Toxic Hogweed! Nasty Nasty

RopeArmour

RopeArmour

TreeHouser
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Dec 15, 2010
Messages
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Location
Cambridge, Ontario Canada
http://www2.worksafebc.com/Publications/Multimedia/Videos.asp?ReportID=34980

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_(plant)
In a hurrry to make a deposit in the woods the other day and this is when I braced myself from falling and I think my forearm hit some emerging HogWeed.

It really does look nasty now, blistering, very red and burns
The chemical is photosensitive. It is a chemical burn.
Will cause blindness and keep your children safe.
I just keeep it wrapped with black hockey tape and use Vagisil for the burniing and itching(on my arm):roll:
Hydracortisone is recomended and at worst surgery and skin graft.

Take care share this with all.
 
Yeah, no kiddin! I thought poisen oak was the worst. That stuff makes devils club look like nothing as well.
 
That stuff is nasty!! How many of these 'bad plants' were introduced as ornamental, and then they turn out to be the worst thing ever, and spread like wildfire. This isn't the only time for sure. . . It's not toxic to humans, as far as touching, but we have a real bad Russian Spotted Knapweed problem here.

European starlings are the same way. . . I hate them fricken birds. :X
 
So true - it's a magnificent plant to look at, but a real problem if touched. I have a client who has a single specimen deliberately planted on his property. No amount of reasoning with him will persuade him to take it out - he thinks it's gorgeous (and he's right).
 
My neighbor had some plants growing out back of his house. I asked him how it got there and he told me some stupid person planted it. Him. Now it has spread to his neighbors land. I am next in line. I don't know anyone who has got the rash yet.
 
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As toxic as that plant is, it probably drinks a glass of that for breakfast every morning! :lol:
 
we have it here too, its a BITCH of a plant. manual removal then incinerator. Cant burn it in open fires, Round supposedly wont kill it as it grows too fast. Jay, what bamboo have you found that Roundup kills? Around here its not effective against it, that and Horsetail. Years back we used to mix Gramoxone (nasty shit - paraquat, diquat etc) and a spit of diesel or used motor oil to help it stick.
 
Generally speaking, any total-kill herbicide (like RoundUp) should work - if you spray it when the leaves are young and growing. I've heard of folks injecting (yep, with a syringe) a couple of ml. of undiluted RoundUp into the stems to kill it. Not awfully practical where there is lots of it.
 
Roundup works fine on it. I prefer a hormone based poison like MCPA, because that'll kill the Hogsweed but not the brass, giving the grass a chance to put next generation of Hogsweed in the shade.

Hogsweed has become a major problem here, once established it is incredibly hard to get rid of.

Up to 15000 seed pr plant, that'll last for up to 7 years in the ground before sprouting and the ability to choke out any competition.
They finally outlawed them last year, meaning you have to remove them from your property.
Only about 15 years too late.

Whacking those are one of my least favourite " Waiting for logging season to start" jobs. Full body suit and facemask+ factor 50 sunblock will get one safely through the day if one is carefull.
Richard got burned badly last summer, because he took his boot off before his rainpants, and the sock stayed in the boot.
The poison on his pants got on his leg and that is all she wrote.

On last years Rock music festival in Roskilde, some stoners found some Hogsweed and decided that the large hollow stems would make good pipes for smoking Marihuanna.
"Like.............a real organic bong, you know"

So there was a bunch of stoned people running around with ring shaped 3 degree burns around their mouths:lol:
 
Sure a festival they will remember...:lol:

I'm glad we don't have much of that nasty thing around here. just in a few small areas...till now.
 
Labour of Love said:
I've heard of folks injecting (yep, with a syringe) a couple of ml. of undiluted RoundUp into the stems to kill it.
Click to expand...

There are a few companies here that are starting to sell it as a sort of endotherapic treatment. They use it mostly to kill Black Locusts, Ailanthus (Tree of heaven??) and huge Hedera plants. I don't know if the translation is right but they call it:devitalizing endotherapic treatment.
Big words but they do exactly what you said: injecting some herbicide with a syringe .
 
The way to fight it is to let it set seeds and then whack those off the plant before they ripen.
That way the plant "thinks" it's mission is accomplished and dies and the seeds aren't fertile.
The problem is that there only is a 2 week window for doing this.

We have been cleaning them out of a valley in a neighbouring county for 4 years now.
One patch that had 40,000 plants 4 years ago have only a few hundred now.

But going at 40,000 of those with a machete is a daunting job.

It has a silver lining to it, though.
We make a ton of money doing it.

The county had their own people do it the first year and calculated the cost based on the hours they used.
County employees are not fast workers here, many have low level disabilities and they are paid a fixed salary.

When we started doing it, they told us the amount of money set aside for the project, so we work really hard ( get there at dawn which is 3.30 AM here in summer and work non-stop till noon when it gets too hot for protective gear)

Then we bill them 10-15% less than the quoted price to make sure we get it next year.

It is hard, nasty work, but where else can you clear $120/hr wielding a machete?:D
 
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