Skeeters and Poison Ivy have no effect on me

[Hammer Handle]

Any idea why that is? I have never gotten poison ivy or a mosquito bite.

This last weekend, I was trimming some trees in sandals and shorts and standing in poison ivy. No worries....

[joeyquicksand*]

you are a god.

[Hammer Handle]

My dad is the same way. Something I inherited from him??

[joeyquicksand*]

yes, you must have... do you have lazer shooting eyes, or super human strength too? Bless your fathers good aim!

[Quetico]

Poison Ivy has never had much effect on me. It tingles then nothing.

I wish we all had the immunity to mosquito's.

[joeyquicksand*]

maybe you guys are distant cousins.

[beer batter]

I notice mosquitos leave me alone once the blood alcohol content rises. Are you a "perma pickle"? Or possibly some sort of blood disorder?

[goblueM]

i didnt ever used to get poison ivy, then i've started getting it now. but rarely. I've heard a lot of times you can be "immune" to PI, but that it'll change as you get older

I well up somethin fierce to skeeter bites though

[Eskimoman]

I notice mosquitos leave me alone once the blood alcohol content rises. Are you a "perma pickle"? Or possibly some sort of blood disorder?

Now theres a good repelent!

[Powerstroke]

I am also immune to the skeeter bites and to the PI.

The reaction to those irritants is very similar to an allergic reaction. Some people are respond to it, others don't and the people who do respond get varying degrees of inflammation.

Think bee stings, everybody gets one sometime, some people have no reaction, some people have anaphylaxia and die and most people are in the middle.

Most allergic reactions intensify the more times you're exposed to it, which is why some people develop reactions later in life.

[Jameson]

I WAS immune to PI. So much so that if the old boss would locate jobs with ivy in them, he would just send me out. He himself was so reactive to the stuff it seemed if he was within eyesight of the stuff he would get a rash.

That was a few years ago. This spring I was doing some tree planting amongst a virtual field of the ivy. Thinking I was still immune to PI, I did not take any precautionary steps. My first PI rash ensued. I now hate Poison Ivy! Plans are being drawn-up for pay-back on the field of ivy.

[Powerstroke]

ROUND UP!!!!

[JimBuck]

I've never had a problem with PI but the skeeters are a whole different ball of wax. You guys aren't vampires, are you?

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Any idea why that is? I have never gotten poison ivy or a mosquito bite.

You could make a fortune selling your blood for sportsman's transfusions!

[dirtking]

I guess I am in the same boat on the mosquuitos and PI don't bother me - Mosq.'s still bite and that is annoying but no itching occures aftarwards - I have heard the same thing as Powerstroke said

"Most allergic reactions intensify the more times you're exposed to it, which is why some people develop reactions later in life."

gnats, noseems, horse flys, deer flys, black flies, spiders .... They are a different story!

[moviking]

I to am one of the lucky ones. Poison Ivy doesn't bother me, never had it. As for mosquitos. We don't have them down here(Mo).Really nice to sit out in the evening, if it ain't UnGodly hot.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Always something to combat when you're outdoors. If it's not the bugs, it's the weather.

Actually our mosquitoes aren't that bad in January

[Hammer Handle]

Last weekend I slept in a lawn chair all night one night...in shorts. I just had my head covered to avoid the "humming" or the skeeters.

No bites!

And yes, alcohol was a factor....

[BoxMN]

Powerstroke is right. PI affects you worse the more you are exposed to it. I even read the studies on it, and history of it. Pioneers used to think eating little bits of PI would make them more immune, but it actually would make them worse.

I didn't start to get affected by PI until two years ago, and I am just getting over a real annoying case/rash of it now - both legs, wrists, neck, back... I slept on same sheets the next night that I slept on the first after cutting trees in PI. Drat, it was horrible.

If you know you entered it or got exposed, I highly recommend Cortaid Scrub as soon as you can. Once you get the blisters, you are scr3wed.

Skeeter go after people who put out more CO2, as some people do. They also go for darker colored clothing, as they are actually looking for large mammals more so than just "people".

[macgruber]

ya, there's a small percentage of the population that's immune to poison ivy...... thankfully, i am in that as well..... same with skeets..... but like folks have mentioned, you can all of a sudden lose that immunity..... so still be on the lookout for it......

[IFallsRon]

I had a case of the ivy back in the xx's. When it hit, you could watch the blisters run up my arms. I wore long sleeved flannel for a month and went through several tubes of anti-itch before it went away.

My brother's buddy trolled up a nasty stringer of ivy in his southern bay and I"m pretty sure he was/is never the same.

[Ryan Berger]

I get poison ivy whenever I even get close to it. I finally found a doctor about 8 years ago that had something that would get rid of it, diprolene. When we go to camp ripley for training I bring carb cleaner,, dries it up in no time flat.. could cause cancer but ,,,, I cant stand welling up in oozing blisters