Jewelweed does grow down in the Court of Miracles, which was a poison ivy/oak prone area until I did combat with a bottle of Round Up with it pretty much every year. It was pretty much gone my last Pennsic, but havent' been back in a couple years, so I dont' know if there's any down there now or not.

Round up kills it. Just spray it and leave it alone. Don't spray it and chop it down, or it will be back next year. Spray it and leave it, and it will be gone next year. Gotta give the herbicide time to permeate the root system.

For the love of all that is holy, NEVER burn the stuff. NEVER. Even if it's dead. Especially if it's dead. You might kill someone.

As for decontaminating your gear, yes, it's true you have to rinse off EVERYTHING. You can get the stuff from a doorknob or a shovel handle, if the urushoil is still on it. You might not be allergic, but you can pass the oil to someone who is. You can NOT get it from the rash of another person, only the oil. So if that person has washed, they are no longer contageous. If you are exposed, rinse off as soon as you can with COLD water. This closes your pores and gets it off the surface of your skin. A dunk in the creek will effectively neutralize the stuff (just do it downstream of others.) Then, if you can, a hot shower, to clean up anything that might have gotten into your pores.

Clothes don't need hot water, any water will do. But they do need a good washing, maybe a couple good washings. Shoes, too.

To treat the rash, I find calamine to be fairly worthless. I scald the rash in water as hot as I can stand. It's awful. I will sit in the tub and cry, but I make myself do it. This depletes the histamine in your skin cells. Histamine causes the itch. The hot water will feel like Hell and Pestilence...and then all of a sudden, you get a rush of relief. Do the heat until you feel that rush. That's the last of the histamine. You wont' make enough to start itching again until 6 to 12 hours have past, depending on what body part (hands and face seem to make histamine faster than, say, legs or torso.) You can get through your day or get a nights sleep without too much suffering this way. Yes, the treatment is really rough. But I prefer to get my suffering out of the way all at once.

Take some antihistamine and a painkiller (itch is mild pain, so asprin really will help it.) and you will feel a whole lot better. Generally, I ignore the warning on the bottle of topical antihistamine to not take it with oral antihistamine, and use both simultaneously, but that's just me. If I get it bad, I go to the doc in the box for a shot of prednisone. I became a regular down there one summer. They were all like "Can you not stay out of the woods???". Prednisone is a wonderful thing. Instant relief.

You can also by some very good products if you know you will be out in the brush as a preventative: Tec-Nu:

www.teclabsinc.com/products.cfm

This stuff works pretty well, in tandem with a skin sealant I have used with good results, the name of which I will have to look for as I don't remember. I'll try to remember and post it. I keep these products in my fan. Bottle of Tec-nu and a bottle of water kept handy to rinse off with, and you can really spare yourself some suffering later.