1. Avoid walking into Prickly Pear while chasing your focal species through the Florida scrub.
2. If you fail at 1 (which frequently happens) you must assess the situation:
a. Is the prickly pear lobe still attached to the rest of the plant? If so, simply take a step back in the direction you came. The spines should remove themselves from your pants. However, you must be sure that the glochids, or small hairs at the base of the long spine, have not rubbed off onto your pants. If you can see them, cautiously brush them off, being careful to not allow the hairs to embed in your hands.
b. Has the prickly pear lobe detached from the rest of the plant? If so, there are a few situations that could arise that you must know how to deal with.
i. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is simply hanging from your pants leg, no puncture wounds have occurred - In this situation simply grasp the detached lobe by one of the offending spines, NOT THE LOBE OF THE PLANT, and firmly pull straight out. If multiple spines have punctured the pants you may have to repeat this process a few times. If you make the mistake of using the lobe as your pulling point you may embed the glochids in your hand, resulting in much irritation later.
ii. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and has impaled itself in your shin. – This is initially very painful, but you need to remain calm and again, assess the situation. Treat the offending lobe in the same manner as before, grasping the spines puncturing your skin and pulling firmly straight out. Avoid the temptation to wince, and do it like a band-aid… carefully, but quickly. You may have to repeat this process if multiple spines have punctured your skin.
iii. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is stuck to the front of your boot. – This is an extremely easy situation to deal with once you know the right way to treat it. The right way does not involve kicking your foot forward to dislodge the spines, because if the spines do detach, they will invariably do so at the apex of the kick, aiming the lobe of pain straight for your face. The best way to deal with a lobe stuck to the front of your boot is to step on it with the sole of your other boot. If the spines remain in the boot, detached from the lobe, simply grasp, and pull to remove.
iv. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is stuck to the back of your boot. – This happens, but you will never know until it is too late. Proceed to the next situation.
v. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant, and was once stuck in the back of your boot. However, due to walking in the scrub you have embedded multiple spines anywhere from about ¼ of an inch to one inch deep in the back of your calf. – Resist the temptation to swear profusely and loudly. This will scare off the focal species. Treat the lobe the same as most situations. Grasp the offending spines and firmly pull straight out. If the wounds begin to itch, which for many people they do, DO NOT SCRATCH. This will only compound the itchiness and your general discomfort.
Congratulations, you have learned how to deal with the immediate problem caused by prickly pear cacti in the field. Now you should know how to treat prickly pear wounds.
Like all wounds, try to keep them clean and dry. This shouldn’t be hard, as the wounds are extremely small, though painful. In general, the wounds will heal without much help from you, but there are a few things that you can do to ease your discomfort. For bruises that form around especially nasty puncture wounds I have found that a homeopathic cream that contains arnica tends to speed healing. The massaging in of the cream also probably functions to increase blood flow to the area and speed the removal of pooled blood, the cause of the bruising. If you find that the glochids have embedded themselves in your legs you will probably just have to wait for them to work themselves out in their own sweet time. They are generally no more uncomfortable than a small ingrown hair. If they are not fully embedded you may be able to pinch them with a pair of tweezers and pull them out. If this is not the case I have found it best to leave them be, eventually they will work themselves out.
If you have any further questions about how to deal with prickly pear cacti in the field, or the resulting wounds afterwards, just ask any Archbold employee. They will all have their own suggestions. Choose what you think is best.
7 comments:
This would seem to be the voice of painful experience......Have you really fallen into that cacti?
yeeouch!
Would you be interested in some tightly woven kevlar legwear?
Destroyer! You forgot some very key elements to recovery from prickly pear attack. First - should the large spine(s) detach from the lobe of the plant and remain after you remove the lobe of the plant, you may need to use needle-nosed pliers to remove the spine, especially if it goes in deeper than 1/2 inch. Also, for treatment - put windex on it. Finally, I disagree with the avoidance of swearing profusely - the jays find it amusing, and in fact they make like it so much that they will show you their nest.
Good description otherwise, rookie.
although prickly pear are indeed terrible, i would argue that cholla spines are even worse to get embedded in your foot, as they have barbs which make them difficult to remove. I managed to stab my foot on one of those through a wader boot and neoprene wader sock.
although prickly pear are indeed terrible, I would argue that the cholla found in the southwest is worse. It has barbs, and managed to stab my foot through a wader boot and neoprene wader sock
Oh, these spines go through boots. Leather boots. Although my Limmers so far have stopped them. They do have a nice little hook on the end which pulls nicely when you pluck them out. Bruising is a common occurrence. Also, I don't know if this is just me, but my leg tends to go a bit numb around the spot where I was stabbed if it's particularly bad. At least for a little bit.
I won't be quitting my day job behind my comfy desk sitting on my comfy chair...Uncle Dave
I was hoping you'd have more advice for the glochids (sp?) several of which are now embedded in my backside after I (stupidly) sat down in the shade to escape the desert heat while bird banding here in AZ. I now have two quite painful "bumps" on my ass that are making it hard to sit down. Any suggestions besides "letting them work their way out"?I think I'm past that at this point.
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