I live in Lakewood in East Dallas and we have Poison Hemlock on the side of my front yard and in the alley behind our house. Three in front and numerous in the alley. I've called the Agrilife Extension Service and their only advice was to email a picture of the plant to the Dallas Masted Gardners Assoc. They confirmed that it is indeed hemlock and said to dig it up and get the tap root. I've inquired about appropriate PPE but I haven't heard back.

My wife spoke with parks and rec and they guy over there was adamant that I not be the one to remove it. Does anyone have any idea how in the hell to get rid of this stuff? I have a 2 year old and dogs so having a highly toxic plant around isn't going to work.

No advice but would like to see a picture of this stuff.

Don't ingest it or burn it.

Should be fine to pull it up by hand and then throw it in the trash.

Socrates called, he said don't touch that stuff.

OnlyForNow said:

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Don't ingest it or burn it.

Should be fine to pull it up by hand and then throw it in the trash.

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I'm definitely not going to burn or ingest, but everything I've read indicates that contact with your skin can put you into the emergency room. Obviously I can wear gloves, but is it that simple?

Where'd you read that, it's poisonous to ingest.

I do not think it is a skin irritant.

I've had success with roundup and 2,4-D. Hose it down good.

Find someone with an hazmat suit and mask

Mother in law and ranch dressing…..

Can you post pics of your plants with good, up close ones of the full leaf and flower?

So you're the one! There was an article in the DMN. ETA - I live in Hillside.

I have worked Hazmat. This is what I would do. I would get an old long sleeve button down shirt you don't like and could throw away, some work jeans/pants, some cheap rubber palmed work gloves and one of those silly cloth "bandit" mask things. Tuck everything in (cuffs into gloves, pants into boots). Get some protective glasses, too and a can of marking paint. If you want to, you can get some tyvek coveralls, but I am not sure how much they cost or where you can get one/two pair.

Slowly use some manual shrub trimmers to cut out the stalks to about 1-2 inches off the ground. Put the trimmings into a contractor trash bags (3 mil or thicker). Minmize allowing the "flower" to break apart. Cut those off first and carefully bag, it will help later. As you cut the stalk, mark the cutting with the paint. Once you've removed all the aboveground stuff, get you a good shovel (sharpshooter or the like) and slowly dig out the tap root until you have it all. If you pull on it, use an old t-shirt or something to minimize contact with your hands/gloves/self. Anything you can't get, I would use a few liberal sprays of roundup on the roots. Once you're done, throw away the gloves after you tie the bag up and put out for bulk trash in a couple weeks. Wash everything else in hot water with a lot of detergent on the sanitize setting. Leave your boots outside in the sun for a few days.

Check the area often and spray any new growth immediately with roundup or something with 2,4-D or triclopyr in it. It will likely germinate where you dug it out (disturbed soil). You may also want to introduce something to choke it out over time (sod?).

Is this in response to a viral facebook post I saw going around last week?

I'd personally never heard of the stuff before that.

MyNameIsJeff said:

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Is this in response to a viral facebook post I saw going around last week?

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lol, my dad got that on FB friday. now my parents are convinced there's a field of hemlock at their place.

Poison hemlock looks alot like Queen Anne's lace (or wild carrots), so might be a good idea to verify which plant(s) he has before spending a lot of effort getting rid of them.

Can you spray with remedy and diesel?

Let it die and then cut down?

I was curious and looked it up.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article276107466.html

rebag00 said:

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So you're the one! There was an article in the DMN. ETA - I live in Hillside.

I have worked Hazmat. This is what I would do. I would get an old long sleeve button down shirt you don't like and could throw away, some work jeans/pants, some cheap rubber palmed work gloves and one of those silly cloth "bandit" mask things. Tuck everything in (cuffs into gloves, pants into boots). Get some protective glasses, too and a can of marking paint. If you want to, you can get some tyvek coveralls, but I am not sure how much they cost or where you can get one/two pair.

Slowly use some manual shrub trimmers to cut out the stalks to about 1-2 inches off the ground. Put the trimmings into a contractor trash bags (3 mil or thicker). Minmize allowing the "flower" to break apart. Cut those off first and carefully bag, it will help later. As you cut the stalk, mark the cutting with the paint. Once you've removed all the aboveground stuff, get you a good shovel (sharpshooter or the like) and slowly dig out the tap root until you have it all. If you pull on it, use an old t-shirt or something to minimize contact with your hands/gloves/self. Anything you can't get, I would use a few liberal sprays of roundup on the roots. Once you're done, throw away the gloves after you tie the bag up and put out for bulk trash in a couple weeks. Wash everything else in hot water with a lot of detergent on the sanitize setting. Leave your boots outside in the sun for a few days.

Check the area often and spray any new growth immediately with roundup or something with 2,4-D or triclopyr in it. It will likely germinate where you dug it out (disturbed soil). You may also want to introduce something to choke it out over time (sod?).

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Ha, no that wasn't me, but the reason I knew what I was looking at is because I read that article. Otherwise I might have just thought it was a semi interesting wildflower that my 85+ year old neighbor had growing.

I appreciate the advice.

If you want tyvek, you can get some at Home Depot or grainger. I've never had to deal with this, but I'm so allergic to poison ivy, I'd be paranoid that this evil beast of a plant would sent off some urushiol oil just to screw with me. I would have never thought of paint on the stalks to make you remember where to nuke them once cut down. I would just start hacking and then blasted the whole area when I forgot an hour later.

i have a few hemlock trees on the property here in VA. thought this was interesting...

Hemlock Trees vs Poison Hemlock

Interesting, I've pulled up a lot of plants that look like this in our garden and such.

California Ag 90 said:

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i have a few hemlock trees on the property here in VA. thought this was interesting...

Hemlock Trees vs Poison Hemlock

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Ive got about a dozen or so on some property in NC. One actually ended up on the house after Hurricane Irma. Been advised not to burn the prunings or fallen limbs as the smoke can cause respiratory issues. Also, needless to say, I don't drink my wife's tea.

Hemlock trees are harmless, it's the poison hemlock plant that one should use caution with.

Quote:

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one of those silly cloth "bandit" mask things.

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Tell me you're not from Texas without telling me you're not from Texas.

So I have a somewhat similar looking volunteer weed that has popped up on the side of my house but when I use the app 'PictureThis', it says it is Spreading Hedge Parsley. I guess I'll err on the side of caution and remove it this weekend carefully...

It is intertwined with a bunch of mistflower so it will be interesting to see if I can get all of it...

dgb99 said:

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So I have a somewhat similar looking volunteer weed that has popped up on the side of my house but when I use the app 'PictureThis', it says it is Spreading Hedge Parsley. I guess I'll err on the side of caution and remove it this weekend carefully...

It is intertwined with a bunch of mistflower so it will be interesting to see if I can get all of it...

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I sent mine in to a plant identification app and it returned a few different things. Dallas Master Gardeners Assoc. confirmed that it is poisonous hemlock. As did my sister who is a master gardener in Houston.

Thanks. After looking at some more pictures, I need to take a closer look at the stems to look for purple blotches/mottling. I was mainly focused on the flowers and leaf shape.