Stinging Nettle............Ouch!!!!

I got stung by this stuff a couple weeks ago. It grows about as fast as the Kudzu vine but very painful. The only thing that helped was to make a poultice of baking soda, put it in a bandaid and slap it on my leg. After three days, it went away.

We also have in Pennsylvania, (Thank Heavens, NOT my yard), mile a minute vine. Another thorny mess.

This message was edited Jan 15, 2011 10:57 PM

The first picture doesn't look like Nettle to me, it looks more like Giant Ragweed.

Neither were Bullnettle, chuckle, but all of 'em seem like they have deeper poisons in 'em this year

Well, I googled this & there are more than one kind of stinging nettle. Unfortunately I became too intimate with this one and it stung my left ankle.

I do not know how to start a new column, but I am wondering if anyone knows how to control Hairy Crabweed (also known as Mulberry Weed)----and, the technical name is Fatoua Villosa. It comes up in July-August and has tiny little nodules on it that are filled with seeds. Luckily, it pulls up easily------------but, that could take forever!! I understand that it is a relatively new weed-----having arrived in the 60's from Asia-----but, began to be noticed in the 90's. Anyone have suggestions on controlling it?

Shirleyd
Zone 7b

Back to nettle bites for a second. If you do touch it, DON"T rub it.That makes it worse. If you happen to have a weed called plantain around, use a few younger leaves. Crush them enough to open up the moisture in them and rub those leaves on your burn. It really does help. Some say chick weed works, too.

Shirleyd, to start a new query, go back to the forum 'Invasive Plants' then scroll down to the bottom as if you were going to put in a reply, at the bottom it says, 'start a new post'. that begins a new thread, and no I don't know how to control that weed with anything other than Roundup, have fun

I have had many unwanted encounters with stinging nettles in our garden in southwestern France. My most common weed in my Toronto Ontario garden is lemon balm and although I pull it out by the fist full, I intentionally leave plenty because I kind of like it. Last fall I was pulling out fistfulls of lemon balm and I grabbed a fist full of stinging nettles. I had never encountered them in Canada and I was not happy to now have them in my garden.
I have a very small garden in Toronto and I will have to be more consistent in my gardening efforts.
Robb

You're zone impaired and in Zone 6? Why do we always want what we can't have? Whatever you do, don't let them go to seed! Nettles spread by runner, too. At least they do here. I have found that the roots don't sting so if I run accross them I can usually weedle them out with a finger under the soil and not get stung. Can't imagine that some folks actually eat the stuff.

Ghopper,
You are right about the zone but I am always trying to grow things that are tender or borderline in this climate. I grow sapplings that I take to a property in Nova Scotia 5b and a property in South of France 7b-8. I have grown some palms for the French property. I collected the seed there, grew the palms under lights in the basement in Toronto and then returned 3yr old palms to France. I have had some palm seedlings barely hanging on in the Toronto garden with no winter protection.
I would love to grow camelias and crepe myrtle in the Toronto garden. If I can find some especially hardy crepe myrtle they might be root hardy.
Robb

Wow! your plants get around!
Some say the Zones are moving North so we may both get our wish.

Maybe a greenhouse would help you zone. Harbour Freight has them cheep.

Actually I have one, more of a hoop house. But it's too cold here to even think about using it over winter. With a couple of heaters running I can usually fill it with plants in late March.
Lots of zone 5 things do just fine here now that we're getting a deep snow cover again. Hardly had any snow for several years. Even a zone 6 cranesbill does fine with no extra protection. Go figure.

Beautiful brugs zone

We have the stinging nettle in southwestern Michigan, my way of "handling" it is Roundup. As soon as spring starts and the plants start growing, I spray. we are on a farm and I try to keep it out of the yard and around the buildings. it is a constant battle

Here's another bothersome invasive plant called Mile-a-minute weed. It grows 6 inches in a day. Has stickers on the stem. With heavy gloves, you can pull it out by the roots & burn it.

We get huge patches of Mile a minute vine in some spots down here too. When it has grown some but BEFORE the berries, you can kind of pull off a sheet of the stuff from whatever is trying to grow underneath.
The park ranger told us he's eaten nettles. You put plastic bag over the plants and cut them. Wash (with rubber gloves I guess? ) and then into boiling water, then they don't sting. I've never been stung and not learned how to recognize them.

they look like mints and i always recognize them the hard way, by getting stung.

I don't believe I would know it if I saw it. Will have to look it up.

Hmmmm, looked it up. Don't know that I have ever seen it. Pretty sure I have never had the unfortunate luck to come in contact with it.

you would definately know, the sting is immediate

Not everyone is sensitive to the nettle sting. Those who ARE learn it immediately. Those who are not have no reason to. I recall a student in a Botany class who while being field tested on plant ID plucked a stem of Urtica lyalli and tapped the side of his face with it while he was trying to recall the name. The rest of us all cringed, but obviously he was not affected by the toxin and he was not able to come up w/ the plant name. Out west, we use the young curled fronds of bracken fern to put out the fire. Snap the top of fern and lather the juice from it onto the sting. Eating? Yes, they can be cooked up like spinach. However, I don't find them to be worth the trouble.

In Australia, they have a plant in this same family - called the Stinging Tree. It is so toxic that immune compromised, elderly, and children reportedly may be killed by it. Because it is the nurse plant for the Azure butterfly, it is allowed to grow in park areas - albeit with warning signs.

How interesting! thank you for the information.
Josephine.

Ditto- so glad I still had this thread 'watched'.

quite interesting