Stupid things in the landscape that cause a rash

[nomad100]

We finally finished the big clean up in the back yard this weekend (20 bags of leaves and 5 buckets of dandelions).

Turns out something I touched/cleaned up/tore out has given me a rash.  I didn't see any of the usual suspects (poison ivy, poison oak, etc.) so who knows what it was.  I have a big patch on my side (probably from itching with my gloves on), in addition to all up and down my one arm (wrist to armpit). 

Luckily hydrocortisone and camomile lotion are helping with the itching.  DH who has the most sensitive skin ever is perfectly fine - not sure how that happened.

Anyone else have any itchy stories to make me feel better?

[2curlydogs]

Nothing plant related. But once we were over at a friend's house, sitting on their patio, drinking wine. The next morning I woke up, having spent a night unconsciously itching my foot, and my entire ankle had been devoured by chiggers. It ended up infected and all sorts of nasty.

[treedimensional]

There are things besides poison ivy that can cause contact dermatitis. Juniper annoys me. I hate touching it.

[nomad100]

May 9, 2013 9:40:39 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

There are things besides poison ivy that can cause contact dermatitis. Juniper annoys me. I hate touching it.

Plus, it smells like cat pee.   

Or at least the 2 small bushes we used to have in our front yard did.  How we figured that out is a funny story...

When we moved into our house, there was a slight odor of cat pee around the front of the house at times.  We thought it was because the previous owners had a cat.  So we got one of those black lights which show where there is pee and turned out all the lights.  Went through the whole house a couple of times and other than a small spot in the basement...nothing.  Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy since we were moving boxes and furniture in the dark to make sure we didn't miss any spots.  The smell was worse when the windows were open so we thought a cat was spraying on the house.  Again, in the dark of night DH and I checked around the base of the house moving any plants and I was freaking out because I was paranoid of spiders so there was a bit of hopping and muffled creams when I thought a spider was on me.  Nope no pee spots.  Now I am sure that our neighbors really thought we were crazy.  Finally, my aunt, who lives in Oregon, came to visit and asked if our junipers smelled like cat pee.  Once they got torn out and freecycled, no more smell. 

[treedimensional]

LOL about the smell. It's amazing how many plants smell like tom-cat urine. I bought an exotic tree last year, and quickly learned that it too has the 'intact male cat spray' aroma so many plants have. Just last week my spouse asked about the cat piss smell on our deck, and when I told him it was a tree, he narrowed his eyes and demanded to know where I planned to plant it!

[mouse]

Certain bark mulches irritate me. The fuzzy looking ones usually.

[moreace01]

The compost at my community garden gave me a rash. I suppose I should have been wearing gloves...

[simpsongal]

I'm just getting over something that was all over my body. Some of it was poison ivy but I'm not sure about the rest. Might have been chiggers