Milkweed Safety

[MegMcG]

I just became aware of the hazards milkweed can pose to people - see this post from Monarch Watch and this forum discussion on GardenWeb. I was all ready to buy a bunch of milkweed to attract monarchs, but now I'm nervous. I injured my corneas once, and I hope never, ever, EVER to do so again. I might consider still growing some milkweed plants for monarchs, but I want to know more, first.

The only thing I've been able to find is that some milkweed plants are more poisonous than others. For example, tropical milkweed (A. curassavica) is extra toxic - better for the butterflies but more dangerous for humans. Butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) may be less toxic, as its sap is barely milky at all, and toxicity might correlate to the milkiness of the sap (the data is unclear to me).

Does anyone have further information about milkweed safety? Are there best practices for handling? Also, does anyone know the toxicity spectrum for milkweeds? I was planning to plant a bunch of swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) before I stumbled across eye safety warnings. Thank you!

[skinnyhoops]

If your just planting the milkweed in your garden, you should be just fine. Just wash your hands after planting. From my experience, it's the milky sap inside the stems of the plant that causes eye burn.

[Paul Cherubini]

The sap of all milkweeds is dangerous for the eyes. One difference between the tropical (currassavica)
and the others is that the tropical is so irritating to the eyes that EVEN AFTER WASHING YOUR HANDS, it will STILL be extremely irritating to the eyes if you touch them for any reason and you could be blinded for 24-36 hours (don't ask me how I know).

The only real solution is to wear goggles and gloves.

[Mona Miller]

Most of the time, I do not wear gloves, but (knock on wood), I had not gotten milkweed sap in my eyes and I have been raising monarchs since my son was 5 years old. Now, he is going to be 22 at the end of the month. Oh gosh, that's 17 years.

I do wear non-latex gloves that I got from Costco (pharmacy dept.) when I'm potting up plants. This year I purchased a battery operated (Lysol makes this) soap dispenser. You don't have to pump, just put your hand out and the soap dispenses. Make sure you wash for at least 20 seconds, top, bottom, and clean your nails. Rinse thoroughly. Take care in the garden not to rub your forehead. The sweat can drip down into your eyes. I do wear glasses so perhaps that keeps the sap from splashing into my eyes.

[blazing star]

I had no idea of this! I get the sap on my skin all the time since I started raising them a few years ago. If I have a cut it does burn, but I've never had any side affects. I wash my hands before and after handling the leaves and the cats. I don't want them to catch anything from me either.

Maybe eyeglasses or goggles are a good idea when picking the leaves as when breaking off the leaves, the sap may fly out a little. Thanks for posting this.

[windrider]

Milkweed CAN be a problem to people and so: an authority (book, magazine, website, etc) posts a warning about it. Another authority writing it's own content on milkweed sees that warning and becomes concerned that it can be liable if it doesn't repeat the warning, and does so...this happens on and on so that every place that discusses milkweed has a prominent posted danger about the plant. This warning becomes so predominate and so prevalent that people begin to believe that milkweed is a very dangerous and toxic substance.

I have to ask: how many people a year are SEVERELY affected by it's toxicity? By "severely" I mean, loss or work hours, payment to a doctor and medicine, etc...

[Mona Miller]

I've been raising for 18 years and still haven't gotten it into my eyes, but I'm very careful. Believe me it can cause damage, but only if you don't flush it out and this has to be done for up to an hour or more. Seek immediate medical attention. It can lacerate the eye. But, this is only temporary not permanent damage.