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.

Can't you take an antihistamines!

Yes. I have one. It’s shit. But guess what?

I dunno, what? You don't care about your own personal health and comfort? You like pain? You're mentally ill and enjoy grass? How the fuck would I know?

Op what eye drops are you using before you go to sleep? If you’re waking up with eye pain, it’s likely that your lids are rubbing on the cornea as there are insufficient tears.

have you had a recurrent erosion and are waiting for PTK?

There are also numerous antihistamine eye drops you can try as well.

I do feel for you - I had horrendous hay fever for about 15 years and it’s miserable. I actually found beaconase (plus topical antihistamine) was the best combination for eyes. Mine hasn’t been as bad the last couple of years though.

Long lawns are decent carbon sinks and great at removing air pollution AND regular lawn mowing is terrible for dumping carbon and other compounds into the atmosphere. So YABU, sorry

@underneaththeash I'm on hylonight cream, hyloforte drops, olapatdine drops, heated eye mask and periodically go to the eye clinic for antibiotic drops when I get an infection. Yes it's recurrent corneal erosion and I'm due to have rebridement for it. What's PTK?

YABU. The world doesn’t revolve around you and your allergies

@Cookiecrumblepie one in four people have allergies though. It's not just me.

Although I don't just have allergies. My corneas are eroding which yes is as painful as it sounds, plus I have allergies. Cut your grass.

PTK is a form of laser debridement.
that night cream is usually quite good, it’s annoying that it’s wearing off so quickly.
get your partner (if you have one) just to check you’re not sleeping with one eye partially open? It’s quite common in people who have recurrent erosions.

Get the injection. life changing. Want to get it this year but the place I had it done before covid is no longer around.

Install AC with a sturdy filter and keep your windows closed.

Where's your analysis that show the links between cutting grass and lower levels of pollen ? Otherwise it's speculative guessing ?

Is there really that significant a number of people not cutting their grass? Enough to make such a difference to your hayfever? How do you know it's not something else?

Bees don't just live in the countryside, they do like the occasional city break too

We need pollinators to stay alive as a species so yabvvu.

I feel for you and I'm sorry you're in pain but is everyone cutting their grass weekly really the thing that would help most?

If you're taking antihistamines, closing your windows, wearing a face mask and some form of eye protection when you go out etc, then you're not being unreasonable to raise it as an issue and hope thousands of strangers will spend hours cutting their grass at huge inconvenience to themselves... but I feel like unless you are doing all of the above to inconvenience - but help - yourself, then YABU.

I'm the same however my hay-fever isn't bad at the moment but the wild grass along the verges are ugly and it looks hideous, we also have it in random spots and it looks awful.

Do tell I am very interested. Do you mean the flesh eating soil microbes? I always wear gardening gloves ever since I heard about those!

Mowing the grass is just as likely to stir up the tree pollen that’s fallen on it, and set off allergies that way.

Sorry you’re in pain but your individual corneal needs don’t trump other people’s gardens, or the greater good.

It sounds miserable OP. Ironically, I have heard that eating locally produced honey can help with allergies…
My nephew who used to suffer badly from pollen allergies underwent a de-sensitisation programme which made a huge difference. This was not in the U.K. so I don’t know what the equivalent would be here - maybe the „injection“ PP have mentioned?
I hope you find something that helps you permanently.

I'm not in the UK, but everyone around here cuts their grass regularly. We do care about bees, we have flowers. Even my neighbour, who has bee hives, cuts his grass.

When grass is being cut that inevitably makes my sons hayfever much worse.

i am all for councils just cutting the grass on roadsides enough to keep visibility clear at junctions.

You are very angry aren't you, @BadEyedManiac ? Nor particularly a bee fan. But you cannot e pect the whole country to bow to your command because you have a severe grass allergy. You witter on about 25% of population having allergies, but you are clumping all allergens together in an attempy to shore-up your arguement. I am allergic to lillies, but have no prob with grass. However, if I came herecasking every hotel/restaurant/funrral home/ supermarket/florist to stop selling them, I would be laughed out of town.

It's shit that you have an eye problem, and your allergy doesn't help, but you cannot expect the rest of the country to kowtow to your wishes.

*apols for my spelling/ lack of spaces betwen words, trying to type on small phone!

I have hay fever and have been up most of the night (eyes/nose/throat). The farmer is yet to cut the field behind our house (he grows it for organic silage). But it wouldn’t occur to me to ask him to “get on with it”. I like bees.