Tempting free wood BUT...

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agz124

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Jul 16, 2007
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My dad's neighbor lost a big old cherry tree in the ice storm. He had it all cut up and was going to keep it for himself but decided not too when he broke out in a rash which he got from cutting through the poison vines that were all over the tree. He admitted that is very sensitive to poison ivy and he is worried about burning it in his fireplace so he offered it to me (knowing that I am free wood junkie). I said yes without hesitation but now I am starting to wonder if it is worth the risk. The wood is cut to 18" length, solid, bug free, cherry with 1-2" in diameter hairy vines all around the bark. What do you guys (and girls) think? Will the vines dry up and fall off then and germinate around my wood pile? To try and knock all the vines off with an ax would take a really long time plus the wood is 45 minutes from my house and will require at least 2 trips = $20 in gas. Boy I am cheap!

Thoughts?
 
if u have enough wood already for the winter id skip it, but im really allgeric to poisen ivy as well so id stay clear all together anyway....
 
cmonSTART said:
Inhaling the smoke from any burning poison ivy, oak, etc. can be very very dangerous, in some instances fatal if there is enough exposure.
Click to expand...


That is true, when I was strapping young lad about the age of 10, my neighbors were burning the remnants of a fence line they were clearing that was full of poison ivy, and virginia creeper. I hung out and played with the neighborhood kids all afternoon around the fire, and when I woke up the next day, everywhere I had any exposed skin was covered in a nice even rash, that quickly turned into dripping puss pockets. A quick Rx. of steroids and 10 days later I was fine. 20 years later, I can spot even the tiniest leaf of that stuff. The virginia creeper does not bother me all that much, but that ivy. I don't like to get withing arms length of the stuff.

The virginia creeper has the 5 leafs.
The ivy has the 3.
And no my rash did not get that bad, but whey, that looks rough
Mine looked like the smoother rash, dripping the puss
 

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Frankly seems like a long way to drive for cherry, with or without poison ivy. It's about my least favorite wood these days, without a lot of primary air it just goes black once the gases run out (even when bone-dry).
 
In high school I once did some work rolling rounds down a hill and loading them into a truck. The hill had lots of poison oak, and so did I the next day. It transferred from the leaves to the logs, and onto my gloves and eventually my face.

You could try washing the logs down with detergent. If it's just on the bark, debark.
 
I had watched my daughter suffer every fall during leaf burning season with horrible reactions when the stuff is burned.
It is not worth the risk hurting you or someone else.
& add the possibility of having to deal with poison ivy growing about your place, yuck, stuff is a groan to get rid of.
 
the vines can still give a rash up to 5 years after it has been cut and burning is out of the question it can kill some people and it would be something bad to live with if somebody in your neighborhood was that allergic to it.
 
Every so often we cut a tree which has poison ivy vines. Most of the time I'll cut the vine about 2 feet from the ground. Actually cut out about 4" of the main vine. Then after a year or two will cut the tree. However, we also have cut some trees right away.

We do take all the vines off using an ax though and have never had any problems. I do that during cold weather though so have lots of clothing covering my body just in case. Never have gotten an itch from it.
 
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