This time of year outdoorsmen, hunters and landscapers will be clearing trees, cutting paths through the woods, cutting firewood, pruning trees and clearing brush from campsites with their tool of choice made in the USA – the Woodman’s Pal. But anytime you go into the woods or away from asphalt, more than likely you’ll encounter poisonous plants and biting arachnids. However, using the Woodman’s Palwith its lifetime warranty and money-back guarantee to clear land, roads in the backcountry and stream banks can help do away with the main causes of skin irritations and rashes – poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac and eliminate many of the areas where biting arachnids live.

Although poison ivy, which grows across most of the Continental United States, with the exception of the Southwest, and poison oak have harmless appearances, they’re often difficult to distinguish from other plants because they tend to adopt the growth pattern of the plants that surround them. If they take root among tall shrubs, they’ll grow into shrubs and may resemble weeds, ivy leaves or oak leaves, but always grow their leaves in groups of threes. To identify these two plants, look for plants with three leaves branching from a single independent stem. Poison sumac, also known as swamp sumac and poison elder, mimics the plants growing nearby. Commonly found as a multi-branch bush, it may grow into a tree 25-feet tall, which a Woodman’s Pal can dispatch with ease. It has a complex, different leaf pattern with leaves that grow in pairs of 6 to 12 leaves on a reddish stem with a single leaf at the end. These leaves have smooth edges that end in a point. Poison sumac grows abundantly along the Mississippi River.
 
How to Prevent Reactions to Poisonous Plants:

If you plan to cut-down poisonous plants with your Woodman’s Pal, one of the best ways to prevent contact and possible irritation from these plants is to wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants and gloves, whether at home, clearing land or cutting shooting lanes or trails in the woods, preparing for hunting season. If you do brush-up against these plants, the FDA recommends that within the first 10 minutes of exposure to cleanse the exposed area with rubbing alcohol. Next wash the area with water but no soap, and then take a shower with soap and warm water. Lastly, put on gloves, and wipe-down everything you’ve had with you, including your shoes, clothes and handles of your tools with rubbing alcohol and water. However, if you wait more than 10 minutes to do these tasks after exposure to the poisonous plants, these precautions probably won’t work. Here’s a good site to learn more about how to treat poison oak, ivy and sumac, http://www.health911.com/poison-ivy-&-poison-oak. 

Poisonous Arachnids:

You also need to be aware of two critters when you’re using your Woodman’s Pal, redbugs and ticks. Use insect repellants with at least 10% to 30% DEET to turn these bugs away. Both ticks and redbugs live in forests on grassy lands and in low, damp areas often where vegetation is thick, like blackberry bushes, orchards, along stream and river banks. Too, you’ll find these arachnids in low vegetation like lawns, golf courses and parks. Of the two, redbugs are often the hardest to detect.  You may not know you’ve come in contact with them, until you spot red whelps that itch constantly on your ankles, waistbands and wrists.

To Eliminate Redbugs:

Two products will kill redbugs after you get them. Chigger Rid, an over-the-counter product you can buy at most drugstores, has a coating similar to fingernail polish but also has some type of ingredient in it to stop the itch. Many outdoorsmen paint their redbug bites with clear fingernail polish.

To Remove Ticks: 

To properly remove a tick, use sharp pointed tweezers or specially-made tick tweezers to grasp the tick at its embedded mouth parts and as close to your skin as possible. If you squeeze the tick’s body or head, you risk pushing infected fluid from the tick into your body or leaving the tick’s head of mouth parts. Do not twist the tick, or turn the tweezers as you pull out the tick, but instead pull the tick straight out.  Don’t apply any substances to the tick before removing it – no alcohol, nail polish, petroleum jelly or other ointments. Don’t try to burn the tick out. Once you get the tick, put it in a dry jar with a lid or in a Ziploc bag. Save it in the freezer for later identification, if necessary. After the tick has been removed, wash the area of the tick bite with plenty of warm water and a mild dishwashing soap such as Ivory. Be sure to wash your hands well with soap and water also. Then use an antibiotic such as Polysporin or Bacitracin, and put a bandage on it. If you can’t remove a tick, call your doctor.