Poison Ivy

So I've been spending a fair amount of my free time recently out in the yard trying to get rid of poison ivy. Yes, yes, I've been safe. I've covered my body from head to toe, used disposable latex gloves, hosed myself down before going back into the house, washed my tools, and washed my clothes. I'm not even allergic to the stuff, and I'm more paranoid than Jill, who just has to see it to break out in a rash.

I've decided that poison ivy is my new archenemy. No, not like Poison Ivy was to Batman, because I'm fairly sure that it doesn't plot new ways to bring me down. But I plot new ways to bring it down, so does that make me the bad guy? It's just so prolific in the backyard. I even broke down and got that horrible systemic poison that does terrible things to plants just to get rid of it. Some of the warnings on the label were pretty serious: don't spray this near plants you want alive, don't spray this near anything you might eat at any point. It sounds like these chemicals (triclopyr, to be specific) are almost worse than the poison ivy itself.

I've been trying to use it sparingly, cutting the plants and brushing the poison onto the stump so it can be absorbed into the rest of the plant. But when I figured out that most of the poison ivy was coming from the neighbor's yard behind the fence, I surreptitiously dumped some over the fence. Maybe they'll thank me for it. I doubt it.

As a huge organic gardening activist, I've had to wrestle a lot with the use of chemical herbicides to get rid of this scourge. This has been really tough. But I guess there comes a point in life when you have to make those tough decisions...as I said, I used it sparingly. It was either that or vinegar, which I used last year, and the vinegar killed it off for a little bit, and it came back bigger and stronger (and probably madder) this year.

By the way, if you are allergic to the stuff (and apparently 85% of the population is), you should be as paranoid or even more so than I have been. Learn how to identify it (that's a big one, because Jill still can't identify it, and I think that's one reason she keeps getting it). Wash all your clothes after coming in contact with it. You don't have to use the expensive stuff that comes in tiny bottles and tells you to soak your clothes in it unless it makes you feel better. Dishwashing detergent can get it off your skin as long as you wash with it 10 to 15 minutes after contact, and laundry detergent can get it off your clothes. As long as the detergents you are using cuts grease, you're good to go, since the poison in poison ivy is an oil.

So that's my public service announcement. For those of you on the West Coast where there is no poison ivy, substitute the word "oak" for "ivy" in this post.