Just realized my town's 'free mulch' pile is full of poison ivy roots

I grabbed a few scoops from the county drop-off last Saturday and now my whole forearm is covered in that rash. Checked the county website again and there's a buried warning about not using it for gardens, but who reads that stuff before loading up?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_king7d ago

County really ought to put that warning right on the pile or at least make the sign bigger than a footnote. Did you end up having to go to urgent care or just tough it out with calamine? The roots can survive in piles for months so now I'm wondering if there's any of it still hiding in your yard.

derek_bell7d ago

Gently point out that the sign might have been there, just hard to see because of the way the pile was stacked. I was actually the one who called the county after I spotted a little white sign buried under some brush, not even a foot tall, with tiny font that said "poison ivy present." No way anyone would notice it unless they were already looking for it. And yeah, I ended up toughing it out with calamine and some generic hydrocortisone cream, but it took about two weeks to really clear up. About the roots, you're right they can hang around in mulch piles for a long time, but I actually went back after the pile was gone and checked with a spray bottle of vinegar to see if any of it reacted, which is a trick I read works for spotting urushiol residue on surfaces. Nothing popped up, so I think the heat from the composting process might have killed it off, but I'm still keeping an eye on that spot just in case.