As you discovered, *nothing* is effective against glochids. For very short, but large spines (like some Euphorbias), I've found nitrile covered fabric gloves work well. The rubber coating offers some protection, but the fabric gloves still let you move your hands freely and with some level of dexterity.

Beyond gloves, I've found newspaper and towels to be most useful in dealing with spiny plants. You can just sort of gently wrap them up, then handle them like any normal plant. And at least with the newspaper, you can throw it away when you are done if it gets loaded up with glochids.

Maybe you should try some kevlar lined gloves. People have climbed barbed wire with them! Otherwise what I do is fold a piece of newspaper into a long strip and wrap it around the cactus. This is how I repotted my Madagascar Palm.

Newspaper and towels work the best. I have yet to find gloves that are spine proof. Even my thick, insulated fireplace gloves were no good.

Just get used to handle all the spiny plants (except Opuntia microdasis!) with bare hands as I do since about 50 years!

Jordi

Other options: barbecue tongs, needle-nose pliers, hemostats.

YEah... I sometimes use either a newspaper wrapped into a long strip and wrap it around the plant or I use a pair of kitchen tongs. but for a lot of plants, like Jordi, I just use my hands and pick the glochids out later... just handle with care ;-)

I kill myself with the thorns too but have learned to wet the dirt and get the whole plant out of the pot from the dirt or even break the pot but hold the dirt not the plant. The three dollar rubber gloves for the garden work the best because I have the best leathers and workman's gloves which seem to attract the prickles and go right into my hands. These work well for roses too except the knot top has no protection from anything. Being a gardener hurts but don't forget to shovel in the refill dirt and don't use your fingers !!!!

I use welders gloves for really nasty plants...with brown jerseys and latex ones underneath them for the really nasty stuff!

i also use the thick arc welding gloves, they work really good. Latex gloves underneath work for anything that might get through, but rarely do i get one that dose. The smaller more annoying cluster spines won't even fade those glove.
The bigger ones could on occasion get through. Just remember that spines are generally leaning more to one direction then the other, like a porcupine. Also you can use an old blanket or towel to wrap tight bunching to make a padded handle.Good luck and don't get STUCK. Improvise...

I'm looking for some gloves with this characteristic to pull out over a hundred feet of Smilax vine that is lining my property. I can cut it to the ground with my string trimmers brush attachment but I still want to be able to pull the dead vines out of trees and shrubs. These look promising. For that price, they certainly should be puncture resistant.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.benmeadows.com/hexarmor-hercules-400r6e-gloves_36817848/

For that price, I'd expect them to pick up the odd wolverine by themselves.

I use thick hard leather (1/8") from the scrap bin of a leather wholesaler in town. I used them like pot holders while wearing leather gloves. After a few years they are so full of pokeys that they need to be replaced.

Check these out. They work great...much better than leather or anything else.

Here is a link that might be useful: ThornArmor Gloves

Usually I use my barehands and then doctor them with elders glue and a heat gun. I yank the dried glue off and even O. microdasys glochids are removed. I have barbecue tongs and hemostats but usually it is newspaper, rags, cardboard anything in might.

My girlfriend bought these below. They are a hoot to look at but she swears by them.

Here is a link that might be useful: WEIRD Cactus handling gloves

I've tried lots of gloves, but I bought these recently and LOVE them, best price I could find too for the quality. Cactus gardening gloves

You already posted about these - there is no need to post on every thread, and especially old ones (this one originally starte din 2009!)

No harm in sharing those gloves again. Maybe not everyone saw the other mention. They look good, affordable too.

My best way is by raping duck tape around the fingers and the palm it keeps the spines of when finished just cut or pull fact tape of because some spines maybe stuck to it

So the best gloves to use are? I have a custus outside that's huge and weeds grow around it and in it that I have to pull,. No glove stops the needles from going through!

Use gloves to use the tools, such as cardboard folded into tongs, newspaper, old carpet, which you then capture the plant, avoiding direct contact and saving the gloves for another day. Once gloves have touched nearly any Opuntia cactus, the glochids have lodged into the gloves and the gloves are now compromised.

To remove glochids from skin a razor works wonderfully. I don't mind glochids so much when I can get rid of them easily.

Interesting. Do you go with the nap of how they are embedded or against it when you stroke with the razor.? does it matter? Are you talking a straight razor held perpendicular or are you talking a razor like you shave with?

Just a regular razor, and I don't pay attention how the glochids are oriented, just run the razor over the irritating area. Straight razors always made me uncomfortable, just looking at tham.

I use a lot of single edge razors in my work. That was what I was talking about. I will experiment with this method next time. There will be a next time . No doubt about that. Just part of life.