Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Saturday, August 7. 2010

Gibbs is right about Poison Ivy

Mrs. BD reports today, after trying Gibbs' recommendation, that a paste of vinegar and baking soda is quite effective for poison ivy. (Remember McGeek's case of poison ivy?)  


Mrs. BD is highly sensitive to poison ivy, but when she gets weeding she stops paying attention and just rips along like a weeding machine.


Gibbs is usually right about things. I made her take some Benadryl too. Partly to compete with Gibbs, I guess.

Posted by Bird Dog in Gardens, Plants, etc., Medical, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:32 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I hate poison ivy..... I spent three days in bed twice in my life with extreme cases of poison ivy. Twice. One would think once was enough, but nooooo, I had to do it twice. !0 years apart, but still. Steroid shots, Benadryl, and steroid pills for a week. How might you ask? I burned it.... both time by accident. Once on a boy scout trip and once many years later at a friend's house (dried ivy vines on the logs I put into the fire place). Just reminiscing about it makes me itch.
#1 JoeC on 2010-08-07 17:06 (Reply)
Mrs BD should include in her medicine chest Technu and Zanfel as well. Technu works for many people, it is a lightly abrasive wash that helps remove the poison's oils from the skin. It's a favorite among utility line crews, widely available, and economically priced.

Zanfel works on the toughest cases. It's expensive at around $35-40 per tube, but it's priceless. Zanfel is a thick, gritty paste that is used to scrub the affected areas, it will remove the oils when nothing else seems to work. Two or three treatments with Zanfel always clears up my worst outbreaks.
#2 Dan D on 2010-08-07 17:09 (Reply)
As I recall, baking soda and vinegar is also used to power boys' boats, back when such an explosive mixture wasn't banned.

The next step up was the Gilbert Chemistry Set.
#3 rhhardin (Link) on 2010-08-07 17:29 (Reply)
The vinegar and soda does work.

I had a bad case of manchineel apple poisoning in the Caribbean, it is poison ivy on steroids.

In desperation I tried a friend's advice and rubbed on undiluted Clorox straight from the bottle. Highly recommended. It both killed the itching and stopped the spread.
#4 CT on 2010-08-07 17:36 (Reply)
The real question is, Mr. Bird Dog: Every night while you're sleepin', does poison ivy come a-creepin' around?
#5 Big___Al on 2010-08-07 17:41 (Reply)
Best comment of the week. :-)
#5.1 Tom Francis on 2010-08-07 19:28 (Reply)
Technu is nothing more than mineral spirits in a paste form. I keep a quart of spirits close by and wipe off all bare skin anytime I think I may have gotten in poison ivy.
#6 Rick on 2010-08-07 21:34 (Reply)
Take a dry cloth or a paper towel and not even a cap-full of just regular old gasoline.Squeeze out the excess gas and then wipe the affected area. It will dry in the air on the affected area. Then just wash the area with dish soap. I use Dawn and that seems to work fine.
#7 Mike on 2010-08-07 21:37 (Reply)
My grandfather swore by Chlorox for poison ivy exposure.

Baking soda and vinegar paste works on bee stings, too. Or maybe it just distracts the victim while the pain wears off naturally, for non-allergic types.

Baking soda and peroxide, followed by a dish-soap shampoo, works great on skunked dogs.
#8 Texan99 on 2010-08-09 12:07 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.