Encounter has a sting in the tale

that little bit extra.”

He estimated that on the pain scale, it had rated near the maximum limit, around 9/10.

“I’ve had gall stones, kidney stones, and they’re all rated as fairly painful things,” he said.

“I’ve also spoken to a woman who’s had a stinging tree sting, and she said it was right up there with childbirth, the pain.”

The stinging tree, also known as Gympie Gympie – or by its scientific name Dendrocnide cordifolia – is regarded as one of the unsung natural dangers of the Far North.

Its propensity to sting hikers walking past has also earned it the nickname of the rainforest “anklebiter”.

With its heart-shaped, serrated-edge leaves, the Wet Tropics shrub is a fast-growing pioneer species, found in recently cleared areas – such as along trails – where there is plenty of sunlight.

The stinging tree can grow up to 2m high, with its large, dark green coloured leaves spanning up to 30cm long.

Its leaves are lined with tiny, almost invisible hairs that deliver the powerful neurotoxin into anything that touches it.

Cardwell-based former forestry ranger Max Bell found out the hard way that these hairs are still able to deliver the toxin into human skin long after the tree has died.

He still remembers the day he accidentally brushed up against the head of a dead stinging tree that had fallen over a survey line, on the Kirrima Range, about 40 years ago.

“It came down across my back, so I got stung on my shoulder, and all down my left arm,” he said.

“It wasn’t the great many needles that went in.

“There was probably three spots, about the size of a 10-20 cent piece, where the needles actually went through my long-sleeved shirt.

“I pulled the shirt off, and that probably pulled a lot of the needles out, but in that particular case, I had to go to the doctor, and he gave me a needle to make me sleep.

“I basically slept for 24 hours.”

An average of 10 people per year seek treatment for stinging tree wounds at Cairns Hospital’s emergency department, according to figures obtained from the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.

The recommended first aid for a sting is removing visible stinging tree hairs with tweezers, then applying and removing adhesive tape or a hairremoval wax strip to remove finer stinging hairs.

Mr Bell, who worked for the forestry department for 20 years between Paluma, Tully and the Atherton Tablelands, said people should not underestimate the danger of the finer hairs.

The hairs from dead stinging trees can slew off, when the plant is disturbed, forming a “dust”.

“If you’re brushing through the trees, you can actually breathe the hairs in, and then get stung to the point where your nose will start to bleed,” Mr Bell said.

“It hasn’t happened to me, but I’ve seen it happen to other people,” he said.

“When you’re cutting through (the trees), if you get the sunlight the right way, you can actually see a mist-like thing, where the needles are coming off the bloody thing, just coming down through the air.”

He said he had been amazed by the persistence of the toxin, which had potential to keep on stinging for many years.

“You get in the bloody shower, and then suddenly remember, oh yeah, I got stung there the year before,” he said.

“It does get less each year, and it doesn’t necessarily happen with every sting – I’m told it’s got something to do with the depth of the needles, which break off in the skin and stay there.”