Can you help me??

[jondawes101]

Hi everyone,

 

I have an old yew tree in my garden which litters thousands of poisonous berries into my garden every autumn. I have small children and cats and so I am concerned about this. I don't want to kill the tree, obviously. However, I was wondering if any of you know how to stop a yew tree from forming it's berries. I'm not sure if this is strictly a arboricultural question but I would be really pleased to hear any advice you can offer.

 

Many thanks

 

Jon

[Peter]

You cant.

 

In addition, every part of the yew tree is toxic, including the leaves (needles) which are shed all year round.

 

Your options are:

 

1. Move House

 

2. Fell the tree

 

3. Fence the tree off to prevent access by children.

 

Dont worry about the cats, they have more sense than to try to eat yew berries.

[Rob D]

Not sure the cats will be a problem...

 

Perhaps just educate the children... or if they are too young to understand fence off the area the berries drop until they're older.

[Bart]

The berries are'nt toxic its the seed with in.

[tommer9]

This may be worth thinking about- you have to go a long way and be pretty determined to poison yourself with yew, and the fleshy bits of the seeds are non toxic anyway...

Effect on humans

Fifty to one hundred grams of chopped leaves is considered fatal to adults.

A world-wide investigation in 1998 (Krenzelok et al.) shows 11,197 records of yew poisoning (from all Taxus species) in humans (96.4% in children less than 12 years old) and found no deaths. A 1992 article in Forensic Science International (Van Ingen et al.) stated that only 10 authenticated cases of fatal human poisoning by T. baccata had been recorded in the previous 31 years, and that they were all deliberate.

Krenzelok, E.P., Jacobsen, T.D. & Aronis, J. (1998) "Is the yew really poisonous to you?", Journal of Toxicology Clinical Toxicology, 36, 219-223.

Van Ingen, G., Visser, R., Peltenburg, H., Van Der Ark, A.M. & Voortman, M. (1992) "Sudden unexpected death due to Taxus poisoning. A report of five cases, with review of the literature". Forensic Science International, 56, 81-87.

(Copyright © Fred Hageneder 2005)

[Steve Bullman]

good info tommer

 

so im curious..... wonder how they taste anyway.....if you need to eat that many to be harmed, unless they taste good(which i cant see) you are surely unlikely to eat more than 1 anyway!

[tommer9]

I think that is basically the whole point- the whole lot is bitter as hell anyway (i tried it) due to the high alkaloid content i would assume, so like i say, you would have to be pretty determined to eat enough to kill you, and i reckon you would be puking long before a fatal dose.

[raafbeard]

Guess the taste is vaguely like strawbs but not very strong at all...the consistency is really jelly/snotty as I am sure you know...

 

Would love to sell it as Jam but not patient enough to pick out the seeds or get covered in that jammy goo...

[Frank]

Tommer, I love YEW.

[nepia]

Seriously reduced one early this year due to exactly this fear - toddlers eating the berries. The thinking was that by the time the tree produces berries again the kids will be old enough to know better (or at least eat the berries on the basis of informed choice!)

Viable option? Yew takes a hard cut well although you won't recover the current shape if it's been left alone up till now.