does anybody have to battle poison ivy/oak at their home course? if so how do "you" prevent it

i do and it sucks!!!!    in the "north of charlotte area/statesville, nc" courses it can be all over the place !

[Ben Calhoun]

Local clubs, parks depts. should do SOME removal I don't think it's much to ask. I do not play 3-4 local courses from May-August for that one reason alone.

[Jeff Nichols]

We got Nothin' but THICK underbrush up here, and EVERYTHING looks like Poison Oak. The DG clubs that take care of my home courses do a Wonderful job of keeping the "Rashy" plants away. I don't know how, but they do....

[Joshua Knutson]

NW IA - they do nothing about this in my area.  Wear pants.  Wearing shorts just increases your risk ror lyme disease, anyways.  If you know the nature of spirochete bacteria and the effects they cause, wearing pants as opoosed to shorts doesn't seem so bad.

[Ghost]

Throw it in the fairway :)

[Rescue]

Technu! This stuff works great. After a round I take a shower with this stuff. Pay extra attention to your hands, because the oil does not react to the plams. That's how most people end up spreading it all over their body. So I wash with this stuff and have not had any issues since I began using it and man O man. I'm highly allergic to that stuff and Technu has been a life saver!

[Skipper H / Ripdiscgolf.com]

I was having problems a few years ago and got it pretty bad and could not get it to go away... My mother inlaw of all people says I need to put mud mask on it, yes thats right the stuff woman put on their face to pull all the oils out. And it had me better within 1 day! So I have used it every time since and have no real problems ....

 

So as was said... keeping it on the fairway is the best way to not get it, but mud mask works great to get ride off it and the stuff is cheap... go to Walmart!

[Joshua Knutson]

I'd go with the keep it on the fairway method if the fairways were wider than 15 inches here lol

 

[Skipper H / Ripdiscgolf.com]

yeah and none of us can keep it on the fairway all of the time!

 

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

Salt and Vinegar is not just for potato chips. 

 

1 gal of white vinegar

1 cup of salt

a few drops of liquid laundry detergent..or dish soap.

 

mix well in home garden sprayer

[Jeffery Nugent]

 Jamie,Is that recipe for killing it on the vine? Or is that for treating the affected area on yourself?

[Dookville]

Prevention is the key. Wear pants, or gaiters if you are going to wear shorts. Know that it gets on your arms, hands, and the disc when reaching down in that crap.

 

Ivy Block and Technu are good prevention products. They block the oils from sticking to your skin. Because the poison is an oil, water just moves it around. Most surfactants like soap don't work either. Alchohol, vinegars, etc are the way to go when getting the crap off you. Get that stuff off you before you climb back in your car as well or you hot box, start sweating and it drips on everything.

[IHearChains]

You are right about prevention being the key.  But your post goes downhill fast after that.  There is no need for fancy expensive products.  Just use soap and water, and wash as soon as you can.  I'll explain why, but if you don't like science, you can stop reading now.

 

"Most surfactants like soap don't work either."

Incorrect.  Urushiol (the oil from poison ivy) is lipophilic.  Lipophilic means "oil-loving" and mostly insoluble in water.  Soap does a fine job of making lipophilic substances water soluble.  It does this by forming micelles, which are basically microscopic droplets which are lipophilic on the interior and hydrophilic on the outside.  That is how soap works for washing dishes or getting grease off your hands.  Washing urushiol off something is no different than washing off olive oil or bacon grease.

 

"Because the poison is an oil, water just moves it around."..."start sweating and it drips on everything"

Again, incorrect.  A lipophilic substance like urushiol has a very low solubility in water or sweat (which is mostly salt water).  That's the same reason you can't wash off bacon grease in water or saltwater.  The way urushiol transfers is not in sweat, it is by directly smearing it onto clothes, car seats, etc.  That's why you need to wash as soon as you can, to keep from smearing it around all over yourself or your surroundings.

 

This info is some of what people get in organic chemistry 101, just a basic understanding of how soap works, and the solubility behavior of hydrophilic and lipophilic substances.  If you want to make easy money, Ivy Block and Technu are fine gimmicks to extract large amounts of money from people who have not taken a course in organic chemistry.

 

Just use soap and water, and wash as soon as you can.  No need to make this expensive or complicated.