AIBU to ask you to cut your grass?

[BadEyedManiac]

I know there's a movement around not cutting grass and not trimming hedges and so on which I have to say our local council has enthusiastically embraced to the point that road signs are partly obscured by various shrubbery.

However although this might be lovely for bees (although the absolute benefits are probably limited in the context of the age of industrial farming which no one is doing anything about) it is hell on earth for people with pollen allergies. And is particular hell on earth for people like me who have pollen allergies and a corneal condition.

I've just woken up due to corneal pain and have spent ten minutes pouring eye drops into my eyes and I know it's only going to get worse as summer goes on. The environmental benefits from people failing to tend their greenery in urban areas are negligible while the effects on the people around you can be absolutely brutal. Please, please cut your bloody grass. This is awful.

Grass produces pollen whether its long or short. I have awful hay-fever and my eyes are currently looking like piss holes in the snow, and are stinging/watering/itching like mad. I have artificial grass, but all the neighbours in my street keep nice neat short (real grass) lawns, yet I'm still suffering. Actually, I suffering more on their mowing days!

I hope you do manage to find some relief soon somehow... hayfever is a bitch 🤧

We don’t have to worry in the UK about spiders (although many of us hate them, they don’t present a danger), snakes or rats in grass (rats tend to frequent old buildings and drains here).

To the OP, yes, you are being unreasonable. I also suffer from hay fever. It may not be as bad as yours, but it aggravates my asthma and makes my eyes itchy and sore. There is plenty of pollen in plants and flowers in gardens and that will be there even if everyone’s grass is cut. If you struggle with pollen to the extent you suggest, then it would probably be better for you to live in a house or flat without gardens around. A older terraced property or a flat.

I haven't got any grass but my gardens are full of flowering bushes that the pollinators love.
I alai have pretty bad hayfever and loads of other allergies.

But if you think I'm going to cut all my bushes back before at least September you must be having a laugh because I'm telling you, you've got another thing coming!

Go live in an urban environment and stop moaning. I used to have hay-fever. Now have to take antihistamine every day for another allergy. No hayfever. Take antihistamine every day, problem solved. As for your eye issue, see a doctor and shut up.

Anyone who suffers with bad hayfever feels angry at times. I totally empathise with OP.

Antihistamines don’t really do anything if you have bad hayfever. My list of ‘hayfever management’ items is so long, even the dog has to be washed down every day! I pretty much don’t go out from April to July unless I absolutely have to. Kids are not allowed in my bedroom unless they’ve washed their hair. I spend a fortune on all sorts of remedies, only to still want to pull my eyeballs out at the end of the day. It is horrendous.

I only suffer with hayfever in the UK, I’ve never suffered anywhere else. I didn’t grow up here.

Since moving to the UK, I have often wondered why it is so bad here and why nothing is done about it, with so many people suffering. I don’t understand why it is so bad. Is it because everything dies in the winter and then everything plant based comes to life all at once? I just spent time in Europe, no hayfever - tonnes of beautiful flowers and bees, butterflies and grass, but no hayfever. What is it about the UK??

OP, I think you probably are BU to ask everyone to cut their grass, but I feel your pain and can’t fault you for trying. Hope after the operation you feel better.

I and a few people I know have a really bad pollen allergy to trees - London plane tree especially. It hasn't occurred to me to start petitioning the local council to chop them down to stop me from sneezing.

DH had bad hay fever which used to affect him badly. He's 61, so back in the day there was only Piriton which wasn't very effective. It really did impact on him quite badly. But over the years many much more effective anti allergy medications have become available. He was using some sort of nasal spray plus Opticrom eye drops for a few years. But in the last couple he seems to have grown out of hay fever and adores walking through meadows admiring the beautiful grasses intermixed with wild flowers.

Sorry you're in pain OP but the world needs plants and insects. I hope you can find some effective treatments.

You sound so angry. 😂
Fuck the environment! What about my allergies!?

Grow up

Bah ha ha ha are you serious? Your hayfever isn’t worse because of weeds🤣 So hayfever refers to all different types of pollen, not everyone is allergic to the same kind. The symptoms are exacerbated by pollution, humidity, heat, rain and wind. It’s highly unlikely your were allergic to the weds at the train station (choked at this bit).
People not cutting their grass or bushes will have minimal affect on your hayfever. Leaving grass and hedgerows long also benefits other kinds of insects and animals of which we need to protect. The decline of the big population will have a negative impact all of us.
You’re quite right industrial farming has a lot to answer for- perhaps you would be better posting about this rather than making things up and blaming people for your fantasy? Just a suggestion. Most people I know suffer with hayfever. You’re not special.

*should have read highly unlikely you’re allergic to the weeds at the station and obviously should have read bug population!

I'm sorry, I'm not with you on this one. It's not just bees. It's all insects. And the statistics around this - and the longer term impact on humans - is staggering and extremely worrying.

I'm sorry you're suffering and I do completely agree that there are much larger issues like farming that impact the survival of nature, but it's the same with environmental issues in general, if we don't all do our part then change won't happen. We can't keep living in ignorance and just worrying about how things impact us individually.

Sorry but you are being unreasonable. In the same way that my DH, who is very allergic to animals would be unreasonable to ask everyone to get rid of their pets and to not allow dogs in pubs/cafés etc. He just has to deal with it the best he can.

Still lurking to see if @LemonSwan has told us what to be scared of in the grass! I'm intrigued 🤣

It's better to keep the grass uncut for the summer. It retains the water better.

Not read the whole thread so not sure what was said, but something like this always makes me think of the second Jurassic Park film, The Lost World, with the velociraptors, where the guy shouts 'don't go into the long grass!!!!'....and they obviously get eaten.

I can imagine that could make someone a tad nervous about cutting their lawn if they lived at Site B. Gonna need a bigger lawn mower.....

Ours doesn't - not since the 2012 Olympic Torch debacle when they decided to litter-pick the route and decided that in order to do that they needed to send the mowers in first. They destroyed a staggeringly beautiful display of about twenty million ox-eye daisies all along several miles of bypass and their name was mud.

When my hayfever was bad, people actually cutting grass made it worse.

The thing that has made the biggest difference over the years is taking up yoga. I used to have steroid sprays, anti histamines day and night, eye drops, and would still be a mess at times. I also had contact allergy to many plants and grasses.

I just have the odd cetirizine now and it's fine.

@LimaCharlieHotelPapa came here for LemonSwan's reply .. left with an even better one 🤣

I'd not even heard of this idea of not cutting the grass in May, no-one told me and I cut mine twice, I could have left it!

? You do realise that even the people allergic to pollen,aren't all allergic to the same ones right...

Plus.. bees are life. They are essential. You can wear a mask. That's what I do. And sunglasses. Yabu

I have hayfever which triggers asthma attacks and a severe bee sting allergy but honestly you sound absolutely off your box shouting and going on like you are.

i manage my conditions I don’t expect everyone else to bow to my demands to help me, and I certainly wouldn’t banging on the way you are.

you are not owed anything!

Ooo it is terrifying - genuinely!!!.

There’s all manner of funguses, bacteria and nasty things which float round on plants and soil.

There’s lots of them and they all have boring long Latin names so I won’t bore you with that. But the summary is tiny prick of the finger at the wrong time in the wrong place and you have limbs turning black, flesh rotting away and all manner of hideous things. Very high death rate for these infections and you have to watch yourself decay while your on your way out.

Obviously this is super rare, but when you garden different sites, every day for decades being scratched constantly then it does up the chances of you being that rare occurrence.

Here’s an example of one of the long Latin named nasties to terrify you from ever touching anything outdoors again 😂…
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8167101/Father-two-34-nearly-died-catching-rare-flesh-eating-bug-gardening.html

And you did ask, lurk and remention so don’t blame me for the terrifying answer and your subsequent nightmares! 🤣

Oh gosh Lemonswan, I’ll be careful I don’t rot away when I hang the washing out this morning, my feet will turn black and disappear into stumps and I’ll fall ?

(and no, I won’t read a Daily fail link even if I have stumps for feet)

I was definitely expecting the response to be bug-related, but not that sort of bug! 😧