter with the same name has been having her own poison-ivy fun. She's got her own bottle of Tecnu, too.
So how did it go? Did she wind up with it?
No, Barb, I can't believe it, she didn't get it. Either she's not allergic, or she washed up real good.
Well, if she is the lucky non-allergic one, then she wins the prize and gets to remove all the poison ivy to save all the rest of the allergic ones from an itchy fate!
Actually, Barb, further investion indicates it may just be wild blackberry. That link is an excellent one. I particularly like the section on Virginia creeper. You almost always find it with creeper, and we have that in the front yard (with blackberry/poison ivy).