To mitigate the risk to your person, the best way to remove poison ivy is with a tool that belongs in every garden shed: A shovel. The first step is to correctly identify the poison ivy by looking for its characteristic clusters of three leaflets. However, don't confuse poison ivy with boxelder, another tree that also has leaves in groups of three. Even so, you should still be sure to properly cover up before dealing with poison ivy. A poison ivy rash is rarely life-threatening, but it is still very unpleasant to deal with and can last a long time.