We have been shelling in the Bahamas for the last 24 years and have never had a
problem with any of this.  Of course, we are in the water collecting all the
time!

Ellen Bulger wrote:

> Hello Shell folk,
>
> I'm leaving for Austin on Saturday, wiggling and wangling my schedule so that
> I can peek in on the COA convention on Thursday and Friday. I'm sure it will
> be educational.
>
> In a few weeks I leave on my Bahamian vacation. I've started to assemble
> collection gear and vials and boxes and bug dope and what all. If they open
> my bags at customs, I don't know what they'll think.
>
> Reading up for the trip I keep coming across references to poison bush and
> I'm confused.
>
> Is poison bush the same as poison wood and coral sumac? Are they both
> Metopium toxiferum? What about this manchineel or death apple, "Hippomane
> manicella". Or is it all the same stuff?
>
> I've read graphic descriptions of the effects of contact with these plants
> and they make poison ivy, Rhus radicans, sound benign in comparison. I've
> studied the photos carefully so as not to blunder into a bush. But the only
> pictures I've seen are of leaves, and the plants get to 30 feet tall. Do they
> have a central trunk or a bushy growth habit?
>
> I remember a Bahamian pointing out a vine called monkey tamarind that she
> said gave an itchy rash. That one I would recognize.
>
> Do any of you seasoned collectors have experience with these plants and
> advice to offer? I know this isn't quite as on topic as, say, "How do you
> pick up a cone witthout getting stung?" but these plants grow on the beach
> and near mangroves and other mollusk habitats. A serious rash could certainly
> put a damper on a collecting trip.
>
> Thanks,
> Ellen Bulger