Pour your prepared fruit/syrup into sanitized jars allowing an extra inch of space at the top. Shanon reported that brushing his axillary skin with sabra fruit resulted in no symptoms for a half-hour, followed by ​1 1⁄2 hours of "stabbing feelings". Soaking unroofed papules may allow for extrusion of the glochidia. Success! The fruits are often called tunas, and they come in a variety of shapes and colors. How to remove cactus spines (including ones stuck in your throat) Experts weigh in on a prickly predicament. Facial masks and adhesive tapes removed about 40% and 30% of the spines, respectively, and produced more retention and inflammation three days after removal than no treatment. You certainly wouldn’t want to get glochids in anybody’s eyes: they can cause blindness! As a cactus collector, you soon learn to avoid touching O. microdasys unless you are wearing gloves. If you don’t have citric acid, lemon juice will also work – it just won’t give the impartial flavor you might be looking for. Problem is, they are hard to spot. Then one day I noticed our cat, Nounouche, sidling along a windowsill, brushing up against plants there as cats are wont to do. The method using a thin layer of household glue covered with gauze, allowed to dry (about 30 minutes) and then peeled off resulted in removal of 63% of the spines. [8] Typical areas of involvement of this irritant dermatitis include fingers, wrists, genitals, thorax, and buttocks. Young opuntia pads, called nopales, are also edible… after a treatment similar to opuntia fruits or simple peeling. We love using ours for pancakes and waffles as well as prickly pear lemonade. Martinez et al.

cactus, prickly pear, simple syrup, syrup. But don’t stop there …. The tufts of glochids in the areoles nearly cover the stem surfaces of some cactus species, each tuft containing hundreds of glochids; this may be in addition to, or instead of, the larger, more conspicuous cactus spines, which do not readily detach and are not generally barbed. I instantly knew what the problem was! [7] The hard palate and tongue are occasionally affected. They can be deep purple and large, or smaller and more green in color. Long, fierce, painful ones that dig into the skin, draw blood and yelps and are very visible and, on the cushiony areole at the base of the vicious spines, tiny hairlike, barbed spines called glochids. Ideally, you’d only wear thick, long-sleeved gloves or use tongs when handling any prickly pear, but in case glochids do get to you, remove them quickly before they work their way into your skin. Such fruit will have been rubbed or burned to remove any glochids. Be creative with prickly pear syrup – it’s delicious on so many things!

Prepare the prickly pear fruit by removing the glochids. Cute kitten, cute cactus, but never the twain should meet!

Required fields are marked *. Prickly pears are a common plant that you find in the desert as well as many yards in the central area of Arizona.

[3] Attempts to suck out the glochidia are likely to result in their attachment to the tongue.

Implantation of glochidia in the skin does sometimes cause immediate irritation, but not always, as one may deduce from the presentation of patients with granulomatous lesions around glochidia, patients who have no recollection of the penetration that caused the acute injury, even when it is clear that the injury is far from fresh. Repeated applications of adhesive tape did not improve the results. Penetrating injuries can introduce pathogenic microorganisms into the wound. Add the citric acid (or lemon juice) - 1/4 tsp per pint, and 1/2 tsp for a quart. Learn how to make beautiful and delicious prickly pear syrup from prickly pear cactus fruit. However, since the presence of glochidia is the inciting factor, removal of these minute spines is generally preferable.

Once they’ve worked their way into your skin, though, you pretty much have to wait until your body reacts, causing dermatitis then pustules, then eventually expelling them. Prickly pear syrup is easy – simply cover the fruits with water, bring to a boil, cover and let steep for 30-40 minutes. A method of treatment has been described for the granulomatous papules, and involves unroofing the granulomatous papules, removing the glochidia fragments under a dissecting microscope, and subsequently soaking the wound in an antibacterial solution. Check the lids – once the jars have cooled, the lids should not move up and down. Not only are they everywhere, their little spikes on the skin will make sure that you never forget about them. I honestly don’t think I ever told my now ex-wife the cause. [3] There may be groups of these papules.

Choose a non-windy day to avoid loose spines blowing onto skin and clothing.

If the glochidia are allowed to remain in the skin, a dermatitis may ensue that will persist for months.