Simple things you can do:

• Educate yourself. The best defense against Poison Ivy is understanding how it works, knowing what it looks like and simply avoiding it.

• Wear appropriate clothing and footwear. Cover your skin from the waist down, including your ankles.  Even with constant vigilance of our trail volunteers, it is still possible some Poison Ivy may be close to the trail edge. 

• Stay on the marked trails that are on the trail map. MAI does not maintain many spur trails and makes no effort to remove Poison Ivy from those trails. Printed copies of our trail map are available to purchase for a nominal fee at several locations in the village. 

• Respect Monhegan’s island-wide leash laws and keep pets with you and on marked trails at all times. 

• If you know you have been exposed to Poison Ivy, you need to shower and wash with soap as soon as possible after exposure. The area that has been exposed should be washed thoroughly. A thorough washing with soap and cold water in less than twelve hours from contact will mitigate the effect of the contact. The sooner the better.

• Clothing exposed to Poison Ivy should be washed as soon as possible and not washed with other clothing that has not been exposed.

There is a commercially available product called Tecnu (www.teclabs.com 1-800-482-4464) which is a lotion that will neutralize the oil. This can be helpful to apply to the contact area as early as possible and then washed off with soap and water. It can be used to clean tools, pet fur, clothing and other articles that have come in contact with Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, or Poison Sumac.