What Should You Do If You Find Giant Hogweed?

Giant Hogweed in person (Picture: Rex)

Everyone is now studying the weeds in their garden after a spate of hogweed related burns.

If you do come across the troublesome plant there are things you should know and do.

Just in case you do touch hogweed, the NHS have the following advice:

‘If you touch a giant hogweed, cover the affected area, and wash it with soap and water.

‘The blisters heal very slowly and can develop into phytophotodermatitis, a type of skin rash which flares up in sunlight.

‘If you feel unwell after contact with giant hogweed, speak to your doctor.’

Sheep in a field of hogweed (Picture: SWNS)

So if you do find the weed amongst your Rhododendrons, the Environment Agency has some guidance on what to do next.

First things first, while it is not offence to have hogweed in on your property - you are advised to control their spreading through the regular use of herbicides.

While Japanese Knotweed only needs three years of treatment before it becomes dormant - it takes Hogweed seeds a whopping 15 years to stop germinating.

This tough weed is seen widely near riverbanks and in the last five years has spread to pathways, motorway embankments and roadsides across the countryside.

10-year-old Lauren Fuller hands after touching the plant (Picture: SWNS)

To highlight the dangers of the plant, A ten-year-old girl suffered horrific third degree burns -after picking up a piece of Hogweed while fishing with her dad.

Lauren Fuller was building a den by a riverbank when the scooped up the invasive plant, which grows wild across large swathes of the countryside.

Within 24 hours she had bright red burns on her hands and cheeks - but when her parents took her to hospital, they were told it was just sunburn.

Unsatisfied with the diagnosis, they Googled their daughter’s symptoms and quickly realised she was a victim of Giant Hogweed.

Lauren may need skin grafts to repair the damage and her parents Russell and Charlotte are warning other parents of the danger the plant can pose.

Construction worker Russell, 32, of Thornbury, Bristol, said: ‘She was absolutely fine on the Sunday - she thought nothing of it.

‘But on the Monday her hands were red raw and by the Tuesday she had big blisters. It was really, really bad.

‘They put these little gloves on her to cover the blisters and when they took them off a couple of hours later her skin had completely melted.’

So stay vigilante folks, touching these plants is a very dangerous business