Poinsettia poison

[MrILoveTheAnts]

So we just received a Poinsettia and argued weather or not to keep it due to the poison nature of the leaves. Well suddenly I remembered lots of things about learning in Psychology class and I thought how I had no evidence of this being true. So I google searched it and can't find a single website saying the thing is poisonous. Quite the contrary, I found loads of web pages stating it as the Poinsettia Poison Myth.

[reinbeau]

The sap can be an irritant for some people, but for the most part it's an overhyped myth.  People will warn you that it'll poison dogs or cats, thing is, neither is stupid enough to eat enough to bother them, they taste nasty!  Don't worry about them.

[Big John]

I agree with reinbeau,this was on fox news sun the dr. that is on their said that it was a myth it is not poison but the sap can be an irritant for some people not to worry about plant.

[poka-bee]

I saw the same thing somewhere.  None of my animals every tried to eat one anyways & Amanda chewed on a leaf when small & spit it right out w/no redness, swelling or even slowing down of her busyness..just left the wad on the carpet in her trail of destruction. People always said "MY, what an ACTIVE child.."  She made me totally prepared for any daycare kid that rolled in & when a Mom wondered if I could keep up w/her kid I showed her a print out I made of AG's activities from 6-10am one day saying "bring it on!!"    J

[Brian D. Bray]

Just watched a program on the history channel, yesterday, on this subject.  Poinsettas will make you sick but they're not poison.  The other topic covered was Rhododendron honey..isn't usually enough mixed into the other to be fatal but can cause sickness and hallucinations.

[johnnybigfish]

Rats ate up debras from work and it didnt kill them!
After they ate the poinst, they came back and ate the ivy!!!
It was a big ivy too!

your friend,
john

oh yeh.....the rats then, over the weekend, ate our trash! There were banana peels on the floor! I just picked them up today...I was hoping theyd finish them off or drag then away!