It’s not snow: silvery cholla cactus, backlit, Christmas Day in Green Valley, AZ

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Admin
10 years ago

Glad to see you didn’t get too close, PHeymont!  The needles on most cholla are barbed, like a fish hook.  Very painful and difficult to get out once embedded in your skin.

Admin
10 years ago

I bet your friend said to use “fish nose” plyers.  The same kind you use to get a deeply swallowed hook out of a fish.

10 years ago

Or backing into nettles, bare-skinned in an emergency.  Ask me how I know.

10 years ago

On a hike once, far from the nearest facilities…well, you get the picture.  The trouble with nettles is, unlike cholla, the inflictors of the stings are small and not noticeable if one isn’t familiar with the plant.  Despite the painful meeting of nether parts with plant parts, it took another encounter or 2 before I finally got that those innocuous-looking plants were the ones.  Cholla, with which I’m also personally familiar, cannot hold a candle in the pain department to nettles.

10 years ago

Always worth trying a little tape or dried Elmer’s glue over the area.  Gently pull and hope for the best.    What you really do not want to do is sit on the cacti.  Ask me how I know. 

Admin
10 years ago
Originally Posted by PortMoresby:

Or backing into nettles, bare-skinned in an emergency.  Ask me how I know.

How do you know?

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