Noxious weed board takes on hemlock

For thousand of years, the juice of the hemlock plant has been used to kill people.

The Greeks offered the plant’s poison as an option to kill their political prisoners. The most renowned prisoner to die from the plant was Socrates in Athens, Greece in 329 B.C.

Condemned to die, Socrates drank the poisonous hemlock juice to commit suicide.

Hemlock is also thought to have been given to Christ along with vinegar and myrrh when he was crucified. Native Americans used the toxic juice of the hemlock to poison the tips of their arrows. The most recent human deaths from the ingestion of hemlock have occurred from mistaking poisonous hemlock plant as an edible herb.

Bob Brons is Wahkiakum’s Noxious Weed Board Supervisor. “We have tons of the stuff in our county,” said Brons. “The hemlock weed was originally imported from Europe as an ornamental plant.”

Brons said the poisonous plant has spread extensively throughout North America and is rampant in Wahkiakum County. “Everyone should be aware the plant is highly toxic, and deal with it accordingly.”

The plant likes damp areas and usually grows to between 5 to 8 feet. It is usually streaked, with spots of red or purple on the lower half of a smooth slender green stalk. The hemlock’s leaves are finely divided with a lacy triangular shape. Its flowers are small and clustered.

Brons said the plant is often found in porous soil and often grows near streams and ditches. “The most effective way to rid oneself of the weed,” said Brons, “is to chop the plant off about a foot from the ground and then treat the exposed stalk with a weed killer like Roundup or Crossbow.’

“You should never handle the plant without protective gloves,” said Brons, “and if the plant is chopped down it should be placed somewhere out of the way of pets and small children.”

Brons said that this summer the Weed Control Board is making an extra effort to rid the county of the toxic weed, “...and we encourage residents to be on the look out for the plant. If they are afraid to deal with it themselves then we advise them to call our office and we will come out and take care of it,” he said

He also asked that the Weed Control Board’s office phone number be included in this article: (360) 795-3852.