I really hate poison ivy, and I worry about transferring poison ivy oils on my hammock and then getting poison ivy from laying in it another time. Has anyone had a problem with this?
I really hate poison ivy, and I worry about transferring poison ivy oils on my hammock and then getting poison ivy from laying in it another time. Has anyone had a problem with this?
I would say if you rub you hammock around in a mess of poison ivy it would be possible to transfer it to you bod. I'd suggest not rolling your hammock around in a patch of poison ivy.
LOL!
Thank you for the advise... I'll try to avoid that.
No. I've not experienced any problems like that with my hammocks.
That bush beside my mailbox however is an entirely different story
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I am so prone to getting poison ivy that my caution to avoid it borders on phobia. Even in the summer I run/hike in leggings with socks that cover my ankles (usually with trail gaiters, too,) and if I'm in an area with poison ivy encroaching over the trail I wear convertible hiking pants over the tights so I can remove the lower half before getting into my hammock. (And I pick my way carefully.) This is getting old. (And hot.)
I'm glad to hear that you haven't had a problem with poison ivy in the hammock.
I suggest spraying the one near your mailbox... I sprayed so vigorously last year under some trees in my yard that I about killed the trees. They are still recovering!
Urushiol transfers from clothing to clothing. Brush up against poison ivy with your pant legs, and climb into a hammock with those same pants, and you transfer the urushiol oil to the hammock. Now, if you climb into the hammock with shorts, you skin might touch to the urushiol transferred to the hammock.
Depends on your reaction to poison ivy/oak/sumac.
Dont believe me, check out John Hopkins
A few years ago, I took my two sons on a canoe trip to Lake Lila in the Adirondacks. We had to portage our canoes about 1/3 of a mile on the first day, and my hiking boots decided to spontaneously disintegrate. So, first day on a six-day trip, and I have no hiking boots. My solution? Go barefoot.
This made my youngest son extremely jealous - he wanted to go barefoot too. I told him he was too stupid when it came to poison ivy; there was no way I would allow him to go barefoot because he couldn't recognize poison ivy and was always getting into it. My son would not leave me alone and begged to go barefoot, so I decided to take him on a barefoot hike so we could practice identifying poison ivy, oak, sumac, etc. Much to my surprise, I discovered that this particular lake in the Adirondacks had zero poison ivy, oak or sumac! We hiked for miles and couldn't find any. So my son got to go barefoot with me for six days in the Adirondacks.
To this day, my son has no capacity to recognize poison ivy - he could be standing in a forest of poison ivy and wouldn't even know it. Some people just don't have the wherewithal to avoid it. Personally, I haven't gotten poison ivy in 30 years, and New Jersey is crawling in it. I just know how to recognize it now.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Up here it's like a perennial weed, down 'bama way PI grows several feet high!
I've never been on any trail here that didn't have poison ivy as essentially ground cover along the sides of the trail... I can't imagine going barefoot. And yes, it does indeed grow tall and can get you on the shoulders if you aren't careful. The vines also grow up trees, so it is sometimes hard to find good poison-ivy-free trees on which to hang a hammock.
You can try using a skin protecting barrier cream that can help reduce you chance of reaction if accidental contact is made. I first heard about such stuff from transmission line crews who are always working in overgrown undergrowth where there is a chance of poison ivy. As everyone else said, ability to identify and avoid (abstinence ) is the best solution.
A day camping in the rain is better than a good day at work,
--Shaw.
tsshaw78 is too hard to say on the trail - Just call me Shaw.
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