BANGOR, Maine — If there was a Hulk version of Queen Anne’s lace, giant hogweed would be it. The invasive plant species can tower up to 14 feet tall with flower heads up to 1 foot wide, but it’s far more malevolent than its kin: The stem’s sap can cause serious burns on your skin and in some cases blindness.
“Of all the ones I’ve seen, this one scares me the most,” said Ronald Lemin Jr., a vegetation management sales consultant with CPS Timberland who has volunteered time to help eradicate hogweed from an area in Bangor.
The invasive species expert said there is a massive hogweed infestation site in Bangor on land between Ohio Street and Finson Road. The thousands of plants situated around a tributary could spread the infestation to Kenduskeag Stream and into the Penobscot River because of hogweed’s floatable seeds, which are produced by the hundreds during germination.
For this reason, Lemin said he wants to warn anyone in the area to be wary of the giant plants. The expert said the plant’s surface is harmless to touch, but its fragile, hollow stem is full of dangerous sap that can burn the skin.
“I would just stay away from it,” Lemin said.
People can identify hogweed by its unusually large size, robust red stem, wide flower head and leaves that reach up to 5 feet long. The Maine Department of Agriculture has a comparative chart of giant hogweed and its relatives on its website.
The expert said he estimates the infestation site to be from 4 to 6 acres, though he hasn’t fully surveyed the area because of limited time and he doesn’t want to wander onto land owned by people from whom he hasn’t requested permission. Because of his limited surveillance, Lemin said the site could be bigger than he estimates.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, which provides a comprehensive advisory on its website, did not have anyone available for comment Tuesday evening but its Web page’s advice echoes Lemin’s: Be cautious and use protective gear when around hogweed.
The department’s website says there are two known hogweed sites in Bangor, though the Bangor Daily News couldn’t confirm with the department whether the site Lemin found is one of those or a brand new site. In addition to Bangor, there are 18 other hogweed sites in Androscoggin, Kennebec, Sagadahoc, Hancock, Waldo, Piscataquis and Cumberland counties.
Giant hogweed is a member of the carrot or parsley family, according to a brochure produced by the Agriculture Department, and it is considered a Federal Noxious Weed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making it illegal to propagate, transport or sell. The plant originated in the region between the Black and Caspian seas on the border of Europe and Asia and was introduced to North America in the early 1900s for display in arboretums because of its unusual appearance.
The brochure said the plant eventually escaped cultivation and spread into rich, moist soils near streams, ditches and wooded areas.
Lemin said he has been using glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide, to destroy many of the plants found in the area, but it’s hazardous to other vegetation and aquatic life.
As an alternative, he said he recommends either cutting off the flower head, which eventually will grow back but never germinate, or placing a black plastic bag over the top of the plant and securing it with a knot. With this method, Lemin said, the plant’s flower head will die because of suffocation and extreme heat.
The expert said he has been working at the hogweed infestation since 2010 when he first helped a nearby family handle the plant near their household. Lemin said his interest stems from the fact that he’s a forester.
“I hate invasive species,” Lemin said.
This is an news generated by my son, Russ, in Maine.
Is Ronald also yours?
Did they misprint a name?? I re-read the article and see no Russ anywhere.
Congratulations?…
Well you tell Russ thank you for the….whatever?
Giant Hogweed is scary! What’s next? Where are all these invasives coming from?
As an aside, the video is very chopped-up and jerky, can’t watch it because it starts and stops every few seconds. A lot of the BDN videos are like that, for me anyway.
Not sure what you have for a browser/operating system, but try making sure that all of your media plug ins are up to date. ;-)
Windows XP, Firefox, just updated plugins the other day, still doesn’t work very well.
I thought the same thing…I wasn’t sure if I was the only one having problems streaming videos from BDN. I’ve tried multiple computers with fairly quick cable connections and have the same “skipping” problem on each. Maybe it’s their server?
He should be wearing goggles. The sap doesn’t just burn skin. He gets that in his eyes and he’s got bigger problems.
yep, causes blindness!
Funny, Mom always told me something else would make me go blind if I touched it?
We also have a giant infestation problem in Augusta
almost sounds like the beginning to a new drug on the streets—–hmmmm it burns your skin and can make us blind, LETS DO IT, i can see it now
And it’s out by Old Capehart. Must be a way to make welfare money from it. Or sell it or smoke it.
brookdale, i have the same problem, i usully pause it and read a different story and come back to the video, usully it fully loads in a minute and is fine
….
We did some weed clearing today. I was impressed with the amount of a simlar weed we have, Cow Parsnip. Gets tall (up to 6 feet) but very spindly and a lot less leaves. The stem does get reddish with size. The flower heads are also smaller.
I think my son got a patch of this on his ankle while playing at the park behind the Hannaford in Old Town… they followed a little snake in the woods. Anyway… major blisters, itching and burning.. got some steroid creme from the ER, cleared up in a few days, luckily with no scarring.
That sounds like Poison Ivy, He would have had to have broken the stem of the Hogweed for it to have any affect on him, where as Poison Ivy or Sumac all you need to do is touch it.
Gotcha, makes sense. Hogweed is scary.. many thanks to the people willing to get in there and take care of it!
‘Experts Say’ all sorts of things that are (A) stupid and (B) proven wrong. It’s why they love using the word ‘unexpected’ to rationalize the fact that they were blatantly wrong. As in, “Absence of hogweed in stream ‘unexpected,’ experts say.” These faculty-lounge elites write a thesis, get a diploma, and all of a sudden Helium fills their brain.
Your hypercritical stereotyping has what relevance to the article?
I bet the city council will have to vote on it. Then have 10 meeting on the best way to take care of it. Then do a nationwide search for the best company to remove it. Then have public works take care on it after spending 50k on the nationwide search!!!!
We have acres in Northern Maine being taken over by what seems to be a more compact version of the same plant, only a few feet tall..but with the same flower that looks like Queen Anne’s Lace. I checked info a few years ago when the invastion started, think I may have Common Hogweed (also called Cow Parsnip) the article also said not to be confused with Giant Hogweed! It is very invasive, I still take precautions not to come in contact with the plants when trying to control them taking over my flower gardens!
Per my previous note, I think we have Cow Parsnip/Common Hogweed around where I live.
One word, Roundup.
Spray these things and kill them down to the root.
According to the article, glyphosate (aka Roundup) is being used.
This looks identical to the plant that is growing beside our pool fence… We wondered what it was all this time, it keeps getting bigger, and the minute I saw the photos of this hogweed plant, it looks like we know what it is now, someone said spray it down and than the get the root out? I want that thing out of here!!!! Very scary what it can do to you.
I think it might be running rampant in the unmown backyard of abandoned property on my block. What do we do about all the abandoned property that is unkempt around the city? If this stuff is that dangerous, we’d better get it gone ASAP.
“Hogweed” Isn’t that the stuff the women out in Capehart, grow in their subsidized housing?
Are you sure it’s not “dogweed”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jHi-8Ykx-8
In other articles I’ve read about this, probably from last year, people were advised to notify the state when they believe they’ve found a plant. It’s also a bad idea to try to deal with it yourself; I would stay clear of it and get someone else to get rid of it.