Wisteria Vine Toxic?

buglit · Aug 18, 2009

I have wisteria vines all over the place. They are worse than kudzu around my place because you can eat them or anything. Anyway, does anybody know if they are toxic to chicken (or anyone else). Should I be vigilient in cutting them ( a nitemare) or let the chicken have at them?

digitS' · Aug 18, 2009

UCDavis lists wisteria as: "Minor Toxicity: Ingestion of these plants may cause minor illnesses such as vomiting or diarrhea. If ingested, call the Poison Control Center or your doctor."

They are talking about humans but also say, "If a plant is known to be hazardous to humans, it will probably be toxic for animals as well."

The ASPCA also has bad things to say about wisteria with regards to cats, dogs and horses.

The Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System talks a little about human poisoning from Japanese wisteria but, whereas it is a great source of information for farmers on livestock poisoning - it says nothing about livestock having problems. Nor, does it say anything about the many other species of wisteria.

Steve

edited to add: Poisonous Plants of North Carolina, North Carolina State University doesn't list wisteria.

ivan3 · Aug 18, 2009

We keep ours in check, but the chooks and turks ignore them. If they're not planted on the run fencing they shouldn't be a problem. Ingestion would result in GI irritation and diarrhea so the main threat would be dehydration.

We have several, but all are severely controlled:

The chooks and turks also ignore the local, poisonous, volunteers (the cicadas get munched, but the berries are ignored):

Since you have so much of the stuff I thought I'd add this link on the many uses it can be put to:

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Wisteria+sinensis

buglit · Aug 19, 2009

Thank you for your research. I will just have to be more vigiliant. Michelle

vwhite · Mar 31, 2012

Glad I read this. I have a huge Wisteria vine that grows up onto a tree play house my husband built. It's really beautiful. Anyway, my chickens have started eating the flowers! They jump up to get them, they look funny. anyway I guess I will have to trim them up. Not looking forward to it though, they are so gorgeous.

mtoepfer · Sep 16, 2013

We have 40 acres five of these acres are wisteria from an old home site. The goats are awesome at eating it and are healthy and happy. The chickens munch it too and are fine. If I mow a spot of it a few times it controls it too. Its awful stuff. We are trying to keep it cut at the base of the trees to keep them alive.

LoneOak · Sep 17, 2013

Quote:
I have that same problem but not on such a large scale. All along the woods on the lower edge of my property is the wisteria that was left years ago. It is everywhere down there and real hard to control. The vines get trimmed but they are already rooted in the ground and just keep on coming back, I have cut most of it out of the trees but it just moves down to the next one. My chickens strip the vines and leave them sprouting out of the ground but they have already got most of them in their area.

It will be a battle for years to come.

chickengeorgeto · Sep 17, 2013

Don't put to much faith in any similarities between human food and chicken foods because there are few things in nature that act the same on both humans and chickens. One example is strychnine which is a deadly poison in the human body but it is a pleasing tonic to a chicken

LoneOak · Sep 17, 2013

chickengeorgeto said:
Don't put to much faith in any similarities between human food and chicken foods because there are few things in nature that act the same on both humans and chickens. One example is strychnine which is a deadly poison in the human body but it is a pleasing tonic to a chicken

That stuff in hot peppers, I don't know how to spell it, but it doesn't affect chickens while it sets me on fire!

Ninamm · Sep 18, 2013

Hello We have wisteria in the back yard and the girls eat the dried leaves with out any issues at all. If they pick something up and don't like the taste of it they won't eat it and leave it alone. Mine have picked up the green leaves off the wisteria tasted and then like"spit" it out. Funny girls lol...

Wisteria Vine Toxic?

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