Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Poison Oak

I can probably still tell you if a root is poison oak or something else.

When I was a starving student I'd put my name up at the student union as available for odd jobs and such. Gal needed some yard work done, including poison oak removal. Her cats would wander the yard and bring it in, then rub all over her.

I was blessed earlier in life to have no reaction to it. Woke up one morning on a Scout trip, surrounded by it. I had just tossed my sleeping bag in the dark when we arrived and, in my best Rooster Cogburn imitation said I'm sleeping here. Had to wade though it in the morning and no itching that day or ever.

Started work digging up the lady's yard and was rather proficient at pulling up roots and all. Did that for a couple of seasons.

Eventually, I ended up with a small case of itches once a few years later. We lived on 6 acres that was full of it in spots. The goat didn't like to eat it much, preferred to eat the himalaya berry leaves and leave the canes to regrow. Stupid goat. Cats and dogs would get in it and bother the wife.

never have had it bad, and can still picture the roots in my mind.

Wish I could find the picture easily, I've got one of a vine about as big around as my wrist going 90 or so feet up into a redwood to get to the light. Extremely interesting plant in that it can take many forms.

Technu and rubbing alcohol has worked for us. I'm not a fan of getting bleach on my skin, so I'll take a pass on that ..................unless I get a bad case and nothing else is working.

That’s ultimately what I did but it got worse than I was expecting. I wasn’t very pleasant to be around for a day or two.

My old stands used to be those “hug the tree and scoot your foot stirrups up” kind

Used to get the ivy on my chest and forearms.

Got a two piece climber after a few repeats of ivy

We got the standard bush form, gets to 12' around here, then we got the vines going up the trees can get as big as your wrist and 30-40 high. Luckily the bush form doesn't like the shade so much and the deer and bear do like to hide out in the shade. It's easier to hunt above 3000', that seems to be the threshold of where it grows around here.

One way to beat the firewood poison oak is to take down yard trees. Got a 2 1/2 footer a while back that way. Ever once in a while you might get a nail but it's worth not having the itches. Got a madrone cluster to take down for a friend here coming up should give me half a years clean madrone.

Poison ivy vines as big as a man’s wrist is not just some Jurassic Park or PNW phenomena

Every third hickory tree here has poison ivy vines like that. At least where I hunted. That crap is on everything. And NO it’s no 5 leaf virginia creeper either.

I mean I don’t hunt 1000 acre bean fields with corn feeders every 100 yards 🤣

I do believe that should be .........kern.................

as in deer kern...............like you get down t' the Feeld and Farm store.

That was me as well, but I've since lost my immunity.

There was the campfire one time when I told my buddies that the wood they brought in looked a lot like poison oak, but they shrugged it off. They spent the next week lying on the couch in pain, covered head to toe. Luckily they didn't have any respiratory issues. I wound up with a small patch the size of a quarter on my stomach.

But as I said, that immunity is gone now. Luckily I know where it is on my property, and keep after it with the glyphosate.

A lot of people have a natural immunity. However, it's wise to still avoid the stuff. Immunity can wear off with repeated exposure. Once it does, you're susceptible for life. If you're immune, save if for when you accidently get in it. Don't use it up.

What is the range?

This is a screenshot from the Matt's Offroad Recovery thread. What's that stuff he's standing in?

Hard to be entirely sure after your posting host chops and compresses the rasters in its image hosting

I stopped the full screen video to get the screen shot. It's a lot bigger that way but I can't copy it large.

I am immune to poison oak and poison ivy.

When I was 6 years old, we had poison oak growing all over our neighborhood in suburban Atlanta. The parents always told us to stay away from the stuff.
One day, I was out in the woods with my 6year old buddy Mike. We found a giant poison oak vine. I said "Mike this stuff can't be as bad as they say. Here, I will eat a leaf."

I picked a big green poison oak leaf and ate it.
Mike was up to the challenge, and he ate a leaf too.
Next day, Mike was sick as a dog, he had poison oak welts all over his body including on his eyelids. I didn't get sick. Mike's parents almost had to take him to the hospital.

Either I was a genius, precocious six year old Medical Researcher who discovered a vaccine for poison oak, or, perhaps I was born immune.

These days I spend all kinds of time in the woods. We have huge poison oak vines here in the Smoky Mountains that are as big as my forearm, these vines will run right to the top of a 90-foot tree. I have chainsawed dozens of these off of the trees. Chain saws spray your arms with vast amounts of poison oak juice, yet, I have never gotten sick from poison oak or poison ivy.

Never been allergic to it good luck

My granddad was immune, and so is my brother. I'm so allergic to it that I'm convinced poison ivy/oak will be what kills me if SHTF, long before starvation or a bullet.

Wife was never allergic until, I came home from deer hunting and she met me at the door in shorts. Jumped on me. Ended up in the hospital. Now she gets it anywhere it pops out all over and gets in her throat. If I get it it goes inside too. Pops out ever where.

I know people that get the steroids as they really break out. The fire fighters in the valley have some real problems with the brush fires and plenty end up in the hospital. I feel very fortunate to be able to wade through the stuff hot and sweating with a power saw cutting it out of the way and very seldom get it. The deer really like hiding in it also and causing some hunters grief.