Tall, tenacious and very dangerous. The poisonous hogweed was declared war throughout the country. The weed covers hundreds of hectares and one touch to it can lead to the most serious consequences. On the Internet, they even create special channels where you can find tips on how to overcome an attack.
The ownerless field near the village of Medvedka has been overgrown with hogweed for many years. The poisonous weed has made its way into vegetable gardens and houses - some have already grown over the roof. The son of Maria Novozhilova recently went to the hospital - the boy, playing, just touched the hogweed bush.
A resident of one of the regional centers also required medical assistance - a man was mowing grass on the site. Its action is comparable to sulfuric acid, it is doubly dangerous in bright sun - the hogweed juice destroys the protective layer of the skin that resists ultraviolet light.
There are hundreds of such stories throughout the country every year. A resident of Krasnodar was burned right in the center of the city. The channel with the name “Antiborschevik” shows how the plant, which was once bred in the Caucasus, demonstrates miracles of vitality in the Moscow region - it grows even in a swamp.
In the Kostroma region, where the cow parsnip has already seized thousands of hectares of farmland, heavy equipment is being taken out to fight it: they crush bulldozers with caterpillars and try to poison with herbicides.
In the neighboring Kirov region, the heads of settlements bypass the yards: if private property is overgrown with weeds, the owner faces a fine. Last year, careless landowners in this region alone paid almost half a million rubles.
“They were forced to sow it as a forage crop. We can't get rid of it now! It is spread by both roots and seeds, so it is very difficult. It only grows immediately under the root, and there is no other way,”says Valery Zhuravlev.
The easiest way to stop the spread of cow parsnip is effective, however, only in spring and early summer, when the plant has not yet bloomed. Such a small bush is dug up, preferably with roots, deeper and crushed with a shovel. Of course, you can only work with gloves.
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In a couple of weeks it will be too late to dig up the hogweed, and by the end of summer the plant can grow up to five meters in height.
In the Leningrad Region, the hogweed is fought systematically - not only is it mowed and destroyed with the help of chemicals, but the area is immediately planted with useful crops.
“Spot cultivation is underway here, the field was sown with hogweed, we have been cultivating it for the third year, now spot cultivation is underway so that it does not grow,” explains Andrey Komarov, deputy director of the Sosnovsky hogweed destruction plant.
This work will last until late autumn; in some regions, after the harvest, it is planned to send agricultural machinery to plowing weed-overgrown areas. Maybe this will stop the spread of the dangerous plant.