And of course you wanted to know the other thing that bugs me about cactus? This.

YIKES!!! OUCH!!! Your’s?

No, though I'm messing around with a few Opuntia quilimo this afternoon (when the temp's only 103 in the shade) that can do this quite easily. It's someone else's pain, but we who have The Plants of Ours have experienced this ....piercing loss of equanimity.

I'm getting rid of my Opuntias just for that reason.

That looks soooo nasty. Ouch.....

sharon

Fascinating. I knew cochineal was a bug but not how it was harvested. It also explains why you put it under knitting and crochet.... that was a puzzle before I opened the post.

Bottom picture reminds me of tedious sewing classes at school. We were so bored that we dared each other to stitch our fingers together. But not quite as drastically as that.

I’ve been told early Californians used it as dyes and it may still be used to color pink grapefruit juice. I’ve seen it in so. cA natural areas. Very interesting, cactusmch...

The fascinating things one learns on this Forum.

In textile school I was taught Cochineal was purple, not red, but it is definitely a source of dye stuff.

Socks, pink grapefruits are naturally pink, I eat some almost every day & they are pink to reddish, when you cut open the fruit, in their natural state. Can't imagine why folks would think they were dyed.

floral,

The worst I've done is an Agave spine in the knuckle. There was more shouting and hollering than at a tent revival. We also have in Canada a ranch not so far away that raises alpacas. I've been threatening my wife with promises of buying and dyeing our own wool with organically-sourced dyes, but it's just idle talk.

socks,

I'd guess that thing about grapefruit being enhanced with cochineal would be an urban myth, given the amount of insect necessary to make even a small amount of colouring.

Karen,

IMO, it's closer to red than to purple, but your colour wheel is better inflated than mine.

This was bugging me yesterday.

Jeff

I would be almost sure she would love alpaca sweater or two...maybe you have some already. So soft and warm, and hypoallergenic too...Any of you hand knit?

Btw, color will vary by additions (crimson- alum; more purple - lime...)

Bill,

Are those locusts? I've never seen them that small before. Maybe yours is just a minor plague of them.

Rina, she knits, I'm the supporting cast (including fending off the cats from pouncing on the wool), but also the beneficiary of alpaca tocques and scarves. Thanks for the colour lesson.

Unfortunately i am aware of the practice but, i thought it was no longer in practice. However, ALOEBOT, what the heck is that??? I once saw a wall covered with locusts as i was traveling through Memphis on the side of the bus depot. It felt like a horror movie scene! I saw an entire lawn or so i thought which was covered in June Bugs in Lawton, Oklahoma. I've seen entire trees covered in cicada skeletons is upstate New York but, i have never seen little green things like Aloebot's! ---with posts like these i'm reminded how much i love the forum!---

GRASSHOPPERS! I’ve had a herd or two of those myself, Aloebot. Seeing them all like that gives me the heeby geebies. Looks like they all just hatched out and ready to pounce. Like an army of grasshopper invaders. ...then they all start to move! BLECH!!!!

Aloebot- i agree with SoCal, thanks for the Nightmares!