It's all over the place in Ca., very toxic, and one of the First things a Coronor looks for in cases of poisoning.

I see it mostly in the median strip on freeways !!!...thick and bushy, good barrier, fire resistant, easy to grow...etc.

No one dies from eating it, it tastes so very bad even a kid won't eat it. People have gotten sick from using it for firewood but probably not at a beach fire. Too open. Lots of plants around the house are toxic, but nobody eats them and gets sick, they just taste too bad.

Holy crap!!! Sister lives in LA and has a kid on the way. Forwarded the link. Yikes.

back when we used to burn our plant cuttings in the 50's everyone knew never to burn oleander cuttings, I guess that lesson learned did not get passed along when outdoor burning was stopped.

I raised my daughter near a row of big, hardy oleander shrubs here in San Diego. I knew they were toxic, but so are any number of plants and other things in and around one's house.

Take precautions, use common sense and you'll do fine as a responsible Daddy. If you start cutting down plants and shrubs and eliminating all of the risks of day to day life you'll be left with . . . not very much.

Good luck and don't worry too much. This from a Dad who still sometimes worries too much.

Best,

Kurt

this thread is useless without pics.

ok, maybe not useless, but, C'Mon wayne!
Show us your Oleander before you kill it.

How about poison ivy ? do you leave that in the yard as well ?

One of the more 'classic' ways of accidental poisoning with this stuff is when kids are camping, cutting a stick of Oleander and sticking hot dogs or marshmallows on it to roast. One woman a long time ago needed to 'expand' her salad she'd made for he women's group. Cut Oleander leaves and killed them all...or so the lesson was in my Vet Sch. Poisonous Plants class.

Lots of weeds and flowers we have in and around the house are toxic. Another classic is Foxglove...beautiful flowers but....

Wayne, in your situation you may want to get some specific instruction on toxic plants common around the house.

Oleanders are only a problem if they are eaten. Poison Ivy can be a big problem if you brush up against it too much. Not really the same. But assuming you don't have kids that eat stuff (most kids do, but not all and probably depends somewhat on their age), it shouldn't be a problem to have oleaneders in your yard.

Obviously in certain circumstances you'll want to be more careful than others.

As stated previously, there are lots and lots of plants and things that are poisonous or dangerous around the house.

Here's a link I found that will be of help in identifying plants that are toxic:

www.library.uiuc.edu/vex/toxic/comlist.htm

I've never had to deal w/ poison ivy, but I would clean it out of my yard the same way I clear weeds, I guess.

Oleander shrubs are literally everywhere here in SoCal and are one of a large number of poisonous plants that are common. My point is that there are probably 100 or even 1000 other things in and around one's house that present a greater danger to a child than the Oleander bush.

Of course, I just learned that Wayne has a child with Down's syndrome, and I understand his concerns better than I did before.

I do wish you and your family the very best, Wayne.

Kurt

I wonder what Euel Gibbons would say about this?

We've got poison ivy all over the place up here. Unless you walking around the woods in shorts, or are cutting down a tree that has it growing up the trunk (ask me how I know :rolleyes: ), it's not a problem. It generally stays in the shady areas in the woods. It can also grow into a bush (aka: Poison Oak) in sunny areas, but I can't remember when I last saw that. If I see patch getting close to the yard, I just spray it. While it's no kudzu, it does grow pretty fast.

Spray poison oak in early June when it first begins to leaf out.

Geez Wayne, I knew when I was 3 years old that Oleanders were Poisonious. So are Castor Beans and Pyrocanthus Berrys.

Toxic or Unsafe Indoor/Outdoor Plants
Aconite
Agapanthus
Alacia
Amaryllis (bulbs)
Arrowhead Vines
Autumn Crocus/Meadow Saffron
Avocado
Azalea (leaves)
Balsam Pear (seeds; outer rind)
Baneberry (berries; root)
Beans (all types if uncooked)
Belladonna
Bird of Paradise (seeds)
Bittersweet Nightshade
Black Locust (bark; sprouts; foliage)
Bleeding Heart/Dutchman's Breeches
Bloodroot
Blue-green algae (some forms are toxic)
Bonsai Tree
Boxwood (leaves; stems)
Bracken Fern
Broadbean
Broomcorn Grass
Buckthorn (fruit; bark)
Buttercup (sap; bulbs)
Caladium (leaves)
Calla Lily (leaves)
Candelabra Tree/Cactus
Cardinal Flower
Castor Bean (castor oil; leaves)
Chalice Vine/Trumpet Vine
Christmas Cactus
Christmas Candle (sap)
Chrysanthemum
Clematis/Virginia Bower
Coral Plant (seeds)
Coral Vine
Cowslip/Marsh Marigold
Creeping Charlie
Crown of Thorns
Croton
Daffodil (bulbs)
Daphne (berries)
Datura (berries)
Deadly Amanita
Death Camas
Delphinium
Deiffenbacchia/Dumb Cane (leaves)
Eggplant (fruit okay)
Elephant's Ear/Taro (leaves; stem)
Elephant's Foot
Elderberry
Emerald Duke
English Ivy (berries; leaves)
Euonymus/Spindle Tree
False Hellebore
False Henban
Fava Bean
Firethorn/Pyracantha
Fly Agaric Mushroom/Deadly Amanita
Four O'Clock
Foxglove (leaves; seeds)
Geranium
Glacier Ivy
Gold Toothed Aloe
Golden Chair/Laburnum
Ground Cherry
Heart Ivy
Heartleaf
Heavenly Bamboo
Hellebore
Hemlock (including water the plant is in)
Henbane (seeds)
Holly (berries)
Honey Locust
Honeysuckle
Horse Bean
Horse Chestnut/Buckeye (nuts; twigs)
Horsetail
Hyacinth (bulbs)
Hydrangea (flower bud)
Indian Laurel
Indian Licorice Bean
Indian Turnip/Jack-In-The-Pulpit
Indigo Plant
Iris/Blue Flag(bulbs)
Ivy
Jasmine
Java Bean (lima bean-uncooked)
Jimsonweed/Thornapple
Johnson Grass
Juniper (needles; stems; berries)
Kentucky Coffee Tree
Lantana (immature berries)
Larkspur
Laurel
Licorice Plant
Lily of the Valley
Lobelia
Locoweed
Lords & Ladies/Cuckoopint
Lupines/Bluebonnet
Mandrake
Mango Tree (wood; leaves; rind--fruit is safe)
Marijuana/Hemp (leaves)
Majesty
Marble Queen
May Apple (fruit is safe)
Mescal Beans (seeds)
Mistletoe (berries)
Mock Orange (fruit)
Monkshood/Aconite (leaves; root)
Morning Glory
Mountain Laurel
Mushrooms (several varieties)
Needlepoint Ivy
Narcissus (bulbs)
Nephthytis
Nettles
Nightshades (all varieties)
Nux Vomica
Nutmeg
Oleander (leaves; branches; nectar of blossoms)
Pansy
Parlor Ivy
Pencil Tree/Cactus
Periwinkle
Peyote/Mescaline
Pigweed
Pikeweed
Pine Needles (berries)
Poinsetta (leaves; roots; immature)
Poison Elder
Poison Ivy (sap)
Poison Oak (sap)
Poison Sumac
Pokeweed /Inkberry (leaves; roots; immature berries)
PotMum
Potato (eyes; new shoots)
Privet
Pyracantha
Rain Tree
Ranunculus/Buttercup
Red Maple
Red Princess
Rhodendendron
Rhubarb (leaves)
Ripple Ivy
Rosary Peas/Indian Licorice (seeds)
Saddle Leaf
Sago Plant
Sandbox Tree
Scarlet Runner Beans
Skunk Cabbage
Snowdrop
Snowflake
Snow on the Mountain/Ghostweed
Sorghum Grass
Sorrel
Split Leaf Philodendron
Spider Mum
Sprengeri Fern
String of Pearls
Sudan Grass
Sweet Pea (seeds; fruit)
Tansy Ragwort
Thorn Apple
Tobacco (leaves)
Vetch
Virginia Creeper (sap)
Water Hemlock
Wisteria
Wolfbane
Yam bean (roots; immature roots)
Yellow Jasmine
Yew (American; English; Japanese; Western) (needles; thistles)

wayne, i do know oleanders. if you chainsaw it all the way down, it will grow nice new succulent branches in no time. only way to win, is to pull the root ball. we had tons of it growing up. i lived.

didnt michelle pfieffer star in a movie where she killed a man with an oleander flower. soaked it in milk or something.

We had a bad Oleander ordeal up here last year when a gardener decieded not to dispose of the plants at a waste facility and threw them over fence thinking it was safe to feed them to a bunch of cows.

You are mistaken, I personally know someone who lost a horse that ate a little bit of oleander. It is quite poisonous, but I thought everyone knew that.

Mistaken??
I didn't say anything about horses and cows, they are dumb, kids don't eat the stuff because it tastes so bad.
Horses, cows, goats even eat poisen oak, kids don't.