It is very important for those of us who take our children out into the woods for nature study to be able to recognize poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac.
Where we live we have an abundance of poison oak and this time of the year it is actually very pretty and easy to identify. I know in other parts of the country there is poison ivy and sumac as well.
Here is a very informative link for you to click through:
http://walking.about.com/od/medfirstaid/ss/poisonoakivy.htm
This video does a great job of explaining everything you should know before you take a walk in the woods and potentially come into contact with poison oak, poison ivy, or sumac. Knowledge is always a good thing.
My husband says that in his job as a wildland firefighter, they use Tecnu after any exposure. We are going to get some and have it on hand for those times we think we may have come into contact with poison oak.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will try to find answers for you as best I can. I would hate for you to unknowingly expose anyone to something potentially dangerous. On the other hand, don’t get too worried either. Just remember the “leaves of three, let it be” rule and you should do a good job of avoiding contact. We have had our share of poison oak rashes in our family and I think most of our exposure comes from our family pets. Don’t miss that part of the video.
We have quite a few new participants in the Outdoor Hour Challenges so I want to give a big welcome to everyone….hope to see your nature study entries soon.
Hey Barb! We use jewelweed to negate the ill effects of poison ivy. And, come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen poison sumac. We’re about to go out and collect some staghorn sumac to make tea with today or soon.
Regarding a source for your heirloom tomato seeds: just go buy some of the heirloom tomatoes you’d like to try from that farm and eat ’em up, saving the seeds to dry out and put in envelopes for sprouting and growing next year. If not that, Seeds of Change is a good seed company for quality, organic seeds & I’m sure they have some heirloom variety tomato seeds as well.
Barb thanks for the info on the poison ivy, oak and sumac. Where we live we see a lot of it. I never thought of it being on our pets.
We certainly had a nasty experience with Sumac this year with Cherub 1. According to the local University, sumac (SE Tennessee) is putting forth particularly strong oil this year due to excessive rain and milder temps. It is frequently causing tissue death. It is critical to know how to identify these potentially dangerous plants.
Thanks for posting this !!
Tammy
Try Walmart or RiteAid or Walgreens for your Tecnu.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Barb,
Thank you for this post. We watched the video for our nature study and then went outside to identify it.We have already been to the doctor this year for treatment so this was a good reminder of how the oil can get on everything,even those little pets we love to pick up and carry.
We did an activity with Poison Ivy last year, which might be interesting to some…
http://bergspot.blogspot.com/2008/09/outdoor-challenge-30-weeds.html
-Phyllis
Great post, Barb!
We learned a lot about poison ivy. Even though we don’t have it on our farm, we will be much more aware of it when we go on walks since we know now its various forms that it can take. Here’s the study we did: http://harvestmoonbyhand.blogspot.com/2014/10/poison-ivy-outdoor-hour-challenge.html