People who live in desert areas are probably well educated in the area of cactus needle removal; however, my family and I live on a mountain in Northeastern Oklahoma, and cactus, while present, are rare. During a recent cold snap, my husband and I decided we would begin the rigorous process of cleaning out an old shed behind our house. During this time, our children were playing right outside the building under our supervision. My son, ever the curious one, wandered a little too close to the wood line and before I could call out to have him come closer, he began to scream out in pain. I quickly rushed to him and discovered that he had touched a cactus with his right hand and then as he yanked his hand away, he accidentally grabbed it with his left. It left him with small, hair-like needles stuck in his hands.
We brought him in and began a quick internet search of possible ways of removing them. Several sites mentioned that it would be okay to let the needles fall out on their own; however, this did not seem like a plausible option for a young boy with so many needles in his hands. There were several good suggestions, but we felt we should narrow our options to something our son would be comfortable allowing.
Tweezers. This works for larger needles, however, for smaller needles, like our son had, the tweezers only broke the needles in half, leaving part of it still inside.
Wax strips. Cover the area with hair removing wax strips and pull the strip off, thus removing the needles. Waxing has never really been my thing, so we did not have this on hand. Moreover, part of the process would have involved pressing the strip onto his hands, which would have been bad because it hurt to touch them.
Duct tape. This probably would have worked, but again it would have meant putting pressure on his hands, which would have caused more pain.
Glue. Finally, our choice was to use a bottle of glue. My husband squeezed glue from the bottle onto my son’s hands, and then we let him watch cartoons while the glue dried. Once the glue was dry, we helped him get it started and allowed him to pull off the dried glue. Most of the needles came out with the first application; however, we reapplied the glue two more times at my son’s request. (I think he secretly had fun pulling it off, but considering the rough day he was having, we let that slide.)
Once the needles were removed, we had him wash his hands thoroughly and we applied an antiseptic ointment. His hands were mildly sore, but he felt well enough to go back out and play. I would highly recommend adding a bottle of regular glue to your backpack if you plan to hike in an area prone to have cactus.
