What is it like to have a bad case of poison ivy?Imagine that your skin is smoldering in a slow, hot fire. You probably know at some level that you are not going to put out this fire by scratchingñbut you had better ask for the straitjacket while you are still rational. Soon you will be dragging your fingernails across the desperate acreage of your infection. When you acknowledge that you have been put to this agony by a plant with an IQ of zero, your misery is complete.
You have arrived at a whole new understanding of bioterrorism.
The agent is a resinous substance called urushiol, which packs a punch winter or summer, even months after the plant has died. Whimsically, urushiol bypasses some individuals altogether, but it is unwise to rush to any assumptions. Most people develop sensitivity over the course of several exposures.
The potency of the oil is astonishing. You can get the rash from taking off your shoes after walking through a patch, or petting a dog who has walked through a patch. Some of the worst cases involve the throat and lungs, where people accidentally inhaled smoke from burning plants!
It is uncanny, but poison ivy has a strong affinity for the ends of portage trailsñright where people are likely to set down a pack or, worse yet, sit down themselves. Since the plant is an opportunist and quickly moves in where any disturbance to the vegetation has occurred, the ends of portage trails are likely spots.
The poison ivy plant is powerful evidence that not all of nature is sweet and kind. But then, if you know about earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, locusts, floods, and black flies, what more evidence did you need?
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