Problems with stinging nettles

July 23, 2012

I have a geocache which has been in place for about a year, and seems to be quite popular.

Recently I've had a couple of people comment that while they had no problem finding the cache, the site is getting a bit nettly. I've checked the cache, it is reachable but it is looking like geocachers in shorts might suffer if the nettles get any thicker.

It would not take much effort for me to hack the nettles back a bit, but I am reluctant as I've always thought that a geocache should not impact on the environment it is in (in this case, in a wood on a bit of common land). Also, the nettles will die down come autumn/winter.

I don't want to retire the cache on account of a few nettles, I'd appreciate some advice from other geocachers who have had similar problems!

July 23, 2012

Add a note about the nettles to the description, cautioning that seekers may want to wear long pants for this one in the summer. You can also add the "Poisonous Plant" attribute to the listing. But I agree that you shouldn't archive because of a seasonal issue, though I suppose if you were really concerned about it you could disable the cache for the summer stating that it would be reopened for hiding when the vicious flora died down a bit.

2.6k · July 23, 2012

I would mention there may be nettles in the summer and leave it at that. Nettles are a natural hazard in the English countryside, cachers should not be surprised.

July 23, 2012

I got messed up by stinging nettles the other night on an FTF run. For the first time in two years I went for a woodsy cache in shorts and paid for it. My legs were burning for days. But that is one of the hazards of the game, my fault not the CO's.

1.9k · July 23, 2012

I think it would be wrong to hack down the nettles. Either put a warning on the page and let the cacher deal with it, or move it to a location out of the nettles.

2k · July 23, 2012

nettles happen, that is why I do not wear shorts if I am caching in a park which may have them or blackberries. Personally I would not want a cache in a nettle field but if a few nettles occasionally pop up around your tree where you are hiding the cache, so be it.

6.1k · July 23, 2012

I would mention there may be nettles in the summer and leave it at that. Nettles are a natural hazard in the English countryside, cachers should not be surprised.

+1

July 23, 2012

I agree with what the others have said. Go caching in the woods in England and you would be surprised if you didn't have to fend off a few nettles, especially with the weather we have had recently. I haven't seen any other CO mentioning it.

19k · July 23, 2012

Anybody caching in an area where nettles may grow needs to learn to be prepared for them. They are thick in the woods where I cache, and I learned very quickly to wear long pants during the summer months, no matter how hot it may be.

Also, learn about jewelweed (Google it). No, it won't protect you from poison ivy/oak/sumac, but it will provide some comforting relieve from the sting of nettles. Also, nettle sting, while uncomfortable, is short term and won't really hurt you.

5.7k · July 23, 2012

Anybody caching in an area where nettles may grow needs to learn to be prepared for them. They are thick in the woods where I cache, and I learned very quickly to wear long pants during the summer months, no matter how hot it may be.

Also, learn about jewelweed (Google it). No, it won't protect you from poison ivy/oak/sumac, but it will provide some comforting relieve from the sting of nettles. Also, nettle sting, while uncomfortable, is short term and won't really hurt you.

Sounds like you know your herbs. I taught my kids about the use Jewelweed, they found out about Stinging Nettles on their own.

7.9k · July 23, 2012

Despite all the urban P&G s I've done over the years, my true Geocaching goal is to get out and enjoy nature.

Nettles are a part of nature.

Learning how to deal with them is part of the enjoyment.

At worst, they are a slight inconvenience...not exactly life-threatening.

As already stated, mention them in the write-up, and add the attribute. It's up to me if I want that smilie bad enough or not.

3.8k · July 23, 2012

I would mention there may be nettles in the summer and leave it at that. Nettles are a natural hazard in the English countryside, cachers should not be surprised.

It's the same way on the west side of Washington State. The forests here are lousy with nettles, and we all know it. If a cache is in a nettle-heavy area, the CO will usually put info in the description, and/or the attributes. Proper preparation is always a good thing.

14k · July 24, 2012

Anybody caching in an area where nettles may grow needs to learn to be prepared for them. They are thick in the woods where I cache, and I learned very quickly to wear long pants ...

And shoes...

2.8k · July 24, 2012

Add a note about the nettles to the description, cautioning that seekers may want to wear long pants for this one in the summer.

Long pants didn't help on a recent cache find in Austria. Got the "seven minute itch" right through my nylon hiking pants! Youch!

1.9k · July 24, 2012

I would mention there may be nettles in the summer and leave it at that. Nettles are a natural hazard in the English countryside, cachers should not be surprised.

It's the same way on the west side of Washington State. The forests here are lousy with nettles, and we all know it. If a cache is in a nettle-heavy area, the CO will usually put info in the description, and/or the attributes. Proper preparation is always a good thing.

Not to mention devil's club and the aforementioned blackberries... <_<

3.7k · July 24, 2012

Just leave it and put a warning on the cache page.

It's good that people are giving you the heads-up, but at the same time I think people can be overly wimpy.

I have a cache with nettles next to it and people often complain in the spring/summer. I went to check on it after one such complaint and didn't get the big deal. I was able to get to GZ without calamity. I encounter lots of blackberry vines on the way to other caches and never mention it, it's kind of expected.

I have another cache where people have complained of gettin their hands dirty. Excuse me?

Edited July 24, 2012 by The_Incredibles_

July 24, 2012

I went for a cache on Sunday. In shorts and flip flops, despite the CO mentioning on the cache page to be aware of nettles on the cache page. I didn't find it. I (re)learnt a lesson I should have already known. I would just mention it in the description. As others have said its pretty unavoidable in the UK especially with the recent weather. Heres hoping they're all going to die from dehydration now summer finally seems to have arrived.

6.8k · July 24, 2012

Add a note about the nettles to the description, cautioning that seekers may want to wear long pants for this one in the summer.

Long pants didn't help on a recent cache find in Austria. Got the "seven minute itch" right through my nylon hiking pants! Youch!

It depends on the fabric and its thickness. Some hiking pants are quite thin. Typically army-style clothes provide a better protection, but are not so nice to wear when it is hot.

As the stinging nettles are concerned, I'd also only mention them in the cache description. Stinging nettles are also something quite normal in Austria, not only in the UK.

Cezanne

Edited July 24, 2012 by cezanne

July 24, 2012

Nettles are normal in Britain but MAN are they big and plentiful this year!

Places I regularly walk where the nettles are around hip-height in a normal year are nearly over my head this year, and thick, too; maybe this is why people are commenting on them more.

We've been to a few caches lately, though, where it looks like people have got a bit irrational with the nettles and trampled around area pretty badly.

19k · July 24, 2012

Anybody caching in an area where nettles may grow needs to learn to be prepared for them. They are thick in the woods where I cache, and I learned very quickly to wear long pants ...

And shoes...

Yes. Long shoes are also important. Thanks for reminding me.

19k · July 24, 2012

Add a note about the nettles to the description, cautioning that seekers may want to wear long pants for this one in the summer.

Long pants didn't help on a recent cache find in Austria. Got the "seven minute itch" right through my nylon hiking pants! Youch!

There's your problem. I love my nylon hiking pants (when they don't snag and tear) but they're too thin to stop the needle-like crystals of the nettle leaves. I've even had a bit of sting through denims at times.

19k · July 24, 2012

PS: Young spring nettles are very nutricious. Our forefathers looked forward to it as a spring tonic following the long winters of little more than a bean and salt pork diet. Yes, you can eat nettles, as long as you cook them first.

6.1k · July 24, 2012

Yes, you can eat nettles, as long as you cook them first.

Cooking is for WIMPS, you'll be instantly disqualified from the

9.2k · July 24, 2012

Nettles?

Fact of life caching.

Learn about the Dock leaf!

Relief for Nettle stings.

(Or don't get stung in the first place!)

19k · July 24, 2012

Yes, you can eat nettles, as long as you cook them first.

Cooking is for WIMPS, you'll be instantly disqualified from the

I didn't know about the championships (I still need to check out your link) but I am aware that there is a certain technique for pinching the leaves and rolling them up before eating them raw. I'll cook mine, thank you.

July 25, 2012

Add a note about the nettles to the description, cautioning that seekers may want to wear long pants for this one in the summer.

Long pants didn't help on a recent cache find in Austria. Got the "seven minute itch" right through my nylon hiking pants! Youch!

There's your problem. I love my nylon hiking pants (when they don't snag and tear) but they're too thin to stop the needle-like crystals of the nettle leaves. I've even had a bit of sting through denims at times.

Long pants don't help! I'm not a whimpy cacher by any stretch but when I plowed through 450' of Stinging Nettle, uh, yea, the tears were falling! I was wearing Carrharts and my legs were ON FIRE! We were on an island on the Fox River, final stage of a Boy Scout multi....Scoutmaster. There was no way I was gonna wimp out on making it to the cache but by the time we made our way back to our canoe I was ballin' like a baby. I thought FOR SURE when I rolled my pants legs up, my legs were gonna be nothin' more than char-broiled stumps! Don't laugh! I was SHOCKED to see only minor redness! So ya,I'll admit it! This was the 3rd time I cried while geocaching! This plant shoots acid via hairs that are like hypodermic needles and you don't feel the burn right away! It takes a few minutes and then you wanna throw yourself on the ground and roll cuz you think you're on fire! I would NEVER place a cache in or near this dastardly weed!!

38.2k · July 25, 2012

19k · July 25, 2012

Long pants don't help! I'm not a whimpy cacher by any stretch but when I plowed through 450' of Stinging Nettle, uh, yea, the tears were falling! I was wearing Carrharts and my legs were ON FIRE!

With Carhartt? WOW! You've got some powerful nettles there, from the sounds of it! You might need to get some Firehose pants, then!

Odds are very likely that there was jewelweed also growing in the same area. They frequently are found in the same spots. While it won't get rid of the burn completely, it sure will feel good on it! Break the stem open and rub the juicy sap on your burning skin. You will go "Ahhhhhhh..."

9.2k · July 25, 2012

Yes, you can eat nettles, as long as you cook them first.

Cooking is for WIMPS, you'll be instantly disqualified from the

I didn't know about the championships (I still need to check out your link) but I am aware that there is a certain technique for pinching the leaves and rolling them up before eating them raw. I'll cook mine, thank you.

It's the 'hairs' underneath the leaf.

Fold the leaf underside in, and you won't get stung...

Also, if you grasp the leaf it doesn't sting, it's the 'brushing past' that stings.

All of which, never stops me from getting stung! :laughing:

1.4k · July 25, 2012

I've noticed an odd thing about nettles for me. When I was a kid, got a nettle sting, it would bother me for a couple of hours. ( never really bothered a lot, but I could feel the burn.)

Now I am an old retired guy, and the sting only last five to fifteen minutes.

There are a lot of nettles on my property, and it is hard to avoid occasional contact with them. However, if I do brush up to them, the sting is usually gone by the time I go in the house.

July 25, 2012

My husbands boss is a farmer, he claims he is immune to them now. He comes up in really nasty welts sometimes but has no sensation. Its as though the visible signs have taken over the physical sensation.

1.9k · July 25, 2012

Yes, you can eat nettles, as long as you cook them first.

Cooking is for WIMPS, you'll be instantly disqualified from the

I didn't know about the championships (I still need to check out your link) but I am aware that there is a certain technique for pinching the leaves and rolling them up before eating them raw. I'll cook mine, thank you.

It's the 'hairs' underneath the leaf.

Fold the leaf underside in, and you won't get stung...

Also, if you grasp the leaf it doesn't sting, it's the 'brushing past' that stings.

All of which, never stops me from getting stung!

I took a close look at a leaf recently (On purpose, and carefully, without coming into contact with it), and I think the "needles" are on both top and bottom.

19k · July 26, 2012

Source: http://www.acupuncturebrooklyn.com/alternative-health/nettles

The stinging hair of the nettle is called a trichome, a small, shaft-like silica cell containing irritating compounds which is located on the stem and the leaves. The shaft punctures the skin, but the tip breaks off easily, allowing the spine to inject the juices under the skin. The stinging toxin from this species of nettle is a combination of chemicals, including formic acid (oxalic acid or tartaric acid in some species) histamine, acetylcholine and 5-hydroxytryptamine. Generally people try to avoid this.

However if you have rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, stiff joints or other conditions that would benefit from invigorating the blood, consider urtication. Urtication is achieved by lightly flogging or brushing the stems of nettles against the skin, applied as a counter-irritant. (Do not hit too hard or the trichomes will be crushed without entering the skin.) The nettle used this way is a rubefacient. Similar to the effects of gua sha or cupping, the skin turns red, blood rushes to the surface and the immune cascade is engaged. It helps release substances through the skin, increases heat locally to the joints and brings pain-relieving substance P to the skin, depending upon the place and nature of stimulation. Mashed plantain leaves or chickweed or jewelweed, applied topically will draw out and antidote an excessive sting.

Nettle leaf close up

For urtication, it works best to use stems of nettles in the field. You can pick them earlier, but they lose power within hours. In fact even keeping them standing in water directly after picking allows the spines to wilt. Urtica urens, despite its smaller leaf, may be superior for urtication because it has more dense hairs. I pick long stems for urtication from patches grown in full sun where the stingers are stronger. I usually pick them barehanded to get a little invigoration in my hands (more about that below.) But if I let even the strong stems sit around for too long the sting you get is so tepid that it doesn’t make a decent counter-irritant.

When I was a child, a thick patch of nettles grew by the outhouse where we camped. It was easy to bump up into the nettles while jumping up and down impatiently to use the facilities, resulting in many a sting. My grandmother taught me that if you grasp a leaf firmly, you push down the irritating hairs and don’t get stung. (This works better with leaves than stems.) It is the mindless brushing up against the plant that causes the sting. So engage with your nettles:

Tender-handed, stroke a nettle,And it stings you for your pains.Grasp it like a man of mettle,And it soft as silk remains.

July 26, 2012

Ive been out today and in the end it just didnt matter. I got stung on top of stings and I think my shins just got numb. However, on one of my last caches of the day, as I was bending down I got stung on the ear lobe @~#'@&*!!!. I tell you something, thats still smarting. Maybe its beacause its never been hit before.

2.7k · July 26, 2012

Every time I hear stinging nettles this is what I initially think. I used to live where the animal was more prevalent than the plant. Now I live there the plant is more prevalent than the animal. It's going to take a while for me to retrain my brain.

7.9k · July 27, 2012

Long pants don't help! I'm not a whimpy cacher by any stretch but when I plowed through 450' of Stinging Nettle, uh, yea, the tears were falling! I was wearing Carrharts and my legs were ON FIRE!

With Carhartt? WOW! You've got some powerful nettles there, from the sounds of it! You might need to get some Firehose pants, then!

Odds are very likely that there was jewelweed also growing in the same area. They frequently are found in the same spots. While it won't get rid of the burn completely, it sure will feel good on it! Break the stem open and rub the juicy sap on your burning skin. You will go "Ahhhhhhh..."

Finally!

We saw an abundance of that plant with the really nice flowers growing along a trail in Oregon last month.

Now I/we know what it is.

We didn't encounter any nettles on that visit, but as a younger lad I used to roam the area (long before the paved trail was put in) and stinging nettles were an expected feature. Oddly I don't recall ever seeing any jewelweed in those days.

19k · July 27, 2012

Long pants don't help! I'm not a whimpy cacher by any stretch but when I plowed through 450' of Stinging Nettle, uh, yea, the tears were falling! I was wearing Carrharts and my legs were ON FIRE!

With Carhartt? WOW! You've got some powerful nettles there, from the sounds of it! You might need to get some Firehose pants, then!

Odds are very likely that there was jewelweed also growing in the same area. They frequently are found in the same spots. While it won't get rid of the burn completely, it sure will feel good on it! Break the stem open and rub the juicy sap on your burning skin. You will go "Ahhhhhhh..."

Finally!

We saw an abundance of that plant with the really nice flowers growing along a trail in Oregon last month.

Now I/we know what it is.

We didn't encounter any nettles on that visit, but as a younger lad I used to roam the area (long before the paved trail was put in) and stinging nettles were an expected feature. Oddly I don't recall ever seeing any jewelweed in those days.

Yup, that's the stuff. Break a piece off low down on the stem and rub the aloe-like juices on the burning areas.

July 29, 2012

This is my answer to nettles.

(Use gloves and eye protection and don't start hacking the tar out of them. If you swing like you are trying to kill them you will just make flying nettles)

Edited July 29, 2012 by DannyCaffeine

July 29, 2012

This is my answer to nettles.

Yup. And then you open the cache container with a well aimed slug from your 12 gauge? :rolleyes:

July 29, 2012

We always get stung when caching, bit of a family joke now

July 30, 2012

Nettles are normal in Britain but MAN are they big and plentiful this year!

Places I regularly walk where the nettles are around hip-height in a normal year are nearly over my head this year, and thick, too; maybe this is why people are commenting on them more.

We've been to a few caches lately, though, where it looks like people have got a bit irrational with the nettles and trampled around area pretty badly.

"Hip high" — luxury

The NZ native nettle is not called U. Ferox for nothing. Plants (trees) can grow up to 5 metres tall.

3.8k · July 30, 2012

I would mention there may be nettles in the summer and leave it at that. Nettles are a natural hazard in the English countryside, cachers should not be surprised.

It's the same way on the west side of Washington State. The forests here are lousy with nettles, and we all know it. If a cache is in a nettle-heavy area, the CO will usually put info in the description, and/or the attributes. Proper preparation is always a good thing.

Not to mention devil's club and the aforementioned blackberries...

Oh sure, spoil the surprise!

2.4k · July 30, 2012

just put a note on the cache page. We have a lot of nettles around here. they won't hurt you , they will just hurt .

It seems the more you encounter them the less they hurt.

I use Fels Naptha soap on it, when I brush against them. It works great for poison oak too. it's easier to carry then jewelweed. it's not perfect but it helps.

it's found in the laundry soap section of the grocery store .

July 30, 2012

In the UK we expect nettles. A geocaching trip without a nettle sting just isn't the same. :laughing: I always have gloves in the bag and wear long trousers so I can trample them down. What amazes me is how fast they grow. I hid a cache back in March and there was no growth on the verge whatsoever. Four months later it's at least four foot high with a little geocachers' trail through the middle to GZ. It is very seasonal and sometimes you just aren't aware of them if you place hides in the colder months.

Last week I found a cache down a footpath where the nettles left barely enough width to walk and at least 5ft high. It was tricky getting through there in bare arms I can tell you. No mention of them in the cache description but I wouldn't expect there to be. It's an accepted hazard of UK geocaching and they have the added bonus of providing protection from muggles.

Still hurts though! :anitongue:

Problems with stinging nettles

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