I work as a volunteer interpreter at our local forest preserve, and this is how we teach kids (and adults) how to recognize poison ivy:

With fingers closed but flat, look at your hands, palms up. This is what the side leaves look like - oval-ish, tips that come to a point, with little "thumb"-like tips on the outside edge of the side leaves.

Now place your hands on top of each other... with the back of one hand resting on the palm of the other - still with closed fingers, and palm-up. This represents the middle leaf - still rounded edges, with a pointed tip, but this time with one "thumb" on each side of the leaf.

We then say the following:

"Leaves of three - let it be;
Berries white - stay out of sight"

Remember that Poison Ivy is a crafty fellow... hiding himself in many forms. Early spring, it's often a reddish color, and the leaves very "waxy" - thick and shiny. In high-summer, it's green, sometimes with a red dot where the leaves come together, or even with a little yellowish tint. Some may still have that "waxy" texture to the leaves, but others have lost it. It appears as a plant, growing on the ground, a vine, crawling up trees, and sometimes even appears bush-like, sometimes with woody vines, when it crawls up trees and gets very thick.

Remember that in late summer - around now - the plant produces clumps of white berries. This is something that I find many people do not know, and they often think "Oh, this has berries... it must be ok". It's not, which is why we keep the berry part of the little rhyme.

Virginia Creeper is often mistaken for Poison Ivy... but it is completely harmless. You can easily distinguish between them because Creeper has five leaves, Poison Ivy has three. But they look and act remarkably alike. Nature's Camouflage is fascinating.

When exposed to Poison Ivy, wash with COLD water and soap, not hot. Hot water causes your pores to open, and therefore, the 'poison' can get deeper into your skin. Cold water, while it seems counter-intuitive, actually closes those pores, and can help immensely. Of course, this is assuming that you wash almost immediately.

I am no expert on Poison Ivy - I am one of the fortunate people who is immune... but it's good to have this knowledge beforehand, and I've gathered it through trial and error throughout my life.

If you wish to find out more, I found an awesome site, complete with disgusting photos of rashes, and really good, educational posters, here: http://www.poison-ivy.org.

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I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I know plenty of mountain bikers that swear by Tecnu. They wash down with it after every session and never come back with poison ivy; they also add a little bit of the liquid to their laundry to get the oil out of clothing.

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We have poison ivy growing around our house and all my kids know what it looks like. But we keep Technu in the house at all times. It works great and my husband whenever he weed eats just so he won't get it. I too am immune and have ever gotten it.

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When we head out for a fun filled day of Geocaching in an area where we've been warned of Poison ivy, the kids each have a dose of Arius before heading out. I don't know if it prevents the rash or if we've just been extremely fortunate but we've been rash free all summer.

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