It is never recommended to take a hot shower immediately after exposure to poison ivy or oak. The reason is, hot water opens your pores. If the pores open up, more urushiol stands a chance of being absorbed into your system. For that reason, showering with cool or lukewarm water for the first shower is best.
Wash your skin in soap and cool water as soon as possible if you come in contact with a poisonous plant. The sooner you cleanse the skin, the greater the chance that you can remove the plant oil or help prevent further spread.
Act fast if you touch poison ivy, oak, or sumac
Immediately wash the part of your skin that touched the plant with one of the following: Thoroughly rinse with plenty of cool water. Wash under your nails.
The oils from toxic plants can seep through latex or rubber gloves. After coming in contact with poison ivy, remove any contaminated clothing. As soon as possible (minutes count, but you can try up to two hours later), wash under very warm or hot running water using dishwashing liquid on a damp washcloth.
Wash the affected items separately with ordinary laundry detergent at the highest recommended water temperature, for the longest cycle, and, if possible, on the largest load setting. Washing the items separately will prevent the poison from spreading to other garments.
Even brief contact can cause the sticky substance to stay on your shoes, clothes, and other fabrics for days, weeks, or even months. Our research indicates that it can even remain on dead and dried plants for as many as five years!
Do not use rubbing alcohol, bleach, or hydrogen peroxide as a treatment for poison ivy. These items will irritate the rash more than soothe symptoms.
Two or three washings should get rid of the urushiol, but if any traces remain drying the clothes in the dryer can leave the machine contaminated. Once you've worn the clothes without a problem, you can wash and dry them as usual with all of your other laundry.
How to reduce poison ivy from spreading. First and foremost, avoid touching objects where urushiol can be transmitted – and wash your hands right away if you do! You want to remove the oil from your skin as soon as possible. If you don't have soap, use alcohol-based wipes instead.
The recommended agents are a soft soap and cold water (because that combo removes oil better). How soon you need to wash depends on your skin's susceptibility. It varies—but the sooner, certainly the better. As far as I know, hand sanitizers have never been tested for their ability to remove urushiol.
The correct way to kill poison ivy fast
Pour boiling water on the plant. Make sure to cover everything and this will essentially cook the plant and will kill it. Multiple shrubs of poison ivy – A mild homemade herbicide would be a good option if the growth isn't too significant to call for the use of toxic chemicals.
To eradicate poison oak and poison ivy chemically, use an herbicide that contains glyphosate, triclopyr, or a 3-way herbicide that contains 2,4-D amine, dicamba, and mecoprop.
Wash the clothes using laundry detergent and the hottest water temperature that's safe for the fabric. Use enough water to allow the clothes to agitate freely. Dump the clothes into the washing machine directly from the plastic bag, being careful not to let them brush against the outside of the machine.
The best treatment for exposure to urushiol is rubbing alcohol (in a pinch vodka or gin works, but only if you rub on, not drink it), which is a solvent that neutralizes the urushiol. If used within four hours of exposure, it will leach urushiol out of the skin.
If you're worried about the possibility of spreading the rash to other parts of your body or other people, poison ivy rashes themselves are not infectious.
Is poison ivy contagious? You can't get a poison ivy rash by touching another person's rash. But you could develop a rash if you touch the oil on another person's body or clothes.
Body heat and sweating can aggravate the itching. Stay cool and apply cool compresses to your skin. Calamine lotion and hydrocortisone cream can be applied to the skin to reduce itching and blistering. Bathing in lukewarm water with an oatmeal bath product, available in drugstores, may soothe itchy skin.
Wash any clothes, shoes, toys, and garden tools that have been exposed – even the towel used after your child's shower. Unless you wash everything, the poison ivy oil can still make contact with your child and even you.
1 to 5 years is normal for urushiol oil to stay active on any surface including dead plants. The name urushiol is derived from urushi, Japanese name for lacquer. Poison Ivy rash is contagious. Rubbing the rash won't spread poison ivy to other parts of your body (or to another person).
Homemade weed killer: Add 1 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 tablespoon of vinegar into a gallon of water for a DIY weed killer spray that can kill poison ivy over time.
People can apply the vinegar several times a day, until the symptoms ease. If necessary, people can dilute apple cider vinegar with water to make it less potent. People should use home remedies on a rash with caution. No scientific evidence supports the use of apple cider vinegar to treat poison ivy rashes.
Up to 85% of Americans are allergic to poison ivy, leaving at least 15% resistant to any reaction. If you are allergic to poison ivy, you're more likely to be allergic to poison oak and poison sumac, because all three plants contain the same rash-triggering plant oil called urushiol (pronounced yoo-ROO-shee-all).
Essentially, the best practice for washing skin after poison ivy exposure is to use cold water paired with either dish soap or rubbing alcohol. The soap and alcohol are effective at breaking down and neutralizing the urushiol, while the cold water will keep your pores closed and less likely to absorb the itchy toxins.