# Nettle stings



## Ironballs (2 Jul 2009)

Right, just got back from a nice bike ride that was interspersed with copious amounts of sweating and a trip to the ground involving rocks and nettles. The lump on my shin I can cope with, however the non-stop pins and needles from the nettles all over my legs and arms is driving me nuts - and the dock leaves have worn off.

Is it true that nettle stings can be treated with anti-histamines and if so what? I need drugs and I need them quick, I got stung on the neck on a ride the other week. They're like bloody triffids :x


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## Gill (2 Jul 2009)

I don't know how good you are at plant recognition, but the leaves of cleavers (_galium aparine_) docks (_rumex acetosa _) and plantains (_plantago major _or _plantago lanceolata_) are very good for treating nettle stings. Crush the leaves in your hands, moisten them with a bit of spit, and rub gently over the stings.

Plantains contain a natural antihistamine which is useful for treating insect bites and stings too.






*Broadleaf dock*





*Plantain*





*Galium Aparine*

Cleavers can be a bit prickly, so be careful if you use them or you'll have more than just nettle stings to worry about :? !

Gill


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## wizer (2 Jul 2009)

Is it weird that I like the feel of nettle stings?


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## Karl (2 Jul 2009)

There are places you can go for that sort of thing Tom.... :lol:


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## wizer (2 Jul 2009)

The woods?


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## Ironballs (2 Jul 2009)

Yes Tom, it is weird.

Thanks Gill, I'm not bad with plants and did acquire some docks later on in the ride, they took the edge off but it came back again later. Didn't know plantains also worked, I thought they just lived to spoil my borders  

Nettle stings are still tingly, much more of an issue is the big lump on the front of my shin. It's a touch painful going up and down stairs.

Serves me right for descending like a gaylord


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## johnny.t. (2 Jul 2009)

Bit off topic but.... 

I heard a couple of years ago on a programme on radio4 that you can eat nettle leaves raw and they can't sting the inside of your mouth. A couple of days later walking along a footpath with a mate I spied an easy chance of cash and bet him a tenner that I could eat 10 nettle leaves, "Only if I get to choose the leaves" he said,"OK" I replied,pleased with my cunningness. The first seven leaves were the biggest he could find and I ate them no problem, then disgusted at my lack of pain he chose 3 small 'fresh and tender' leaves from the top, I popped them in my mouth all at once and man did those little [email protected]**eds sting, the inside of my lips were on fire and felt massive :? .
I guess the moral here is nettles are evil and you can't always believe the "knowledgeable" upper middle class types on R4, a lesson for us all there :lol: 

JT


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## TrimTheKing (3 Jul 2009)

johnny.t.":ybydt7ul said:


> Bit off topic but....
> 
> I heard a couple of years ago on a programme on radio4 that you can eat nettle leaves raw and they can't sting the inside of your mouth. A couple of days later walking along a footpath with a mate I spied an easy chance of cash and bet him a tenner that I could eat 10 nettle leaves, "Only if I get to choose the leaves" he said,"OK" I replied,pleased with my cunningness. The first seven leaves were the biggest he could find and I ate them no problem, then disgusted at my lack of pain he chose 3 small 'fresh and tender' leaves from the top, I popped them in my mouth all at once and man did those little [email protected]**eds sting, the inside of my lips were on fire and felt massive :? .
> I guess the moral here is nettles are evil and you can't always believe the "knowledgeable" upper middle class types on R4, a lesson for us all there :lol:
> ...


Isn't it because the stingy bit is the spines on the stem of the leaf, so if you grab the leaf by squeezing the top face down over the stem, break it off and shove it in your mouth the spines stay wrapped up?

I could very well be completely wrong here but that was my understanding.


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## wizer (3 Jul 2009)

absolutely correct Mark. It's not foolproof....


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## TrimTheKing (3 Jul 2009)

wizer":1mlw9h8t said:


> absolutely correct Mark. It's not foolproof....


Apparently not Judging by JT's lips


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## johnny.t. (3 Jul 2009)

wizer":3lpwoj6w said:


> It's not foolproof....



:? pipper! 

JT


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## newt (4 Jul 2009)

My dad used to make stinging nettle wine.


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## Digit (4 Jul 2009)

> Plantains contain a natural antihistamine which is useful for treating insect bites and stings too.


Ah! A fellow botanist at large.

Roy.


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## BradNaylor (4 Jul 2009)

Many years ago, I had a girlfriend who came from Sierra Leone and whose experience of England prior to meeting me was confined to South London. 

One weekend we were walking in a Stockport park and she strode straight through a bed of nettles in bare feet and legs, not knowing what they were. As she screamed with pain I told her not to worry, and found some dock leaves.

As I rubbed her stings with the docks, the pain receeded and she looked me in the eye and asked

'What are you, some kind of bloody Witch Doctor?'

:lol:


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## bluezephyr (5 Jul 2009)

I believe i saw Ray mears once on tv singeing the hairs of nettles before eating them or cooking them.

Dockleaves :lol: , get stung and keep on walking. Mind over matter. Ok they might have properties to stop the 'irritation' but the placebo effect is more powerfull.


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## Woody Alan (5 Jul 2009)

> get stung and keep on walking.



I agree totally with this, the trick with nettle stings is to not touch them at all and distract yourself by keep moving. they subside quite quickly if left alone...at least for me...we are not all the same as to what affects us to different degrees.

Alan


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## Mailman14 (5 Jul 2009)

Hi Ironballs, hope the stings have worn off by now - onlt just caught this thread mate, sorry it's so late.  

If you can, get Piriton fro you local (unbranded) chemist... and take a couple of pills with you. They should do the trick - they do for me, and yes, Anti-histamines will do it (for the general public anyway). If it's the same as wasp / bee stings, try vinegar when you're at home - it'll counteract the surface effect.

Oh, and blame the Romans for nettles in Britain - they were brought over and used for stimulating the blood in cold weather (ALSO - good for counteracting rheumatism (SP?), as it gets the blood circulating through the affected joints!).


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