Poison ivy: a big-league nuisance
Even though she's the president of the Arlington Garden Club, Eileen Lynch hasn't pruned, hedged, or watered in weeks. A nasty case of poison ivy has kept the Woburn resident indoors.
"The only way that I can think I got it on the side of my arm was my cat. The rash, it's right where she curls up," said Lynch.
She is far from alone in second-guessing the origin of her itchy dilemma. Gardeners across the region say that this year's poison ivy crop is more prevalent and potent than any in recent memory.
Scientists and other experts say there may be some truth to the anecdotal evidence. Jon Sachs, founder of poison-ivy.org, said his website has been inundated with people from across the country seeking information. Earlier this summer, the Brookline resident's website peaked with more than 19,000 hits.
"There's hardly a street, suburban or rural, that doesn't have poison ivy growing along its edges," said Sachs. "I don't know if you can say that it's stronger or worse this year than last, because it couldn't be much stronger than it is."
A scientific study in Weed Science, a bimonthly journal dedicated to weeds, explains that increases in carbon dioxide levels increase the rate of spread and the production of urushiol -- the oily compound that causes an allergic reaction in most people.
The study states that today's poison ivy plants are 50 to 75 percent larger than in the 1950s.
"When people say that it was never this bad when they were kids, they're right," said Sachs. "It really wasn't this bad when they were kids."
Bonni Dinneen, a Lowell resident, is the northern district director of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts and a National Garden Club member. She lectures to local garden clubs about poison oaks, sumacs, and ivies, and said she believes the spread is due to the greater prevalence of fruit trees and birds.
Because birds carry the urushiol -- both on themselves and in their droppings -- the places where they feed are likely to have traces of the oil; the undigested seeds in the droppings, meanwhile, will germinate in the feeding areas, Dinneen said.
"I have not had any poison ivy on my property in 15 years. After planting the fruit trees, it has appeared all along the driveway," said Dinneen.
"It really is a problem for people. I was sitting with the club, looking out at the backyard, and people were saying that, especially in public areas, the poison ivy is killing us," said Dinneen.
Wendy Fox, spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, said although most people on staff say the problem is no worse this year, the state has opted to utilize chemical sprays to combat the plants. Fox said a generic form of Roundup is being used in urban parks, instead of pulling the weeds by hand, for the first time this year.
"It's a nuisance," said Fox. "But we will limit the spraying to high-traffic areas where people go, like between the beach and the bathhouse, around the picnic tables, or if it's encroaching on trails."
In Methuen, Garden Club president Linda Yuele said similar spraying had to be done to tame the ivy "running rampant all over Methuen." Although she is a proponent of organic gardening, she says spraying is the only thing that appears to work.
"It's the only method I have found successful in actually killing the poison ivy," she said. "Prior attempts to weed it out manually over the years only resulted in me catching the poison ivy rash and did not stop its growth."
Julie Weiss, a member of the Lazy Daisies Garden Club in Chelmsford, said she is battling poison ivy in her garden for the first time in years. Weiss uses plastic bags from the vegetable counter at the supermarket to handpick the ivy seedlings out of her flowerbeds, and throws the bags away.
"It's an obnoxious plant, and it's everywhere," said the Westford resident. "There is a stoplight on my street and it's all over it. I always want to roll up my window because I feel like it's going to reach out from the guardrail."
Melissa Beecher can be reached at mbeecher@globe.com. 
