# Concerned About Poisonous Plants



## Moon Creek (Dec 24, 2018)

Getting ready to build my first swarm traps and a thought popped into my head. 

There are poisonous wildflowers and plants that grow in our region. Some of which grow on and near our property. How will the nectar and pollen from these plants effect the honey? Will the honey become too poisonous to consume? (I really want to harvest raw honey!) 

I have a field guide that identifies the certain poisonous species of flowers and plants in Texas.

Some are of the nightshade family, some of the Buttercup family, and some of others (but I've only seen a handful of those on the property).

I can't seem to find a lot of information online about the effects of these certain wildflowers and plants' nectar and pollen.

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot of these types of plants compared to the other non-poisonous types on the property, but I am still concerned because I have anxiety!


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## Kuro (Jun 18, 2015)

I hope somebody from Texas will answer your questions, but here in the Pacific Northwest, the only toxic honey I have ever heard of comes from members of the heath family, such as rhododendron, azalea, andromeda, mountain laurel, and etc (‘mad honey’, contaminated with grayanotoxin, https://honeybeesuite.com/a-rare-case-of-honey-intoxication-in-seattle/). Although these plants are very common in my neighborhood, I do not really worry about them, because when they are in full bloom many other plants that bees prefer are always in bloom. 

We do not have deadly nightshade (belladonna, _Atropa belladonna_) but I have hardly ever seen honey bees on other members of the nightshade family (tomato, eggplant, pepper, and a few common weeds). We have lots of creeping buttercups (_Ranunculus repens_) around but again they do not seem to attract honey bees at all.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Moon Creek said:


> but I am still concerned because I have anxiety!


In general, bees themselves will get poisoned and drop out before you do.
Where I came from there are certain flowers with toxic pollen.
Bees, once they handle it, just drop before storing much of anything into the food stores.

In general, not a concern for you.


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

As the previous posters stated, there is nothing to worry about. I live a few miles south of Kuro and there are rhododendron, azalea, buttercups and mountain laurel everywhere. I also find a few deadly nightshade on the property every year. The bees are looking for acres of each plant and a few here and there does not appeal to them very much.


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