Reaction to Wild Parsnip

[Durgan]

23 July 2012 Reaction to Wild Parsnip 23 July 2012 Reaction to Wild Parsnip
Wild parsnip worries | Local | News | The Kingston Whig-Standard Article.
Closer to home. Message from my neighbour.
Our daughter spent Friday, July 13th weeding the Dunnville butterfly garden as part of her summer job duties. On Saturday (14th) she observed a red rash on her right arm upon waking in the AM, and by Sunday AM blistering had started. These photos were taken last Monday evening. She had the same rash on her left arm, but nowhere near as bad. She described the pain last weekend as a burn (no itching).It turned out the entire crew (5) developed the rash and blisters to some degree, but my daughter was by far the worse. The crew all returned to work at different locations with long sleeves and a tad more educated about plants.While not conclusively diagnosed to be wild parsnip exposure by a doctor, the team members feel this was the culprit and the symptoms thus far seem to fit. My daughter told me the evening of the 13th some of the weeds they were digging, pulling and cutting had yellow flowers and a strong odour.As far as the rash, the blisters all broke mid-week and healing has commenced. It looks like the arm has a very good case of ‘road burn’ now.Please educate yourself on some of these new plant concerns, other then poison ivy, like wild parsnip and giant hogweed. The plants sap is particularly damaging.

[Spirit Deer]

For a fast and dirty identification, keep in mind it looks like a giant dill plant. So if you see what looks like a six-foot high dill plant, stay away from it and keep pets and kids away too.

Wet skin, such as sweaty skin, reacts worse than dry skin, so an encounter with this stuff while hiking or exercising or working near it on a hot day should especially be avoided.

Wild parsnip is common in a particular state park we stay at when we travel to southern Minnesota (and in other state parks as well) and they do not remove it or spray it or otherwise control it. They do have good signage up to help campers ID it and avoid it.

[Contrary Housewife]

It looks like it is nationally widespread. Looks like yellow queen anne's lace, which we have a lot of around here, along with poison hemlock. Between this, the chiggers and the ticks, I got NO reason to be out in the woods or fields.