Know Your Summer Enemy: Poison Ivy

The trouble with poison ivy is that you don't know you have it until it's too late.

According to the Yale Medical Group, poison ivy plants cause an allergic reaction in about 85 percent of people that touch it. The active ingredient is called urushiol, an easily-transferable substance that can remain active on surfaces for a year or longer.

Oxford resident Cindy Campbell runs a business aptly named "The Gloved Hand," which specializes in poison ivy removal and eradication. Campbell has been removing the plant for some 20 years, the last five professionally, and works with Bethlehem resident William Bartlett, who has been in the business himself for 35 years.

Together, Campbell says they have more work than they can handle.

"Williams is working from when the ground thaws in March to when it snows in December," Campbell told Patch. "There's a huge need for a lot more people to do the work that he and I are doing, at least in Connecticut. It's an open market. Sometimes it's three or four weeks before we can add someone to our schedule."

Campbell said many people contact them because they are afraid to reap the plant's ill effects, and well they should be. Resulting rashes typically break out in 24 to 48 hours after exposure and can persist for up to three weeks, depending on their severity.

Some exposures can be so bad as to cause a systemic infection, where the urushiol actually enters the bloodstream and causes breakouts all over the body. At that point, most will have no choice but to consult a doctor, who can prescribe short courses of corticosteroids to speed recovery and ease the itching and intensity of the rashes.

So what does Campbell recommend for those who try to remove the vine on their own? Protection and prevention.

Campbell said the easiest way to deal with poison ivy is not to get it.

That means covering yourself head-to-toe when you're going to be around the plant and cleaning or disposing of that clothing properly afterward.

But if you are unlucky enough to get it, it's best to do some research and separate fact-based remedies from fictional ones.

This writer that laid him up for the better part of a month. But it also enabled him to compile a list of the most effective treatment methods (and some horrifying pictures to boot).

For more prevention tips, you can read on one of our sister sites. 

Check out for the etymology of the plant's scientific name, which when translated means "poisonous, rooting tree."

If you'd like to work with "The Gloved Hand," or would like to use their services, they can be contacted at 203-734-7171 or weedpoisonivy@gmail.com.