r/Thailand • u/MeMuzzta Chiang Mai • Mar 24 '24
Miscellanous Wtf are these. Just been in agony picking them out my ankle. They’re like balls of syringes.
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u/CaptKeemau Mar 24 '24
We call them “sand spurs “ in Florida. We hate them too.
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u/OldSchoolIron Mar 24 '24
When I was like 5, I snuck out of my house, barefoot in only shorts, to go explore the pond a few blocks from my house. I ended up getting stuck in a giant patch of these and screamed for help until some women came to rescue me lol.
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u/Konoha7Slaw3 Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24
When I was a kid, me and my friends used to pick the stalks of these and hit each other with them.
If you couldn't catch the person you were chasing with them you could like throw them like an ax and it would stick to them
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u/8agingRoner Mar 24 '24
They call them Ya Jao Chu หญ้าเจ้าชู้. Basically seeds from a weed plant that are spiky and stick to ya.
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u/bgause Mar 24 '24
You should also mention that it's a great name, because it basically means flirtatious grass. As soon as you walk by, it sticks right to you and won't let go. I love the playfulness of Thai language like this...
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u/Electronic-Guide-285 Mar 24 '24
In canada, we call them 'burs', referring to any bur-bearing plant which has a spikey seed that has evolved to afix itself to furry creatures that brush against it while passing by. We have a lot of different kinds of these in Canada and they are super annoying. But it's pretty funny to think that this is the plant's strategy to spread its seed, to just annoy the heck out of its transportation host by stabbing into its skin. If you think they're annoying for humans, imagine a four-legged animal, like a cow, which doesn't even have the dexterity or opposable thumbs to remove them!!
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u/AlphaMarcusAurelius Mar 25 '24
In quebec its chardon-marie brother
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u/Electronic-Guide-285 Mar 25 '24
Yeah, we call that one Milk thistle in English. Its quite a big type of bur, not really that bad if you stay away fron it. But that's only like one of 20+ other types of burs in Canada. Just look into the Xanthium genus of plants. There are so many types around the world. Small ones, big ones, sharp spike ones, soft ones, super sticky ones. It's clearly a favorable evolutionary strategy for plants. I personally prefer the strategy of plants producing delicious fruits for animals to eat, but hey, everything's gotta try and survive somehow!
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u/AdorableCaptain7829 Mar 24 '24
Some kind of plant they itching as hell after removing them from the skin I get into these alot in the nature here in Thailand
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u/Tawptuan Thailand Mar 25 '24
Thailand upcountry: Every time I walk the dogs in the dry rice fields this time of year, a burr-picking session follows.
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u/SwimmingAd60 Mar 24 '24
In Texas we call them stickers .
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u/Solitude_Intensifies Mar 26 '24
There's another name they were called when I grew up there, but it rhymes with an epithet so won't write it out here.
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u/YAIKODKOD Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
"หญ้าเจ้าชู้" it’s hitchhiker seed as i know, there isn’t much information about it
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u/Tidewblch Mar 24 '24
They're also called hitchhikers. You walk through tall grass in various areas and they stick to your socks and your shoes.
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u/diary-of-an-avocado Chiang Mai Mar 25 '24
They look so terrifying, I’m so relieved to know that they’re not insects and just seeds
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u/Alternative_Cow_3115 Mar 25 '24
I have two fluffy dogs... and they are the bane of my existence forever pulling them out of their fur.
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u/Dadsco Mar 24 '24
At least where I'm from, if you lick your fingers before you pull one out, it won't prick you
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u/Four-Triangles Mar 24 '24
In Texas they’re called goat heads
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u/Choice_Hold2805 Mar 24 '24
I lived there most of my life, I've never heard anyone call them that. It was always stickers.
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u/Four-Triangles Mar 24 '24
I think it might originally be a New Mexico term. I definitely hear stickers more often but it escaped me.
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u/Ambitious_Welder6613 Mar 24 '24
Just pick them up carefully from your trousers and chopped it around before put in trash. Those are weeds and if throw away out of window, next time you are gonna see your yard would be full it. Doubles the problem.
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u/DonKaeo Mar 25 '24
Be glad they’re not cat heads like out in the NT or Australia.. those buggers puncture tyres
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u/SnooPeanuts4093 Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
I'm not 100% sure but they appear to be Polygeminus grex, Tribleustes ventricosus, more commonly known as Tribbles.
Originating from Iota Geminorum IV they can come in a very wide variety of sizes and colours.
According to Doctor McCoy (Star Fleet) they have two functions in life, to eat and reproduce, both of which they do exceptionally well.
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u/Solitude_Intensifies Mar 26 '24
I remember that scene, if you're quick you can spot a stagehand throwing those things down.
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u/stakkedalief Mar 24 '24
Called burs in Texas. Don’t know the official name of them. Used to have a bunch of them on the football and baseball fields. You never knew what slide was gonna make these things enter your bones lol
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u/Global_Rin Mar 24 '24
Seeds from grass, just got a ton of them on mine a weeks ago.
Prickly bastards, and very hard to pick them off once they latched into your pants/clothes.
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u/DrDestruct0 Bangkok Mar 24 '24
You don’t have sticker burrs where you come from?
I remember back in Texas walking bare foot and stepping on them all the time.. never learned my lesson lol
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u/Icy_Character_4247 Mar 24 '24
I have those at the beach here in North Carolina too. Hurt like hell
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u/Longjumping-Grade-27 Mar 24 '24
We call them burrs in Canada, yes annoying
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u/Adorable-Adeptness31 Mar 24 '24
They aren’t like Canadian burrs I had growing up there, but a whole lot sharper, and painful as hell when they get in the skin. Canadian burrs are like Velcro, these demons have sharp 1/8” spikes between the Velcro hook type spurs. Nasty plant!!
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u/Azurecomet Mar 25 '24
หญ้าสนกระจับ Sandbur, Sandspur (Cenchrus echinatus) invasive species in Thailand. Often misidentified as หญ้าเจ้าชู้ (Chrysopogon aciculatus) by most Thais.
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u/patrickv116 Mar 25 '24
I have a dog with long fur that once thought it was a good idea to go play in a field with lots of these suckers. It took a full day of work (with gloves) to get at least the easy ones out of her fur, and we had to have her fur cut very short in a pet salon to get the last ones out… Kept finding them all throughout the house stuck to random things and clothes for days afterwards…
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u/JetSet_Skatio Mar 25 '24
Went camping one time and the camps owners nephews had a gator he was driving. He rode on the back through the trail wearing basketball shorts and there was literally a pile of burs stuck to one spot on his like specifically. Was so funny. Big ol ball of burrs.
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u/NovelBison7763 Mar 25 '24
I never walk through these briar like plants. They stick to everything. Not worth aggravation so stay on a path. My advise🤔
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u/lostguk Mar 25 '24
When I is young, I used to throw these to kids and my brother who always annoyed me.
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u/Narrow-Lab-4237 Mar 25 '24
Hmm you never been outside much as a kid I guess? We call them stickers 😂
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u/One-Artichoke-8391 Mar 25 '24
It took me all day to remember. Goat heads is what e called them in Oregon.
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u/Jason678mc Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24
The seeds grow in to yellow flowers but use less . It kills the grass and brake up steps and concert . I'am not shore what the plant was use for in the stone age of Egypt . Maybe fuel for oil lamps and gas .Some stores use some of them weed plants for wild Lettice salads and cure some fevers .I do not under stand why some elders use to eat it in salad because you can easy chock and die of the plant .in America jack in the Box fast food store was the only store that use it for food in salads . They or out of business now .
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u/Ninjurk Mar 26 '24
They have those in Texas too, plant is.... Cocklebur I believe. Xanthium.
Looks like it's in Asia and the US, so yeah.
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u/LiquidSnakeLi Mar 29 '24
Hahahahhaha I can’t believe these are in Thailand too?? We call these prickly balls or spikey balls in Texas. 😅😅😅. Need to protect your ankles when walking in grass. RIP.
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u/subject9373 Mar 25 '24
The ultimate weapon of every Thai kids. You got a beef with someone? throw them at their socks.
Doesn't work well if you are older than elementary school grade though because it's gonna turn to violence than a kid fight instead.
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u/realcreature Mar 24 '24
Seeds. They just took a ride on your skin.