I might still have little cholla cactus barbs in various places in my body even now almost 50 years later from above Yucca Valley there on the high desert where my father and I built a retirement home for my father and mother between 1968 and 1980. Of Course you do have to realize that I got married and had a son in 1974 so I was likely living lot in places like San Diego and Encinitas and Rancho Bernardo then and we went out only on weekends sometimes to work on the retirement home my parents were building. The family owned the 2 1/2 acres until my father passed away in 1985 in August and then my mother moved first to Palm Springs where she liked it better then and then many other places without my father there to stabilize her.
But cholla cactuses are one of the worst cactuses to get into simply because the barbs are a lot like miniature porcupine quills. They are brittle but have barbs on them so they only go deeper into your flesh and when you try to pull them out they often just break off inside your leg or foot and stay there for years (because how are you going to get them out when they go that deep?)
Also, even if the pieces of cactus have fallen off the plant they are still deadly, especially if you are wearing sandals or are going barefoot and step on the chollas after they have fallen off the plant to the ground. So, even dead Cholla can also get you (not just the live ones).
So, I'm saying stay away from Cholla Cactuses because the barbs (spines) are awful to deal with long term:
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