As a Barry’s Cactus club cacti owner, dealing with a few little pricks here and there is just a part of life. In the wild, cacti have spines to protect them from animals who like to take a bite from them. However, at home, these spines can be a bit of a pain in the bum (sometimes literally) when they get in your skin, so we’ve made a handy guide to getting them out.

Neon Cactus Shaped tweezers — Pick up a set of Barry’s trusty tweezers

Here are Barry’s top 5 ways of dealing with cactus pricks:

1) Tweezers. These are probably your first go to option when dealing with a cactus prick. Get yourself a good pair of flat edged tweezers to pull out any pricks in your skin. If they’re tricky to see, hold your hand up to the light or use a magnifying glass.

2) Sticky tape. This one’s for when you were super careful and put your sleeves over your hands before touching the cactus but oh no! Your sweatshirt is now covered in pricks. No problem at all - get some sticky tape, duct tape works best and stick it over the prickly bits and pull off as though you were waxing a moustache.

3) A pair of tights! This one is for the hairlike, shorter, less rigid spines. Get an old pair of nylon tights, ball them up and rub them over your skin to remove the tiny cactus pricks.

4) Glue. Do you remember doing craft projects at school when you were little, and how much fun it was to peel the dried glue off your hands afterwards? It’s also a great, and very satisfying, way to get little cactus pricks out of skin. Just apply a thin layer of PVA glue to the beprickled area, leave it to dry and then slowly peel it off.

5) Plantain poultice. We don’t mean the delicious banana-like fruit, but rather a plant that grows in abundance in the wild and in gardens all over England. If you get a cactus needle stuck deep inside your skin that needs a bit of extra help coming to the surface, you can apply a poultice of plantain to the skin and then pull it out with tweezers once it’s risen up a bit higher.

6) Soak your prickles away. Hot water will open up your pours and allow the little pricks that are stuck super deep and broken off to be grabbed by your trusty tweezers!

This months Barry’s cactus club mystery plant is a succulent so you won’t need to worry about cactus spines this time! Find out more about June’s Jade Money Tree in the June blog.