Hello all!! I need a little bit of help. My wife was doing some gardening with the flowers in front of our house today. While she was doing so, one of the plants/weeds "bit" her. She closed her hand around it and got stuck pretty well by some small bristles. I'm including a few photos, if you need to see more, just let me know. Any help appreciated, just so I know how to approach this from a first-aid standpoint! Here's the long view: And here's a close up of the little stickers that got her- somewhere between 14 and 20 of them: Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks!
Yep, Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica. The pain doesn't last long (usually only a few minutes to at most an hour or so) and isn't serious. Relax and let it fade away!
Thank you very much!! That's a relief! Her pinky and thumb and part of her hand is stinging and tingling, so she was a little worried! Happy to tell her it doesn't look serious! Thanks! Jason
I've been stung by them hundreds, no, probably thousands, of times, over the years. Hurts a bit, but it's soon gone. One popular folk remedy is to rub the stung area with a dock (Rumex) leaf . . . in my experience, it doesn't work ;-)
Indeed it does look like stinging nettle. Hurts like fury for a while, but unless your wife is unlucky enough to to very sensitive to it, no long term damage. I've never heard of a really bad reaction, I must say. Country lore here says rub immediately with a dockleaf, which we did as children, now I'd recommend any cooling lotion such as calamine. Tomorrow, wreak vengeance by pulling it out wearing thick gloves and long sleeves, it's particularly sore on the inside of the forearm. You don't want it in flower beds, but in wild areas it's essential for some butterflies. If I can't reach it without standing on something precious, I leave it, ostensibly for them. You can make soup from the young tops in spring, and some kind of textile from the older stems. The sting fades as the plant wilts.
Again, thanks for all your help! My wife is already feeling better, though somewhat foolish for not noticing the nettles before grabbing it! I figure it can happen to anyone!! I looked up this species, and it's really quite fascinating how much usefulness this particular "nuisance" plant has. Medicinal, some parts edible, and a quite effective defense system. :) We'll probably transplant it from the flower bed to another location a little more off the beaten path!! Don't like killing something that was only protecting itself! Again, thanks!! Jason
Hi. I wanted to point out that many butterflies use stinging nettle as a food source. Any chance you could be persuaded to keep it or perhaps relocate it to another part of the garden?
See the above post- my latest :) We're going to transplant it. Don't like killing things that were only justly defending themselves. Jason
Another interesting item about it - during WWII it was grown commercially in Britain for fibre production for making cloth and paper; very high quality, the only problem the yield is very low, so it couldn't compete with things like cotton etc., once trade became easy again after the war.
...my mother (in UK) suffered greatly from rheumatoid arthritis & used to deliberately sting her hands with nettles to relieve the joints. Folk remedy for hardy souls & a sad reflection on the pain she must have experienced. Any basis in fact? I don't know. gb
The stinging would promote endorphin (natural painkiller) production and increase blood flow to the area, which might help a bit.
I read a bit about this- on Wiki and a few other sources. Apparently, one or more of the compounds injected by the nettles does a very good job of inhibiting cytokine production. Such a very fascinating plant! It's kind of a little wake-up call. Here I've gone about my days for years and years surrounded by all these plants, and never really thought about their properties, uses, and overall importance. In a way it's kind of annoying, because now when I see a plant, I wonder what it's story might be?! I guess sometimes it takes a plant biting you to wake you up to the wonder of things that you take for granted! Thanks! Jason
