Monkey puzzle - nasty reaction

[biggimmer]

Hi all, felled a monkey puzzle the other day. First time dealing with them....it may be the last!

Anyway I was cutting it up and got spiked from one of the 'needles' at the base of my thumb. It was ok for a few hours but started aching a few hours later. Woke up the next morning and the area had swollen and movement of the thumb was pretty sore. Now 4 days later and the swelling is slowly going down but it is still very tender to touch.

Has anybody else had any adverse reactions to a monkey puzzle spike!?

[difflock]

So like a Blackthorn into the back of the knuckle then, only worse?

[Stephen Blair]

MP is just evil and should be avoided at all costs!  Grab with digger only 😂 I found the jabs just agony compared to Blackthorn which causes pain and swelling, jabs to the knuckles or bone much worse than skin!  If you get a Skelf get it out and watch out for infection and tracking. 

[htb]

Done one last week, all three of us had reactions to greater or lesser extent from irritation on stabbing to infection and antibiotic treatment

[AJStrees]

Nasty 👎🏿

[maybelateron]

The one time I had to climb a MP (as opposed to using my MEWP) it was overhanging a conservatory. I took leather gloves up with me and when I needed to saw a branch off I would put on one leather glove to hold the branch I was cutting. So just to spite me the tree decided to puncture a vein in my arm with one of its "leaves". Surprisingly this was not very painful compared to the Blackthorn reaction I am nursing right now from an attack on the back of a knuckle. I think the key is that it hurts more when the tissues are tighter with less room to accomodate the swelling.

[maybelateron]

Needless to say quoting on Monkey Puzzle work gets an automatic multiplication factor. As indeed should mixed thorn hedge reductions💩

[Mark Bolam]

I did a medium sized dead one a few years back.

Luckily the drop zone was kind enough I could just cut and drop nearly all of it, so I didn’t have it too bad.

My groundie got savaged, though, even with Ripeur gloves on.

Forearms mainly, dragging and chipping.

 

Funnily enough chogging the stem down took me ages….

 

Heavy stuff as well.

 

Definitely one to apply bastard tax to, and hope you don’t get it.

 

[manco]

monkey colouring book - peaceful reaction

 

[oldwoodcutter]

I’ve done several monkey puzzles, some big specimen ones, but the last one I dismantled was as rotten as a pear at Nordelph.   The branches exploded as they hit the ground, and chipping up was frought with even more dangers.

I overheard my lads say at the finish that they hoped they didn’t get any more of those bast*rds to do.

Just got to be careful with spikes but I can’t remember getting infected, just hurt at the time.

Edited January 31, 2023 by oldwoodcutter