Natural Cures and Remedies for Poison Ivy
If you are unlucky enough to come in contact with poison ivy, here are some natural remedies to help reduce the itching and pain, plus tricks to prevent the nasty rash.
Measles make you bumpy
And mumps’ll make you lumpy
And chicken pox’ll make you jump and twitch
A common cold’ll fool ya
And whooping cough can cool ya
But poison ivy, Lord’ll make you itch!
-The Coasters
If you are one of the approximately 85% of the population who are allergic to poison ivy, then you’re probably already familiar with the intense discomfort it can cause from severely itchy, painful, oozy blisters and rashes.
How to Identify Poison Ivy
Poison ivy grows throughout most of North America, including most Canadian provinces and all U.S. states except Alaska, Hawaii and California. It thrives along the edges of wooded areas, which makes it especially prominent in suburban communities.
A poison ivy plant features three almond-shaped leaflets, and may have grayish-white berries. The leaves, which are smooth and shiny, are often red when the plant is young, turning light green and then dark green as summer progresses, and reverting to bright red or orange again in the fall. The leaves are generally anywhere from 1” to 5” long, but can, in rare cases, grow to be up to 10” long. Poison ivy vines have no thorns, but will often feature fine reddish root hairs along the stem.
Want to Avoid Poison Ivy? Try Rhyming!
Here are a few mnemonics people have used over the years to help them avoid poison ivy:
Leaves of three, let it be.
Hairy vine, no friend of mine.
Berries white, run in fright or Berries white, danger in sight.
Red leaflets in the spring, it’s a dangerous thing.
Side leaflets like mittens will itch like the dickens.
If butterflies land there, don’t put your hand there.
Natural Remedies for Poison Ivy
Here are some natural remedies for poison ivy—if you are unlucky enough to come in contact with it—that will help reduce the itching and pain. Before trying any of these remedies, be sure to first wash the area thoroughly with soap and hot water, using a washcloth. Rinse and repeat at least three times to ensure that all of the poison is gone. Urushiol, the substance in poison ivy that makes you itchy, is a sticky oil that is hard to wash away. Make certain to wash all clothes, and anything else that came into contact with the plant, too.
- Witch hazel applied to the affected area can soothe the itching.
- Cover the rash with a paste made from cold coffee and baking soda. A paste made from water and cornstarch will also work.
- Take a warm bath with oatmeal or Epsom salt. Use about one cup of oatmeal or two cups of Epsom salt in a full bathtub.
- Rub a banana peel or a watermelon rind over the rash and don’t rinse it off. Allow it to dry naturally.
- Make a paste from one tablespoon of turmeric with equal parts of lime or lemon juice and apply to the affected area.
- Whip a raw potato into a paste in your blender. Spread it onto your skin and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
- Make a paste from one tablespoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of peppermint essential oil, 1 to 2 cups green clay, and a little water (just enough to give it a pasty texture). Apply liberally and leave in place for approximately 30 minutes. Rinse. Apply 2-3 times daily.
- Rub dishwashing liquid onto the skin area with a washcloth and allow it to dry. Reapply as needed.
- Apply tea made from burdock root or peach tree leaves. Allow it to dry on the skin, and reapply as often as desired.
- 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and spray the affected areas and allow to air dry. Helps to treat symptoms as well as to dry the rash.
Not-So-Fun Fact: Urushiol remains active for up to 5 years. So even a dead poison ivy plant can cause a rash!
Jaime McLeod
Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.
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I’ve had 3+ weeks to learn about this vicious poison, which took a week to “blossom” (from a quick grab of loose leaves, blown in from elsewhere) on our yard edge, and then 2 weeks to finally/truly turn around (thanks, presumably, to major prednisone [60 to 40 to 20 mg/day for 15 days] + topical steroid cream for 3 weeks + HYDROGEN PEROXIDE [wish I had tried that in week 1!] + VITAMIN E squeezed on from capsules [finally got my overly reactive/immune-wacky skin to start healing]). Since I had no idea I had touched a bit of poison ivy, and didn’t wash my forearm that first night, it transferred to both my thighs and then my other forearm that first night, but didn’t seriously worry me [sending me to Urgent Care] until a week later. Some websites say that you have just 1 hour to get those oils off of you, but I get the tough scrubs will do it after 1 hr. Apple cider didn’t help me, or the collodial oatmeal baths, etc. But sensing that a rash or itchiness is a bad thing the first day of this exposure, and washing WELL as soon as possible, would have saved me. It has been 3.5 weeks since exposure, and my skin remains discolored all over. I can finally sleep through the night again (had to take lots of meds to try to not go nuts at 2 am, jumping out of my skin). The plastic bags shrouding my steroid cream limbs didn’t help. But being in the sun for 30 min & then jumping in a cold pool did seem to move things in a positive direction. Really hope everyone can do those things in week 1, long before I had to start experimenting.
I found that if you take a few leaves of live forever plant, crush them up until the sap comes out of them and rub that on poison ivy. It will dry it up over night. Really works great.
I just used this plant and it took the itch right away. Thank you!
What plant is this?
Can you POST A PICTURE of what this plant looks like, please?
Peroxide works really well at drying the poison ivy, oak and sumac rash. I will use it first if I get it again!!
Awesome! Thank you for all the remedies. I don’t use herbicides so I have poison ivy in all my hedgerows. I wonder if your remedies will work against the chigger bite itch. Betcha some will.
Hi. I use essential oils like cedarwood or tea tree oil or citronella. Keeps chiggers ticks mosquitoes away and they usually love me. I am suffering with this poison ivey/oak though
My friend Uses clear nail polish on chigger bites
We use a product called Rhus Tox aka Outdoor Joe’s. Works wonders on building an immunity to poison ivy. Also Dawn dish soap after any contact.
I can even walk by it and almost catch it because I’m very allergic to poison ivy and oak!
I guess that I am one of the few that is not allergic to poison ivy. My son and husband just looks at it and they got it. I pull it up all the time, my property has lots of it!
I know this isnold. But heads up for all of us “immune” to urishol. That immunity can disappear. Been pulling ivy for years no problem. Until last week when I helped a friend and ended up with black spot poison ivy rash.
Apply apple cider compress for five minutes. Then apply Tea Tree Oil and let dry. Dries up and gone in a couple days.
Love Tea Tree oil, but it kept me up.
I THINK I burned my skin, with my Tea Tree Oil. I have a big, nasty, round, yellow-watery oozing wound, now…and I immediately, washed off the isuroil oil (Aka the poison ivy sap,) dried it, with sterile gauze and applied Tea Tree Oil with a Q-tip, to the area and covering it, when done, with a sterile, big, rectangular bandaid. I think I may have scratched it, OR my pet cat had it on her (maybe?) and I got some type of bacterial infection. I use Tea Tree Oil on ALL of my wounds and never have a problem. This time, though, it blistered (the size of my pinky finger!) and like I said, now, I have a big, round, yellow skinned, circle that is oozing a yellow, watery fluid. I, also, popped the big blister, before reading, I shouldn’t have. So, I’m not so sure about using Tea Tree Oil on poison ivy.
https://www.lehmans.com/product/fels-naptha-laundry-soap/ Fels Naptha Soap, bath with it. It’s cheap and does the trick.
Has anyone tried sulphur? Soap for the oil/itch….granulated to kill the plant….?
Hi Rob Fultz, You can purchase soaps that get rid of the urushiol, the oil that causes the blisters, milled specifically as poison ivy soap. Works great! https://store.farmersalmanac.com/FARM/p-FA___JWSOAP
It seems to us that the poison ivy/poison oak is much worse this year than ever before. Has anyone else noticed this? We live in the Arkansas country side.