Grasp the nettle?

[Smike]

There is a fable in which a boy brushes a nettle out of the way, then goes crying to his mum with the resultant sting. She says "you should have grabbed it firmly and it wouldn't have stung you". The moral is whatever you do, do it boldly, or some such rubbish.

Anyway the point is, does this actually work (grasping the nettle that is, not the moral)? I for one am not willing to try. Is there someone out there who will take up this noble challenge in the cause of science?

[Yaotl]

I don't even know what a nettle is.

[Smike]

Originally posted by Yaotl
I don't even know what a nettle is.

One of these:

http://www.humboldtredwoods.org/images/nettle.jpg

The pointy bits on the edge of the leaves sting. Maybe I should have said "stinging nettle"

Official latin name: Urtica dioica

[MESchlum]

I grew up around nettles. Much nicer than poison oak - you know at once that you've made a mistake, and it does go away.

Nettle soup is an actual recipe, proving the things *can* be collected, though you need to be careful.

Basically, nettles work by injecting small doses of an acidic compound into the skin, using very fine (hair width or less) and short "spines". These spines are not uniformly distributed, so some parts of the nettle are safer than others.

The spines are also oriented, so that something coming from above is sure to run into them: they point upwards along the stem, for instance. So (and I have dome this), if you gently grab the stem of a nettle, moving your hand upwards (so the spines don't sink in), you can actually hold, grab, and otherwise mistreat a nettle.

Brushing against a nettle is a bad plan - they are designed (or evolved ;) ) to make the experience unpleasant. Actually grabbing one (to pull it out - those things have deep roots) is somewhat safer if you pay attention.

[Bikewer]

Whilst serving as a medic with the infantry in Germany back in the 60s, we used to carry injectable Benadryl solution because many GIs had anaphylactic reactions to nettle stings.

It may be of interest to know that in some cultures, the nettles are used as an adjunct to sex-play...

[TheBoyPaj]

Time for a confession.

When I was a small boy I fell off the roof of our shed and landed in a patch of these things. While wearing short trousers. The pain was rather extreme.

However, for some time after that I never seemed to be stung by them. I brushed against them a few times but didn't feel the effects.

Being a lad raised on comic books and well versed in super origins, I naturally came to the conclusion that my accident had given me an amazing power! Immunity from stings! I imagined calling myself Nettle Boy, and having a nemesis called Doc Leaf (the well-known natural antidote to a sting).

Such a fertile imagination, and more than a little bit woo.

[billydkid]

Originally posted by Yaotl
I don't even know what a nettle is.

If you ever brushed by one in shorts you would. They sting like bastards. They are all over around here and probably in central park too.

[steenkh]

Originally posted by billydkid
They are all over around here and probably in central park too.
Did someone actually import it to the New World, or was it there from the beginning?

[richardm]

Originally posted by steenkh
Did someone actually import it to the New World, or was it there from the beginning?

I've seen conflicting opinions, but they do seem to have originated in Northern Europe/Asia and made their way around the world from there. The opinion is conflicting because they seem to have been in the New World for so long that they are practically native.

[Filippo Lippi]

I had nettle gnocchi (potato flour dumplings) in a very out of the way restaurant in Tuscany, not the greatest thing I've eaten, but not bad. Best time to eat them is the spring

[sackett]

When I was a kid, it was well known that nettles sting worse if your skin is wet. This was well known in our village because yours truly sometimes brushed a nettle while wet from swimming in the creek, and my subsequent song and dance woke the dead for miles around.

Or was I just imagining it? (If so, I had a pretty vivid imagination.) Anybody have input on this?

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by sackett
When I was a kid, it was well known that nettles sting worse if your skin is wet. This was well known in our village because yours truly sometimes brushed a nettle while wet from swimming in the creek, and my subsequent song and dance woke the dead for miles around.

Or was I just imagining it? (If so, I had a pretty vivid imagination.) Anybody have input on this?

I always thought it was fortunate that nettles grow near water, since throwing yourself in a cool stream seems to ease the pain.

Nettle stings only last a half hour or so, which is better than a poison oak rash which hangs around for a week.

[sackett]

Originally posted by phildonnia
I always thought it was fortunate that nettles grow near water, since throwing yourself in a cool stream seems to ease the pain.

Nettle stings only last a half hour or so, which is better than a poison oak rash which hangs around for a week.
I confess I never tried washing off the nettle poison; perhaps I was a slow child, or perhaps I was distracted by the pain.

PLEASE don't get me started on poison oak! I wishit only lasted a week! Same goes for eastern-seaboard poison ivy, which for some no doubt obvious reason blisters me worse than a hot iron -- I said please don't get me started!

BTW: Is it stinging nettles you cook and eat? I always assumed it was the non-stinging kind.

[Azrael 5]

What super powers would Nettle Boy have paj? Being immune to nettles is fairly short shrift in the scheme of things!! In reply to opening post,yes you can hold a nettle without stinging.I havent done it since childhood like but I recall its to do with the small spines/hairs on the leaf-they do the stinging! If you press them down(?)with thumb and finger(above and below)it wont sting.
A curious thing about nettle stings is if you rub the skin with a dock leaf(sp?)-may not be its real name-it acts like an anaesthetic!! Nature..mmm,marvellous,isnt it?:p

[TheBoyPaj]

Well, Nettle-boy (who I envisioned wearing a costume with green spikes on the head, a little like Electro from Spiderman) also had an acid spray attack.

Doc leaf wore a top hat.

I feel it would have made a short-lived comic book series. :D

[Azrael 5]

Just how do doc leafs work? Also,what are they really called?:D
Strange how Mums know such things work,isnt it? Never really gave it much thought in the intervening twenty five years,but Im just curious!;)

Doc leaf was Nettle boys mortal enemy ,I assume.(top hat???!):D

[Smike]

Originally posted by Azrael 5
A curious thing about nettle stings is if you rub the skin with a dock leaf(sp?)-may not be its real name-it acts like an anaesthetic!! Nature..mmm,marvellous,isnt it?:p

I recall in George Orwell's Animal Farm, a donkey, Benjamin says that God gave him a tail to keep away flies, but that he would rather have no tail, and no flies.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by sackett
I confess I never tried washing off the nettle poison; perhaps I was a slow child, or perhaps I was distracted by the pain.

Ah, well, it doesn't wash off, it's just feels better to put cool water on it.


PLEASE don't get me started on poison oak! I wishit only lasted a week!

Oh, no I wouldn't dream of getting you started. :D What I mean is, it only lasts a week after you start the steroid treatments.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by Azrael 5
What super powers would Nettle Boy have paj?

He escapes certain doom by begging Oh, pleeeease! Don't throw me in the nettle patch!!

[sackett]

Originally posted by phildonnia
...it only lasts a week after you start the steroid treatments.

Never tried steroids. But a course of sea bathing in a warm, languid climate clears up such skin eruptions quickly enough. If you bathe only once a day, it can take fully TWO weeks to heal. Next time, I mean to try for three.

I can't find a smiley with the proper sh!it-eatin' grin.

[billydkid]

when camping it is very important to be able to recognize nettles and poison oak and ivy and such. You do not really appreciate the joys of toilet paper until you have accidentally grabbed one of the above in a pinch - so to speak.

[Rolfe]

I've told this one before, but what the heck.

When I was at school, a different class embarked on a project for some sort of science fair. Their objective was to see whether or not dock leaves really did have an effect on nettle stings. I was one of the hapless "volunteers" who got stung.

First, someone stung each volunteer on the inside of the wrist. Then, almost immediately, the volunteers put both arms through holes in a hardboard screen, thus blinding them to what was going on each wrist. Both wrists were swabbed with something cool and damp. Then, again almost immediately, the volunteer was asked if they noticed any difference between the wrists.

I said, don't be silly, it's far too soon to tell. But the "scientists" insisted I gave them a decision, so I did. I was then offered antihistamine cream on both wrists, and I noticed most volunteers accepted this. Being contrary, I declined. An hour or so later, one wrist showed very obvious raised, itchy weals, which the other was virtually unmarked. The difference was absolutely self-evident. (And as it happened I'd called it that way in the first place.)

Then I saw the final presentation. Apparently no siginificant effect had been determined. Conclusion, dock leaves are an old wives' tale.

So, I got curious. I looked up my own result in the lab notebook which was part of the display, and yes, I'd called it right. The wrist which subsequently showed no lesion was the one that had had the dock-leaf extract applied.

My opinion is that the study was badly designed, by not leaving enough time for the dockens to take effect, and so the volunteers were more or less guessing when they gave their verdicts. And then a "stop reagent" was added in the shape of the antihistamine cream, preventing anyone from reporting on a very marked difference at a later time.

Trouble is, the experiment was performed by a load of townies who probably never got stung in anger in their lives. If they'd experienced it (and the effect of the dock leaves) at first hand, they would have factored more time into the design.

I'd still like to see the experiment repeated with the extra time though.

Rolfe.

[Azrael 5]

Dock leaves definetly work,its not the cold damp analogy.They seem to have some kind of anaesthetic effect.Is there a scientific reason for this?:D

[rebecca]

Originally posted by Bikewer

It may be of interest to know that in some cultures, the nettles are used as an adjunct to sex-play...

While walking in the woods once with a particularly randy paramour, I learned first hand that stinging nettles should never, ever be used in any sort of sex-play.

The park rangers exchanged knowing glances amongst themselves while lecturing us on the dangers of straying off the path to "get a better look at the wildlife."

[Azrael 5]

Originally posted by rebecca
While walking in the woods once with a particularly randy paramour, I learned first hand that stinging nettles should never, ever be used in any sort of sex-play.

The park rangers exchanged knowing glances amongst themselves while lecturing us on the dangers of straying off the path to "get a better look at the wildlife."
Not a lot you can say to that,lol!:p

[Ossai]

sackett
When I was a kid, it was well known that nettles sting worse if your skin is wet. This was well known in our village because yours truly sometimes brushed a nettle while wet from swimming in the creek, and my subsequent song and dance woke the dead for miles around.

Or was I just imagining it? (If so, I had a pretty vivid imagination.) Anybody have input on this?
So you were the one grandpa was always coming back and complaining about. :D

But to answer your question, from person experience I’d have to say yes. But that’s probably because I would be in short pants when I would go to the creek and swim while otherwise I would wear jeans and probably didn’t even notice them.

Ossai

[sackett]

Oddly enough, as an adult I seem to be essentially immune to nettles, while becoming morbidly sensitive to poison ivy and (shudder!) poison oak.

But there may be a geographic element here: I now live in the east,* where the regional varieties of stinging and blistering plants are no doubt different. Maybe Michigan nettles are feeble things, while the local poison ivy is monstrous.

* When you grow up in Wyoming, everywhere 'tother side of the Belle Fourche River is the east.

[TheBoyPaj]

Originally posted by sackett
Oddly enough, as an adult I seem to be essentially immune to nettles.

You stole my powers! I bet you have a black costume, which you obtained during the Secret Wars (also known as the Roundup Episodes).

[pgwenthold]

I'm not sure anyone actually answered the question.

I think it is correct that it is not as bad to grab a nettle as opposed to brushing it, for many of the reasons hinted above but never really elucidated. Nettles (we called it "burning weed" when we were young and didn't think about other possible interpretations of the phrase) are worse against sensitive skin. Thus, brushing against the back of your hands or you arm will be very painful. OTOH, the skin of the fingers and palms is a lot tougher and therefore is less affected.

We used to pick nettles (by hand) when I was in the Scouts without any problems, just being careful to not let them hit the other parts of your skin. We cooked them up in butter. Tasted a lot like spinach, basically.

[Azrael 5]

Thought I had answered question?! Pinch the nettle ,squashing spines/hairs and you wont get stung!;)

[Kaydens]

Although others have already answered the question, I thought I'd chip in too. It is possible to grasp a nettle and avoid bening stung but a lot of it is about the orientation of the leaf. I seem to recall that the top of the leaf houses the offending spines and thus is the part that should be avoided.

As the Brits on the board will probably be aware, this fact is exploited in the World Nettle Eating Championship when leaves are rolled into packages with the spines on the inside and then consumed raw but a variety of lunatics. For those interested here are further details:

"Both nettle soup and nettle tea can be very calming and pleasant drinks, but raw nettles? Can you imagine munching your way through nettle after nettle without even a dock leaf to wash it down? The Bottle Inn at Marshwood shows you how during the annual World Nettle Eating Championships.

If you think you've got what it takes to chew on stings, or would like to see others put themselves through the mill, the World Nettle Eating Championships are for you. Champions munch their way through more than 70 nettles after a great day of entertainment. The competition began in the 1980s to resolve a dispute between two farmers, and has since become a traditional local day out.

Aside from the nettles, other traditional English summer delights are on offer including Morris Dancers, a beer festival and the obligatory spit roast. The entertainment carries on into the evening with live music and plenty more beer and there are camping facilities on site.

For further Deatils Please contact:

Ellen Pym
Landlady, The Bottle Inn
thebottleinn@msn.com"

Text taken from chooseyourevent.co.uk

Andy/

[Soapy Sam]

It's generally agreed in Scotland, that the best time to grab nettles firmly is in January.

We used to dare each other to run (in shorts) through patches of them. The trick was to go second, but right behind the kid in front.

In answer to the O.P. Grabbing a nettle firmly will get your palm stung firmly. I know. I tried it. The way to pluck a nettle is with the fingertips, by the stem, about six inches or less from the ground, where the leaves are several inches apart.

Trouble is, the stems are quite stringy and require a sharp tug to break. If you try to do it gently, the stem bends over and a higher leaf gets the back of your hand.

I concluded that was what was meant by grasping firmly.


Here's another nettle story, which may be true. They like soil rich in ammonia. So they tend to grow around old houses in the area where outside toilets have been. (And they're common urban wasteground weeds in the UK, despite Rolfe's scurrilous anti-tow nie accusations.) Does anyone know if this is true?