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.

So am I, I hate the sodding things but I accept they are a necessary evil!

My hayfever is mostly specific tree pollen and is severe enough I need an asthma inhaler for the season and specially prescribed medications. I don't go around asking people to cut down their trees! YABU I have a lovely wildflower meadow front garden which only gets cut 2 times a year and is much admired. I am not going to change it!

Yes I heard this - the reason more people are suffering more often and for longer every year is related to CO2 levels increasing in the atmosphere.

Everyone who suffers from hayfever should be lobbying the govt to spend more on CO2 reducing measures.

I'm waiting for my hayfever to kick in this year. Ds is shocking with it, but he always has been. However, I've start taking tablets in Feb, for tree season, so I'm hoping that will help. Ds is more of the 'oh shit, hayfever attack!' Mindset.

The irony, when it's human-precipitated climate change that is WORSENING hay fever.

oh!
so cutting the lawn increases co2 which would make some peoples hay fever worse

well that’s awkward op. What do we do now?

from what I understand about tree pollen it’s because we use such a tiny percentage of species of trees available. If we had mixed it up a bit, it would be a lot better for people

I get hayfever, mine is at its worse earlier in the year - mostly tree pollen. Should we cut down all the trees too?!
Sorry but move to a built up city with few gardens/ parks if it's so bad 🤷‍♀️

dc cycles with a medical face mask & sun glasses.
they are really effective against stopping too much pollen getting in.

Stop ordering people around. Your entire tone is so fucking rude.

I'd have some sympathy for this as i get really bad hayfever. But i have had crappy hayfever for at least 30 years and the no mow may idea for bees has only really got going in very recent times.
I cant say its had an impact on the hayfever i have. Some years are worse than others but it seems more about pollution, weather and some internal metabolism mystery thing.

I dont live in a city to be fair but i am not in the countryside either.

That's what I thought too.

I have pretty bad hayfever for tree pollen and grass pollen, but I'm lazy when it comes to cutting the grass. Having had one of the worst hayfever years when I lived in a city centre with no long grass in the vicinity (and I literally do mean none), I'm pretty sure your theory is bollocks. Also - how do they do pollen forecasts in your theory of pollen profusion? Survey of how many people are mowing their lawn?

We cut ours every 2-3 weeks which seems fine. We need to keep it reasonably short though as we live next to fields which have long grass so risk ticks and grass snakes if we left it, and we have young DC so we don't want them getting Lyme disease.

Oh, the irony- without a healthy insect population there would be NO humans!

@BadEyedManiac your attitude is horrible. If we all got plastic grass for you no doubt you'd be crying about the trees?

This thread is very odd.

The advice re. allergies is to NOT cut the grass!

Avoid being the person who cuts the grass in the pollinating months of May through July. The lawn mower kicks up the pollen and sends it into your eyes and nose. If it’s only grass allergy you’re contending with, you may be fine to mow the lawn in other months.

Just one of many articles saying the same thing:
www.allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/outdoor-allergy-grass-allergy-attack/

I mean who cares about the planet anyway

Tree pollen is the issue in our area. People move into here and discover that they have hayfever. It's the pine trees, I believe, because they shed fine pollen into the air. You end up with the edges of puddles with a yellow ring, and all the cars are covered too.
What people swear by round here is local honey. Apparently if you have a little local honey every day you stop reacting to the local pollen. Don't know personally if it works, but lots of people tell me it does.

People won’t be able to afford the petrol or electric to mow their lawns
soon anyway!

This is part of the problem - humans thinking they’re more important than anything else and they should come first. I hurt my back and can’t weed my garden beds this past few months. I’ve noticed a massive uptick in the number of bees and I live in an urban area too @BadEyedManiac

Also hyloforte drops are crap. Thealoz Duo are way better , also would recommend blepechan wipes and a heated eye bag not mask so one with weighted bits in it.

I'm not sure pollen levels are affected much by unmown grass- grass has to be pretty long to reach the flowering stage (about 1-2ft tall) and even those that don't cut it regularly usually cut it before this stage. I suffer from grass pollen allergy and this never really starts before the end of May- which tells me the grass doesn't reach full flowering stage until at least then- June and July are the worst months and then it ends.

For those with grass pollen allergies it's highly likely that the main source comes from farming- wheat, barley, etc. are all grasses, and I don't know about anyone else but I find one of the worst culprits is oil seed rape (the fields of yellow flowers which are a really common crop).

DH is dangerously allergic to cats. Would love for our neighbours —everyone— to get rid of them but guess what……..

I agree about cutting grass near junctions.

At the T-junction where I join the nearest main road, it's damn impossible to see if it's safe to pull out. They only need to cut the first 20' or so, so drivers can see what's coming up the hill.

Apart from that, YABVU, OP. I'm allergic to tree pollen. Should everyone cut the blossom off their trees as soon as it starts to bud?

I think it's fantastic that more people are leaving areas of grass long. The amount of orchids which have popped up around here has encouraged people to leave it uncut for even longer. I hope even more areas are left uncut next year.

Pure completely wrong. It’s not just bees, but all insects. You think they don’t exist in urban environments? They do, but they’re struggling. Yes, not shutting grass as much helps greatly. You get greater biodiversity, more insects, more spiders, more birds etc. It’s because people have been interfering with nature, that allergies are more common now. So it’s a good thing for everybody. And how do you know your allergies are worse because of this? It can be entirely coincidental.

So where do you stand on trees, should all trees be cut down too? You know it’s not just grass pollen that causes hayfever, people can have allergies to tree pollen and weed pollen (e.g nettles and oil seed rape). Tree pollen actually starts for some people in February/March so they have to deal with hayfever even earlier. Do you support the cutting down of all trees for them or do you only give a shit about yourself?

The reason that May/June is so bad for hayfever is because there is tonnes of grass pollen but there are also a few trees still producing pollen and the weed pollens are starting to come out too. I have tree, grass and weed allergies with a particular sensitivity to oil seed rape, I live in an area that extensively grows rape and even if not you can’t avoid it if you want to drive anywhere. I still think you’re being unreasonable.