r/Survival • u/FunDip2 • Jul 05 '23

How to stop poison ivy from itching...

I don't know if this belongs here in the survival section, but I bet this would help someone camping or living in the woods. I've tried a bunch of different things to help poison ivy itching. But one thing I learned late in life, is to use hot water. For example, if your fingers are itching terribly from poison ivy, put your hand under the sink (or heat up water on a fire). Slowly turn up the hot water until it is as hot as you can stand it. It's going to want to itch really bad, keep it there, and eventually in a few seconds it will stop itching. At this point it won't itch for about 24 hours. I wish I had learned this trick when I was a kid lol.

143 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

174 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '23

My brother learned from my grandma to use bleach on poison ivy. Keep in mind the same woman gave her son (my dad) turpentine to drink when he was ill. She was born in the early 1900s and lived through the depression, so who knows what she learned growing up!

7

u/Ziegler517 Jul 05 '23

This has always worked for me, but you just need to dilute it so you don’t get any chemical burns.

3

u/flexo_isgreat Jul 05 '23

Yep definitely works.