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Clamp down on illegal plant immigrants

2 min read
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Please cut down the poison hemlock on your property now. It is the weed that has recently shot up to 6 feet or more and is starting to be covered with clusters of small white flowers.

People should not handle any part of the plant, and they should dress appropriately. Bush-hogging and using a grass whip are the safest methods. Motorized weed trimmers are less safe because the juices are more likely to get on you.

The heavy stench that could be smelled in warm weather last year was from this foreign invader. It is getting thicker and spreading more every year, and it is toxic. At the least it will give someone a scratchy throat. But at this rate, people may start getting sick from being near it, especially as we are going to be breathing in more of this every year, and in more places.

I recently killed four giant hogweed plants in flower along Ten Mile Creek. This is another invader that is just showing up. It is so new to the country that it is not even in many of the standard wildflower books. Just handling it can give someone second-degree or even third-degree burns, and it is capable of causing blindness. It grows to 9 feet or more, has large flower clusters that look like Queen Anne’s lace on steroids, and exotic lobed leaves as large as elephant’s ears.

We must make a real effort to clamp down on these illegal plant immigrants before things get any worse.

Oh, and also be aware of the new Powassan (POW) tick-borne virus. Like the hogweed, it is just reaching Pennsylvania and kills 10 percent of its victims. When people go into the woods, they should learn about these problems first, or they could be in for a big surprise.

Tom Waters

Aleppo

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