• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

First Painful Mistake.....

CDNmatt

CDNmatt

So my wife and I took the kids to the city (Winnipeg) for most of last week which was alot of fun and even going home was abit of a downer knowing we had to get back to our daily grind. On our way home we stopped at a small farmers market and bought some fresh veggies that we dont have in our own garden. Just as we were about to pay I noticed some peppers out of the corner of my eye....being a noob I asked what they were and the fella behind the table replied that they were Scotch Bonnets. This was kind of exciting and new for me so I bought some with plans to take any seed I could and freeze the pods for future use. This is certainly where it got bad for me...I got home and dove right into cutting out the seed and just quartered up the 10 pods I had...after I went and washed my hands really good then proceeded to the couch to watch the ball game. within a couple mins my hands started to tingle....within 5-10 mins it really started to burn...not just my hands but my hair line where I had wiped away some sweat....about 25-30 mins the pain on both my hands was almost unbearable...About 10 years ago I had burnt my hands with gasoline...this certainly was a reminder of how that felt. Next time I will be wearing gloves when working with any pepper that is of the "spicey" type. Honestly I wasnt sure if I was just a wuss or if this would be a normal thingwith that type of pepper ? I knew the super hots could do this type of thing I def was not expecting this from the bonnet. Anyways lesson learned..the hard way.....my hands are nice and soft at least now from soaking them in butter milk for the better part of 9 hours..haha
 
Wow, I did this before with ghost peppers and it didnt seem that painful, just felt like burning for several hours. Didnt think it was as painful as being burnt bas gasoline
 
I was down to my last pair of gloves and thought I would blow the fingers back through when I took the glove off. When I blew into the glove the thumb came back into my eye. It felt like my eyelids scraped the glove off into my eye. It was intense
 
Hardly a day goes by during fresh pod season, and at least once a week the rest of the year, I inadvertently get some form of hot pepper in my eye. It's never pleasant but you do build up a tolerance. Ppl look at you funny when you have one eye shut streaming tears but you are otherwise just continuing on normally with whatever you are doing.
 
Be thankful you didnt need to take a leak before you realized your mistake. I wash my hands upto my elbows 3 times after handling any hot peppers. Always use a wash cloth or sponge and lots of dish soap. Then i use GermX. Its mostly alcohol and helps remove traces of oil.
 
It's weird. When I've been cutting peppers without gloves, the burning in my fingers only starts after I've washed with soap.

However, if I don't wash my hands with soap, there's other parts of my anatomy that will begin burning immediately when touched with unwashed hands. :)
 
DontPanic said:
It's weird. When I've been cutting peppers without gloves, the burning in my fingers only starts after I've washed with soap.

However, if I don't wash my hands with soap, there's other parts of my anatomy that will begin burning immediately when touched with unwashed hands. :)
Click to expand...
 
See I was abit confused by this cause I did do abit of reading before hand and one place of reference mentioned to wash thorough with soap and water and it would be fine...after I was in agony and looking for some sort of remedy several pages mentioned that water was a bad idea. Think what made is worse was I really washed my hands good front and back..spreading the oils all over sadly...
 
I would certainly agree with the above post about tolerence though..maybe not so much to the eye for me mind you :)
 
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
Be thankful you didnt need to take a leak before you realized your mistake. I wash my hands upto my elbows 3 times after handling any hot peppers. Always use a wash cloth or sponge and lots of dish soap. Then i use GermX. Its mostly alcohol and helps remove traces of oil.
Click to expand...
 

I had to look up what Germ-x was I had never heard of it before and did a quick look on the interwebs with not a ton of hits..but I assume its just an anti bacterial of some sort?? foaming maybe? what about something like Gojo or something similar ?
 
CDNmatt said:
 
I had to look up what Germ-x was I had never heard of it before and did a quick look on the interwebs with not a ton of hits..but I assume its just an anti bacterial of some sort?? foaming maybe? what about something like Gojo or something similar ?
Click to expand...
 
Its a hand sanitizer made up of mostly alcohol. Roughly 63%.
 
 
I use safety equipment ( gloves, glasses, etc) regularly for work, so I anticipated the risk when processing peppers or powders.  Nontheless, yes, you will occasionally slip up, rub you eye, and then everyone thinks you have pink eye.  People with pink eye typically do not scream in agony....
 
And yes, always use the bathroom BEFORE starting your pepper work.  Had a friend who bought a bunch of peppers at a farmers market on the way to St. Augustine.  He decided to just cut into them and munch on them on the drive over.  When we got to our destination at a friend's house, he went to relieve himself, but apparently didn't think to wash first.  All we heard for 30+ minutes were screams of agony.  Priceless.  Can't help thinking if those would have been Bhuts or Reapers... :fireball:
 
I rinse in cold water, wash with soap in cold water, then wash with soap in hot water and it works fine
 
Well, if it helps to.know...You are not the first....Or the last.....That will experience this.


Always use gloves.
Even if gloves have been used handling pepper, change and use gloves before handling any other 'tender bits'.


Word to the wise~~~.
 
Yes, always wear gloves and wash hands often. I've been "burned" a few times in sensitive areas even after having employed these measures. I've learned the hard way... still slip up from time to time. If I forget something, I've found that mother nature never does....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top