Ouch! The Dangers of Gardening
Outside this morning, cutting back the perennials in the butterfly garden and on the side of our house, I was the lucky recipient of some large, green insect chomping into my thumb. The thing was about 3″ long and looked something like a grasshopper. I’m not sure it actually was a grasshopper, although a quick internet search did tell me that grasshoppers bite. Who knew? I’ve always thought those things were totally harmless to people.
The internet tells me that it might have been a grasshopper, it might have been a mantis, or it might have been some sort of assasin bug, although it seemed too big to be one of those.
Regardless, my 7-year-old, who was helping me at the time, helpfully assured me that he was familiar with this mystery bug that was large, green and bit, and that he was pretty sure it was poisonous. Why is every bug poisonous to a 7-year-old?
It should be noted that a perfectly good pair of gardening gloves was sitting on a table a few feet away from me – not on my hands, where they would have actually done some good – because, although I own at least a dozen pair of gardening gloves, I don’t really like wearing them to garden, and am likely to not wear them unless there’s poison ivy in the vicinity. Or, as in the case this morning, I had already cleared the area where poison ivy likes to grow, and had peeled them off as soon as possible and thrown them on the table, where they had no chance of keeping my thumb from being bitten.
So, there’s a nice little mark on my thumb where I got bit – it drew blood – and now my son thinks some large poisonous insect lives in our side flower bed. Whe knew gardening was so darn dangerous?
September 2, 2012 - 2:43 PM
Did it look anything like this?
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AiUDZE5YEd57BfcPGbp_HhWbvZx4?p=pic+of+praying+mantis&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701
This is mantis season and they can make their presences known so that’s a good possibility. Oh,those pesky garden gloves(noticed a pair soaking up these good rains that I’d flung down beside a raised bed yesterday). Latex free disposable gloves work better for me. If I’m shoveling or digging, I’ll put garden gloves on as a second layer but otherwise, the disposable ones enhance weed pulling and simplify cleaning up. For additional poison ivy protection, have you tried Tecnu? It is an cleanser that removes the ivy oils within a couple hours of exposure. When I realize I’ve gotten into a patch without being dressed for the occasion, I’ve found a thorough scrub helps.
Yes, that could have been it, but not positive. The pain level was pretty much like a bee sting.
My first thought was of a katydid, though 3″ is one heck of a big katydid.
I like the gloves that are thicker because it makes pulling or cutting back of roses and horse nettle so much easier. Then if I across a start of poison ivy, I can pull it out. Now that we have had some rain, I need to get out and do some weeding, dead heading and cutting back in the flower gardens. I know that I have one praying mantis so I will wear my gloves and watch out for the “bugs”.
Still canning up here on the ridge. We canned 11 four ounce jars of chopped jalapenos and made 8 half pints of salsa yesterday. The second planting of green beans are coming along and so are the peas. We are hoping that they will be able to produce before the first frost.
It’s so hard to wear gloves. Nothing gives the same satisfaction as the feel of my hands in the dirt. But … poison ivy … prickers and thorns … black widows and brown recluses! It is too risky to work without gloves.
Anote to all bean growers. I’ve got a buddy that planted a second crop of Roma 2′s. They were up and starting to bloom when a deer walked thru and eat every top down to a stalk off. He said they started growing again and bloomed. Said they were full and would be ready to pick by next week. Now that’s a tough bean!!!!
Tell the youngen the big, bad, bitin, poisonous bug moved indoors since cold weather is coming and now lives in the place you keep all the snacks and cookies. You got him going your way.
Well, gardening has come and is steady going now. Only had a so-so season, but then I don’t have room or a place to plant much. Have lettuce[red sails] and spinach coming up. Planted a few zuke and squash seed for a test that I saved this year and they are popping the ground. Cukes for seed are still full of water, so I’ll wait til later to get them out. What are you saving or planting?
I did get out in one of my flower beds the other day and was deadheading etc.(with gloves one) and saw a praying mantis. This must be the season for them to be out and about.
Our domesticated Black Heart Cherry tree lost most of its leaves late in the summer. We thought it had died; but I noticed yesterday that it has buds on it again – like it was spring time. I guess the lack of rain and heat probably stressed it and now with cooler temps and moisture, it is bouncing back. I know that “Joe” from the Weather Blog, who is down in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, remarked about some of the trees down there that had started budding again after the rains they received recently.
The stink bugs – the brown ones – are back. Last year we noticed them on our house – which has yellow siding – around the first part of September. This year they started showing up around August 27. One day last week, I “collected” 50 off of the house. Yesterday the Man of the House went around and collected 46. Last year, on one trip around the house we collected 1,500. They are looking for a warm place to go for the winter and I guess they love the color yellow. We have noticed a black spider that will build a web around our windows and they will catch a stink bug or two. Would love to have more of those spiders around or a good organic way of getting rid of the pesky stink bugs. FYI – a stink bug will emit a smell when disturbed or when you step on them that smells just like cilantro. WARNING! Do not use your vacuum cleaner to suck them up – your vac will smell like cilantro. When I picked our cilantro for salsa this summer, the smell would make me gag.
They have started showing up here also. Nowhere near as bad as several years ago. Last fall they were almost non-existant, and this spring they were few and far between. I like to think the spray I mixed 2 years ago killed them off, altho, I sorta doubt it. But, it made a huge dent in them.
wd – what was in the spray?
I always wear gardening gloves after a thoroughly paranoid search to make sure no spiders are camping out inside of them. I’m pretty sure a spider would not live inside my gloves but that isn’t stopping me from searching.