ORIGINAL: Ridge Runner
The bleach crrowd is full of BS, I know a poor guy that went that route, clorox had no effect, so someone with infinate wisdom told him he had to scratch it open for the clorox to work, he did, it didn't work, so someone else told him gasoline would work really well, it didn't, so as a last resort he tried laquer thinner. When I saw his arms they looked like hamburger, I asked what happened to him, poison he replied, I informed him that poison doesn't do that, he told me the story.
I picked him some jewelweed and in 2 days he was happy as a lark, another friend would get cortesone shots for it, until I showed him jewelweed. I don't take poison but I have dozens of people come to mefor jewelweed when they do.
The "bleach crowd" is not full of BS, your buddy is just an idiot!
Bleach will denature any of the oils still on the skin. It
WILL NOT treat poison ivy already there!
Scratching the pustules open and pouring bleach or gas into them is one of the dumber ideas I have ever heard of and I can't believe anyone would actually do that.
Putting bleach on exposed skin can prevent or lessen the reaction. Scratching open the pustules to put bleach into them is as intelligent as drinking bleach to get rid of it from the inside.
I've never seen any research on the Jimson weed or seen it work, but I'm not gonna discount it if it works for you.