Most everyone who has spent much time outdoors has collected cockleburs and beggar lice on their clothing and socks. At the end of a day of bird or rabbit hunting, much time is spent removing them from yourself and your dogs. Cockleburs can entangle themselves so tightly in a dog’s hair that scissors have to be used to remove them. If you miss any on your clothing, don’t worry, they will come out of the washing machine, clinging tight, right where you left them.
Whatever you call them, beggar lice, stick tights, or stickseed, they are actually a perennial legume. The seeds are very small and pea like. They are eaten by many birds and other wildlife. Anyone who has quail hunted is familiar with craws or crops that are filled with the seed of beggar lice. Deer will also browse on beggar lice. I have eaten a few of the seeds myself. The seeds are so small that you might starve before you can harvest enough for a meal. They are better suited for the birds. Nevertheless, they are a valuable wildlife food source.
Cockleburs, on the other hand, have only nuisance value. The young plants and seed are poisonous. There are two seeds in each bur and they are very capable of keeping this annual plant coming back year after year. The seeds can lay dormant for many years and when the conditions are right for germination they will spring back into action. Their velcro-like grip has also made their distribution more wide spread than Amazon.
When I think about cockleburs I think about Moses the search dog. We lost him a couple months back at the age of fourteen. So while I ponder alone, his antics are still front and center. We made a trip to camp Atterbury in Indiana to train with the Indiana Emergency Management team. The facilities at the camp are state-of-the-art. They have acres of agility obstacles and a large rubble pile. We even got to see soldiers rappel from helicopters and supplies being dropped by C-130 aircraft. Not something dogs or their handlers encounter every day.
Moses was first to take on the rubble pile. The pile was constructed with tunnels underneath so live victims could be under the pile. Moses hit the pile full speed and made quick work of finding the victims. Unknown to us at the time, this pile was loaded with cockleburs and Moses had collected all of them. So now I am looking at a dog with at least two hundred burs entangled in his coat. While I was developing a plan to remove the burs, four ladies came over and took Moses from me. They put him on a picnic table and started removing the burs. For the next two hours Moses thought he was in heaven. He was soaking up all the attention while these volunteers groomed him. As for me. I have no use for cockleburs, but if Moses were here I am sure he would disagree.
Frank Hancock has worked as a Farm Manager, Vocational Agriculture Teacher, Vice President at Snapper and currently serves as the University of Georgia Agricultural Extension Agent in Henry County. He is a also a member of the Heritage Writers Group.
