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| Warning: Wild Parsnip Alert! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 26 2015, 11:09 PM (409 Views) | |
| Roctopus | Jun 26 2015, 11:09 PM Post #1 |
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In Central New York all along the Thruway corridor we have been dealing with a horrendous invasive plant species called Wild Parsnip for the past few years. About four years ago, I was actually the first person in the tri-county region to be diagnosed with a wild parsnip infection. It involved me going to my mother's dermatologist, biopsies, an investigation by the DEC, etc. And it was a nightmare! I spent a month on massive doses of steroids, trapped in the house during daylight hours and being wrapped like a mummy covered by prescription creams. I couldn't even have the blinds open all day long. What happens is that it gets on your skin and makes you itch. Then you break the skin and it travels through your body, it rests below the surface of your skin and reacts to light (especially sunlight) which makes is rise up in little bumps which blister and bleed. By September of that year I was still unable to go out get the mail (at twilight even) without my arms and legs bleeding. Of course I was so sick then I never did much anyway, but if it happened now I don't know what I would do. It has spread throughout the North East and it might be where some of you live. So I'm going to post a picture here. If you've seen this plant stay away from it. The "oil" inside it is what will mess up your life for months-and you'll have purple scars for a year of two. One way you'll notice it is that it grows like the beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk, a tiny plant that emerged from the soil in May could easily be 6 or 7 feet ball by now and they have a chartreuse (greenish-yellow) umbra of flower, similar in style to Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot), of which they are a cousin. Anyway, this is just a heads up in case you've seen it and are wondering what's up with it. Wild Parsnip is a SCOURGE! Take it from me. ![]() Edited by Roctopus, Jun 26 2015, 11:11 PM.
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| Guest | Jun 27 2015, 01:34 AM Post #2 |
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Pretty! |
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| Roctopus | Jun 27 2015, 02:28 PM Post #3 |
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That's unfortunately what someone in Rochester thought a few years ago when they illegally imported it-not it's all over the Thruway corridor....and what it does sure ain't pretty! |
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| Guest | Jun 27 2015, 02:50 PM Post #4 |
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Did it up your ssi check? |
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| Roctopus | Jun 27 2015, 03:40 PM Post #5 |
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Ha Ha. It's SSDI. But, no. When it happened I was about as disabled as a person can get and still be walking around. I was pretty much too exhausted to get out of bed or off the couch back then no matter what I did...The horrible infection was just a bitterly ironic "icing on the cake." |
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| Tybee | Jun 27 2015, 03:43 PM Post #6 |
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That was a pretty low blow. |
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| Roctopus | Jun 27 2015, 03:48 PM Post #7 |
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I'll never understand why some people on here give me a hard time for being sick and disabled. Especially since I talk so much (and so honestly) about how I fought to regain my health and how hard I'm working to go back to work and get off SSD and what little public assistance I receive. I just don't get it. Edited by Roctopus, Jun 27 2015, 03:49 PM.
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| Guest | Jun 27 2015, 04:05 PM Post #8 |
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A sissy check? If one can get a check for being a sissy, the government owes me millions! |
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| Guest | Jun 27 2015, 05:03 PM Post #9 |
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Damn, that looks nasty and painful. Hope it has all cleared up. And I'm sure it didn't enhance your romantic life much either!!!! |
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| Tybee | Jun 27 2015, 05:14 PM Post #10 |
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Looks similar to a poison ivy exposure, only the wild parsnip apparently requires sunlight to activate.
Edited by Tybee, Jun 27 2015, 05:14 PM.
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| Guest | Jun 27 2015, 07:50 PM Post #11 |
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Never get poison ivy on your dick.....just sayin......a little hint to our little group here. |
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| Tybee | Jun 27 2015, 08:05 PM Post #12 |
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I got poison ivy on my neck once, when I was a teenager. And I didn't even touch it. Can't fathom getting on Mr. Perky!
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| Roctopus | Jun 27 2015, 10:19 PM Post #13 |
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Yes! You have to either live like a vampire or dress like The Invisible Man. Otherwise your skin will literally bubble and burn! I used to have gardens: pumpkins, roses, tulips-I was creating an entire nature trail on our property filled with indigenous plants. Now it's all gone rack and ruin because of the parsnip. Of course, now that I'm in college and going to a health club I don't have the time to devote to it anymore. So it would have been somewhat abandoned either way. Still it's horrible to see the damage an invasive species can cause to an ecosystem. It's an absolute calamity. |
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| Roctopus | Jun 27 2015, 10:21 PM Post #14 |
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There was no romantic life during that time. Even if it weren't for the nightmarish rash, my mood was perpetually dark and foul from all the steroids. I was perpetually grim and insufferable. I can't stress enough how substantially and thoroughly wild parsnip can mess up your life. |
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