Earth Clinic Mobile: Home Remedies for People and Pets

Hot Water for Poison Oak

5 star (1)		50%
2 star (1)		50%

Oak (North Carolina) on 10/01/2022:
2 out of 5 stars

I once tried this on full blown blistering poison ivy and it made the itching go away for some minutes but the itching spread ALLOT. My legs swelled up 1.5x. I've never had it that bad and wonder if the hot water made it worse. That's a nay, except it did stop the itches briefly.

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Jean-o-mac (Texas) on 06/06/2019:
5 out of 5 stars

I actually didn’t know what to do when I came in contact with poison oak. I had it on my forearm and thought it was an insect bite like chigger or something.

This sounds insane, but I took a wash cloth and dipped it in water that is 155 degrees and then slapped it over the area and did my crazy lady dance until the burning stopped. It took out the itch and within a day or 2 it has started to scab over and dry up. I have had no more itching since the HOT steam bath. Here is what I did….I dipped the cloth in water 155 degree (120 will work find) then I left the wash cloth on until it cooled down. Then I immediately did it a second time! After it cooled down I hit it a third time and waited again until it cooled down. This works great for insect bites like chiggars, mosquitos, tick bites, bee/wasp stings…anything that stings or itches. HOT HOT water.

NOTE: It does not work on brown recluse or black widow spider bites.

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