By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

With summer well underway, those dreaded itch-inducing plants, better known as poison ivy, have been spotted cropping up.

Mary Heath, education manager for OSF Saint James, John W. Albrecht Medical Center is giving people some tips to stay itch free.

“Some things to think about if you’ve been out with brush or pulling weeds, wear gloves and when you come in, make sure to wash well. Scrub your skin really well – there are a lot of products out there that will help with that. Always remember the gloves and tools you were using probably have the (poison ivy) oil on there. If you touch it again, it will start up again, so you need to clean up the tools and gloves and be careful of that,” Heath said.

The full forum where this and other summer maladies are discussed can be found here.