People who live in desert areas were probably brought up in the environment of removing cacti needles; However, my family and I live in the mountains of northern Oklahoma, and cactus, while present, are rare. In the recent cold snap, my husband and I decided to begin the rigorous process of cleaning up the old farm behind our house. At this time our children were playing outside our building under our supervision. My son, always curious, wandered a little closer to the wood line and before he could get any closer, he started crying out in pain. He quickly ran to him, and found that he had touched the cactus with his right hand, and then, throwing out his hand, caught it by chance with his left. It left him with small, hair-pins stuck to his hands.
We introduced it and started a quick internet search about possible ways to remove it. I have mentioned in several places that it would be good for the needle to come out in its own way; But this does not seem likely to be desirable to a boy with so many needles in his hands. Many of the suggestions were good, but we felt we had to narrow down our options to something that our son would be comfortable with.
To the victors. These, however, with the larger needles, as with the smaller needles, as our son had, he only broke the needle in half with the forceps, leaving part of it inside.
Removes the wax. Duct tape. This probably worked, but he wanted to apply pressure again. in his hands, which brought more pain.
Glue. Finally, we had to use a bottle of glue. My husband squeezed the glue out of the bottle into my son’s hands and then watched the balls with the dried glue. When the glue was dry, we helped him to start and allowed the glue to dry. Most of the needles came out the first time they were put in; two, however, at the request of the son, we often recognized the glue. (I think it’s fun to secretly pull him out, but we let the rough day he was having slide.
After removing the needle, we washed our hands well washed him, and applied an antiseptic ointment. His hands were a little sore, but he felt good enough to go out and play. I highly recommend adding a bottle of regular glue to your backpack if you plan to hike in prone terrain.
