ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WFMZ) — As we say goodbye to spring and soak up the summer sun along with Pennsylvania’s rich green landscape, local horticulturalists have a message.<\/p>\n
“Leaves of three, resemble me,” said Umar Mycka.<\/p>\n
Leaves of three none other than poison ivy.<\/p>\n
“The plant is actively growing this time of year and it’s expanding,” Mycka explained.<\/p>\n
Umar Mycka of Poison Ivy Horticulturalist Inc. said it only takes as little as two minutes after accidentally coming in contact with the plant for it to absorb in the skin.<\/p>\n
“It has resin or oil in the leaf or the stem which causes a toxic allergenic reaction,” Mycka stated.<\/p>\n
The rash and intense itching that comes with it, can last up to 18 days if untreated.<\/p>\n
If you come in contact with the infamous leaves of three, wash the area immediately with soap and water.<\/p>\n
“Poison ivy resin becomes inactivated with exposure to moisture,” Mycka explained.<\/p>\n
If you’re out gardening, wear long sleeves, pants and gloves. You can remove smaller poison plants with a shovel.<\/p>\n
While there’s not much one can do to prevent poison ivy because birds naturally spread its seeds. If you see a plant starting to grow, the sooner you remove it, the better.<\/p>\n
“Keep up with the gardening. The weeding, the gardening and if you don’t let the plants grow, there’s a lot less chance of poison ivy getting in,” Mycka said.<\/p>\n
If you see a dead poison ivy plant, Jon Morris with Lehigh Valley Home and Garden told us don’t touch it with your bare hands.<\/p>\n
“You can actually get it from dead plants, so if you spray it with an herbicide of any kind, it can still get on you within a year after it’s been dead,” Morris cautioned.<\/p>\n
If your pets come into contact with it, wipe them down with a damp cloth.<\/p>\n
If you have a reaction, over-the-counter Zanfel can cure it within 24 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WFMZ) — As we say goodbye to spring and soak up the summer sun along with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,232,153,155,154,1057],"class_list":["post-218011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown-area","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}