MMM...Locust....

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Is that poison ivy or Virginia creeper? Either way, avoid it. About the poison ivy inhalation thing... It's an urban(herban? :) ) legend, but supposedly some kids knew some other kids they didn't like who wanted to buy "something" from them for smoking purposes, so the kids tore up some poison ivy leaves and put it in a bag and sold it to them. The kids that smoked it died. It seems plausible, but not sure if it actually happened. Not a very good joke.
 
We were sitting around one of our summer night camp fires out back and after throwing some old wood on the fire, my grandson's face and lips started swelling immediately and he was having a hard time breathing. The smoke from the fire was blowing his way. We took him to the ER and by that time he was a mess. They determined that old dead poison ivy dust was still on some of the wood and it was intensified greatly from the burning action. They said he could have died. He was kept a couple of days with treatment.
 
Adios Pantalones said:
Not uncommon for firemen to have respiratory issues breathing in PI smoke. I get just a few little spots of it a year after hauling/splitting wood, but they stick around forever.

That happened to a couple of our guys a few years back when they were doing the annual Spring burning of some local fields for residents . . . one guy ended up with PI in his throat.

Me . . . I think I may be immune to the stuff . . . a few years back my wife (on the ambulance squad) and another firefighter ended up with poison ivy after we were laying in the stuff at the scene of a vehicle roll-over. I was right down there with them and never got so much as a red spot on my skin.
 
My mother got PI from breathing in the smoke loading up the old furance as a kid. Broke out in her throat and lungs. She never went the hospital, but she should have (no money/insurance growing up).

Talk about an itch you just can't scratch! I bet it was bad.
 
On the original topic, after seeing that locust tree in the original post, my money is on Locust in the upcoming Ent wars of 2012...
 
As I was cutting down a dead elm today, I noticed that there are a lot of those thorny locust in that area, all ready to be made firewood. When I have cut them before, I cut it down, trim off the branches with the chain saw, then have at the thorns with the ax. I thought maybe some of you had a better idea, or something you had used to harvest these trees. I'm guessing it's just hard ax work, given that there are a lot of them around here for me to take if I want them.
 
ansehnlich1 said:
Yeah we have those thorny locust here in Pennsylvania, they like the bottom land, near creeks and such. They ain't the same tree as the black locust that's also pictured here. I think the real thorny one is honey locust.

They must be in southern PA then, Ihave lived in PA my whole life and never seen those anstys looking locusts around, have seen plenty of black around the farmers fields, but never that honey. Did you see it in the Gettysburg area? I grew up in schuylkill county, and all my years in those woods have never seen any...
 
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