Ouch! Boy’s nettle ‘cure’ was poison hogweed
IT is a homespun remedy which has given relief to teary-eyed children for generations.
But one hapless schoolboy who tried to cure a nettle sting with the rub of a dock leaf found himself pouring salt in the wound.
Adam Hodgson, 11, was stung while playing with a friend in his local park in Barrhead, renfrewshire.
To salve the pain he grabbed what he thought was a dock leaf and rubbed it on his leg.
But it was actually poisonous Giant Hogweed – ‘Britain’s most dangerous plant’ – which left him with searing burns and horrific blisters.
The highly invasive weed has toxic sap which burns the skin on even the slightest contact, taking days to heal. Children are particularly sensi- tive. Adam’s mother Lorna Percival, 32, took him to hospital when wounds started to surface two days after the sting last month.
She said: ‘It was the worst thing he could have done.
‘Things went from bad to worse and he was in a lot of pain. The [hospital] staff said they had never seen anything like it.’
She is calling for bosses at east renfrewshire Council to remove the weed before another child is hurt at Barrhead’s Cowan Park.
Miss Percival said: ‘All the council has done is spray the plant with weedkiller, but that could take weeks to work. I’m worried it will grow back and continue to be a hazard for kids here. I want them to dig it up by the roots and take it away.’
A spokesman for the council confirmed that the hogweed was treated with weedkiller. He said: ‘We are scheduled to check and re-spray the area in June and will monitor the closely. This treatment regime has been carried out in this area for several years and has been successful on each occasion of controlling the hogweed.’
Giant Hogweed is common on riverbanks and wasteland and can grow up to 20ft (6m) in height.
There are fears the species could be increasingly crowding out other plants and throttling local ecosystems as it spreads.
In 2015, lawyers reported an increasing number of injury claim cases thanks to the plant.
The NHS advises anyone who comes into contact with it to wash the affected area immediately with hot soapy water.
The sap contains photosensitising chemicals which react with the skin to leave wounds similar to severe sunburn.
Giant Hogweed has proved highly resilient, with each plant containing up to 50,000 seeds.
It belongs to the same family as the carrot.
The pest plant is often mistaken for harmless ones such as elderflower because of its white blossoms.
It was brought to Britain from Central Asia in the 19th century and spread from gardens.
‘I knew I should call for help’