So our lawn is 90% clover. The bees LOVE it. The kids keep getting stung. Advice?

[justanotherneighinparadise]

I’m caught between feeling like I’m doing something wonderful for nature due to being a complete slattern and not caring for the grass properly. And understanding the garden has become a no go area for my four year old who has been stung twice in as many days and now won’t go out there at all as he’s scared.

How should I handle this? I’m sure in the past we shook something on the grass that was a mixture of weed killer and grass seed. We are due to go on holiday soon so potentially I could do something and keep the kids off the grass. Alternatively wait until autumn.

It’s a north facing garden. Gets water logged for most of the year which is why I assume it’s mainly weed. My DP mows the grass every two weeks but the lawn mower won’t go low enough to actually get a lot of the clover flowers. I would mow more regularly however I can’t start the bloody thing as it’s petrol!! I would potentially buy a separate mower I could use if it’s the only solution.

Thank you

I'm no lawn expert but I doubt doing something in the autumn would be a good idea - reseeding needs to be done early enough in the year for germination and some growth.

Mowing short more often to cut off the flowers sounds sensible as presumably it would then not be a bee magnet.

You want a lawn feed and weed type thing, there's a lot to choose from. Or you could get a lawn care person in to advise and treat. They can probably access treatments you can't do yourself

Can you try and mow it shorter (borrow someone else’s mower?!) but leave a patch somewhere near a fence/out of the way so that the bees still get the clover? Just thinking about the environmental point of view. Re: getting rid of it, my parents were talking about an environmentally friendly vinegar solution? I haven’t looked it up but I’m sure you could google it and find out

That's very strange, OP. Our garden is covered in bees and neither I nor the kids have ever been stung.
Are you sure your ds wasn't stung by a wasp?
In my experience, a bee won't sting without being provoked, but a wasp will. Although I'm happy to be corrected on that. Your poor little boy
Re the clover, we've had the same issue this year (and buttercups). I'm not sure what the solution is.

If it was mine, I think I'd keep it mowed while there are small DC around, and plan on returning it to the bees in a few years time.
(DH would have weed&feeded it into submission long ago though)

There’s are honestly loads and loads of bees covering the lawn and he trod on one two days on the trot. My seven year old also trod on one a few weeks back but will still go out there and just dodge them. I am concerned that my four year old is so scared and wonder if I do nothing if it could tip into a phobia.

That's very strange, OP. Our garden is covered in bees and neither I nor the kids have ever been stung.

Are you sure yours are honey bees (IME the likeliest bee to sting), Always?
My in-laws had 'lawn' which in the last couple of decades of their lives was just mowed and not treated, so and ended up without much grass - it was alive with bees but they were some sort of 'solitary' been which lived in holes in it. They never stung anyone.

Ouch, I remember stepping on a bee when I was about 4 and the pain! I'd cut it as short as you can for now then do a weed and seed treatment next Spring.

Better to deprive the bees of a few square yards of clover for a few years than risk a child becoming phobic about gardens/bees/nature!
This is, after all, the Mumsnet Gardening board, where such considerations are taken seriously.

Our bees are small, round with red/orange bottoms.

@ErrolTheDragon Definitely honey bees, and lots of bumble bees too

Are your children barefoot? Can you encourage them to wear sandals until the clover has stopped flowering?

They have those slip on clog things by the back foot but won’t wait the two seconds it takes to slip them on 🙄. My four year old also now says that the bees will make a hole in his shoe and sting him as a reason why wearing shoes wont solve the issue of him not going out there.

I would allow the grass to grow a bit longer and not keep it short, you will otherwise end up with just moss and clover.

You will never have a nice lawn on a waterlogged shady site.

Sorry out the draining and the shade if possible ( prune trees or shrubs)

Or have a different type of ground cover.

Or hide the crocs and buy your children wellies.

I would ride it out I think, else you're going to play into the fear. We have had nests round the garden and currently left parts of the front to go to seed including a massive clover path which is like yours, full of bees.

Could you create a path through it for them to walk through? The clover will die out.

I wouldn't destroy the flowers. The planet needs bees, they're just tiny furry animals with wings but they are integral to the food chain.

One child's fear that grows eventually becomes an adult who uses pesticides against creatures we need to keep.

I would just mow the lawn more frequently to remove flowers. That way, you still get other benefits of a diverse lawn, but you're not attracting bees.

Our bees are small, round with red/orange bottoms. Have a look at Early Bumblebee, Bombus pratorum. Bumblebees are pacific things but even they will sting if you directly threaten them, like stepping on them.

It's good to be absolutely sure what the sting is from. Vinegar relieves wasp stings but exacerbates bee stings, for which you need bicarb of soda.

The house creates the shade so it will always be a crappy garden lol. It will get mowed tomorrow so will look a bit better for a day or so. It’s a conundrum. We can’t afford a lawn company. I’ll have s look st different things we can put on the lawn.

Clover often has long stems which spread along the ground. Try raking the grass before mowing to make the plants stand up and you may find that you can cut it better.

As far as getting your 4year old out there, lay down a big blanket as his play area (get him to put wellies on to reach it - paint the wellies with some of the “special ant-bee paint“ that you put on your skirting-boards first if you need to). Once he's confident with being outside again, he may then venture further across the garden.

You can have a lovely garden in the shade ( well semi shade ). You just can’t have a lovely lawn in a shady bog.

Lots of other plants would like it. There are lots of suitable hard surfaces too. Grass is quite labour intensive.

I’d cut it often now and may be think about doing something different in The medium term.

If you can't lower the blades on your existing mower, get a new mower, cut it shorter and cut it every week.

I wouldn't faff around with vinegar or bicarbonate - keep a can of Wasp-Eze near the back door (I've got a tub with 'kitchen first aid' which includes that, antihistamine cream for mozzie bites, savlon wash and plasters for scrapes and Burn-ease).

I wouldn't faff around with vinegar or bicarbonate - keep a can of Wasp-Eze near the back door Ah, well, to me, making sure I've always got a can of Wasp-Eze, which is needed once every two years if that, is a lot more faff than just picking up vinegar or bicarb which I've always got because I use both quite often in cooking.

Our first aid kit is in a cupboard in the loo, perhaps because that's where my parents always kept theirs.

Have to say, while I do deliberately plant lots of bee friendly plants for environment sake, honeybees really frighten me.

People bang on about wasps, I have never been stung by a wasp, only honeybees.

I’d rip all the clover lawn out and replace with a waterlog and foot traffic tolerant plant, maybe a mint?
Or maybe even paving.