INDIANAPOLIS — As the weather gets nicer, more and more Hoosiers are hitting the trails and enjoying the great outdoors.

With that comes Mother Nature’s joys and her dangers, including poison ivy.

Dawn Dandeman, a park naturalist at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, said poison ivy is an itchy annoyance to most people, but not everyone.

“Some people can have a pretty severe reaction that can actually land them in the hospital,” Dandeman said.  “So for some people that are very sensitive it can be a lot more serious.”

Identifying poison ivy is key to avoiding it, she said.  While it can grow as a vine or a shrub, poison ivy always has three leaves.  Dandeman said it likes to grow around edges, including where the forest meets a trail.

Wearing long pants with shoes that cover feet completely could help avoid exposure to poison ivy, but is not foolproof.

“You can still get poison ivy from your clothing,” Dandeman said.  “So if you’ve walked through it, you want to take that off and wash it in really good hot water with lots of soap before you touch that again.”

As far as ticks are concerned, Dandeman said she has not heard of many in Eagle Creek Park, but other parts of Indiana are reporting large numbers this year.

Tucking pant legs into socks can help stop deer ticks, which can carry infections like lyme disease, from finding a place to latch on.

If you do find a tick on you, Dandeman recommends taking extra caution in removing it.

“You want to be careful not to break the head off and leave that, mouth parts in your skin.  So you can kinda scrape it off sideways with a credit card.”

If there are signs of an infection, possibly a “bullseye” type of red mark around the bite, Dandeman suggests visiting a doctor.