Tecnu Oak-n-Ivy Cleanser

No More Itch from the Oil of Poison Ivy

If someone requests your assistance with installing fence posts in a forested area and asks you to prune the roots from holes run. Run and don’t look back – that person is no friend. It doesn’t matter if the land is in Indiana, Colorado or Texas. Poison ivy loves the understories of moist forests and while the vine will climb trees on hairy vines, it is sneaky and aggressive in the forest soil. It’s a sleeper and it’s mean.

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You will need long sleeved clothing, protective gloves and Tecnu. If the roots break through the surface of your skin, especially multiple times you’re likely to have a very severe reaction. I certainly did and it wasn’t until after meeting the evil side of poison ivy that I discovered Tecnu.

Years Ago

I did a very stupid thing several years ago while helping to install a fence. The fence was going through a forested area on my property and I was determined to keep the trees. Digging holes for the posts required two people, one to dig the holes and the other to prune away the many roots. My hands were smaller than my husband's hands and crashing the post hole digger required more strength (and height) than I could offer. An auger would have been nice, but we hadn’t considered using one.

It was very early spring, nothing was growing yet, and we hadn’t seen any poison ivy BUT it was present everywhere, especially in the soil. My hands kept getting scratched, but working with gloves on was too awkward in the narrow hole. I wasn’t worried about a few scratches. I should have been.

Tecnu is available in convenient foil packs
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While I had “suffered” small bouts with poison ivy over the years it was mostly a minor inconvenience. The fence installation took several days and in that time I developed a very serious case of poison ivy, as well as a lifetime sensitivity. It went systemic in me, appearing in just about every place you could imagine (and some you shouldn’t imagine). I looked like the ooze monster.

Rather than taking seven to 14 days to go away it lasted for far more than a month, with the most awful blisters and itching. Even with a prescription and shot from a doctor, it took a long time to disappear completely.

Since then, all I have to do is barely touch poison ivy and a similar reaction occurs. My dogs can brush against it and if I snuggle with one of them, I’ve got it. It was soon after the serious reaction from installing the fence that I discovered Tecnu Oak-N-Ivy Cleanser.

Tecnu is a specially formulated detergent that removes the urushiol oil. If you wash vigorously for two
minutes within two to eight hours of contact this will remove the oils. Regular soaps won’t remove the oils.

Leaves have three leaflets.

How to Use 

Before the Rash Appears 

• Apply to dry skin within two to eight hours of contact and rub it vigorously for two minutes.
• Rinse with cool water and repeat. Because the oils do not evaporate away you can become re-contaminated by touching your clothing, equipment or dogs that also contact the poison ivy (poison oak or sumac). 
• If your dog was helping and came in contact with some poison ivy, this is pet-safe. Pets generally don’t have allergic reactions, but the oil doesn’t evaporate off their fur and it will remain there until you wash it off. 

After the Rash Appears 
Apply to the skin and wash for two minutes, and rinse thoroughly. Gently towel-dry your skin without disturbing the rash.

The instructions on the bottle or box are easy to follow. 

Before Working Around Poison Ivy 

Virginia creeper has five leaflets, not three

The bottle doesn’t suggest this, but I have also used this as a barrier applying it to my skin before working in an area that might have poison ivy. Generally if I’m working around Virginia Creeper, in heavily wooded areas, or wet streamside areas, my poison ivy radar starts beeping (loudly). I’ll lather on a thin layer of Tecnu and wash it off later. Don’t become careless and do keep your hands away from your face while working outdoors in a poison ivy habitat.

About Tecnu 

Tecnu is available foil packets, 12- and 32-ounce bottles as well as 4-ounce tubes. Tec Labs produces Tecnu as well as Tecnu Extreme and Tecnu Rash-Relief. The Tecnu Lab Web site offers valuable information about poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Their frequently asked question list is thorough. (“What causes poison ivy, will bleach remove poison ivy, what can I do to relive the itching, do blisters cause the rash to spread, can I get the rash from someone else, should I break the blisters and many more.”)

Tecnu Oak-N-Ivy Cleanser is an outdoor-skin cleanser that contains deodorized mineral spirits, water, proplyene glycol, polyethylene glycol, octylphenoxy-polyethoxyethanol, mixed fatty acid soap and fragrance.

My Recommendations 

Whenever anyone asks for my opinion on techniques for dealing with poison ivy, the only advice is Tecnu.  When running a nature center or working with children outdoors I always kept some close. I have had a few encounters with poison ivy since the fence-building episodes, each one worse than before and each of these times I was unable to wash it off soon enough. There have been a number of times since that I’ve brushed up against poison ivy and did wash in time with complete success. This removes the poison oils and it stops them from spreading. As an outdoor professional and hobbyist I won’t go anywhere without it.

copyright © 2014-2017 scmrak