…I should ask my mom if poison ivy affects her. pretty sure it does, though, and my allergies are worse. maybe I’m first in the line. too bad I don’t have a kid to find out.
I remember at some summer jobs way back as a teen that I would literally sit in patches of poison ivy at times to eat lunch, because I didn’t care to check and just found a spot in the ditch that looked comfy
now, wild parsnip blisters after getting sap on you and not cleaning it before exposure to sunlight… that shit is gross
I’m not exactly a botanist but as I understand it, hogweed / Queen Anne’s Lace / hemlock are all similar plants, and parsnip is a less similar plant
I don’t know if other colours are possible, but one differentiating feature I am aware of is that parsnip has yellow flowers and all the others have white. and only Queen Anne’s Lace is not harmful
yeah, and I had forgotten that it was actually invasive
apparently hogweed has been a growing issue for the past decade around here, but I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed any myself. parsnip, on the other hand, practically lines our ditches to the point that I would consider it an actual safety concern for the general public since most people don’t know that you can have severe reactions to the sap. like we’re talking a ditch just completely filled with an 8-ft wide section the whole length right next to a multi-use path. obviously not every ditch, but more common than not it seems
I recently realized I’m not affected by it either, for nearly 40 years I just thought I was great at identifying it and just careful. My wife got into it a few years back and it was horrible for her (big welts and oozing stuff, pretty gross), when she went to the doctor they were like, “Yep, that’s poison ivy, here is some cream and a shot, be more careful”; so I went out and cleared all of it I could find and learned how to properly identify it.
I still try to wear gloves because I’ve heard that you can eventually start having a reaction but I have debated the idea of using an aerosolized form of the oil as an emergency oh shit button if an unidentified masked person tries to pull me out my car.
Everyone is allergic to urushiol (the oil in poison ivy). The difference is how much. Some people can get a rash right away. Others can be exposed multiple times before it shows up. But each exposure increases your reaction, ever so slightly.
I also thought I was immune and only the last time I was cleaning out a patch did I finally get a small rash.
The key is, you usually have a couple hours to clean it off before you react. It’s like motor oil - make sure you have something that cuts through it, like a degreaser. That fixes most of the problem.
Some of us are immune. I have no idea why other than I got it from my mother, who has really bad allergies.
…I should ask my mom if poison ivy affects her. pretty sure it does, though, and my allergies are worse. maybe I’m first in the line. too bad I don’t have a kid to find out.
I remember at some summer jobs way back as a teen that I would literally sit in patches of poison ivy at times to eat lunch, because I didn’t care to check and just found a spot in the ditch that looked comfy
now, wild parsnip blisters after getting sap on you and not cleaning it before exposure to sunlight… that shit is gross
I’ve heard people with Native American ancestry tend to have immunity to poison ivy, but I’m not sure if that’s backed by science.
Also, if you got burned by wild parsnip… that was hemlock, a poisonous lookalike…
oh, no, it was definitely parsnip. it’s a big issue in Ontario
Interesting, I’ve never heard that. Is that the same plant as wild carrot/Queen Anne’s Lace?
I’m not exactly a botanist but as I understand it, hogweed / Queen Anne’s Lace / hemlock are all similar plants, and parsnip is a less similar plant
I don’t know if other colours are possible, but one differentiating feature I am aware of is that parsnip has yellow flowers and all the others have white. and only Queen Anne’s Lace is not harmful
but yeah they all generally look very similar
https://www.ontario.ca/page/giant-hogweed
https://www.ontario.ca/page/wild-parsnip
https://www.ontario.ca/document/weed-identification-guide-ontario-crops/wild-carrot
https://www.ontario.ca/document/weed-identification-guide-ontario-crops/spotted-water-hemlock
also I just want to point out that do I ever love having a provincial website with resources like this
That’s interesting, I did not know wild parsnip was a separate plant. We must not have that where I’m from.
And yeah, clearly Ontario is doing something right
yeah, and I had forgotten that it was actually invasive
apparently hogweed has been a growing issue for the past decade around here, but I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed any myself. parsnip, on the other hand, practically lines our ditches to the point that I would consider it an actual safety concern for the general public since most people don’t know that you can have severe reactions to the sap. like we’re talking a ditch just completely filled with an 8-ft wide section the whole length right next to a multi-use path. obviously not every ditch, but more common than not it seems
I recently realized I’m not affected by it either, for nearly 40 years I just thought I was great at identifying it and just careful. My wife got into it a few years back and it was horrible for her (big welts and oozing stuff, pretty gross), when she went to the doctor they were like, “Yep, that’s poison ivy, here is some cream and a shot, be more careful”; so I went out and cleared all of it I could find and learned how to properly identify it.
I still try to wear gloves because I’ve heard that you can eventually start having a reaction but I have debated the idea of using an aerosolized form of the oil as an emergency oh shit button if an unidentified masked person tries to pull me out my car.
Everyone is allergic to urushiol (the oil in poison ivy). The difference is how much. Some people can get a rash right away. Others can be exposed multiple times before it shows up. But each exposure increases your reaction, ever so slightly.
I also thought I was immune and only the last time I was cleaning out a patch did I finally get a small rash.
The key is, you usually have a couple hours to clean it off before you react. It’s like motor oil - make sure you have something that cuts through it, like a degreaser. That fixes most of the problem.
Good luck everyone!
Yeah I can roll around in it and nothing will happen to me. My sister on the another hand.