Don’t mow your lawn, save the B’s

Golf coarse... sweet realestate. Anywhere you get rats you get snakes... a reply to: Stupidsecrets

Buy one dwarf crabapple tree. After winter passes, any fruit on the tree in the spring has the seeds within changed by the freezing so they will be able to germinate. Then you can start hundreds of those seeds to start more trees. the flowering on crabapple trees is long duration and extreme count. (great to cross-pollinate most other types of apple trees that have the same color flowers - bees choose a color on their first flower and only do that color for that trip, wierd)

Arvo: Australian for afternoon.

I had no idea. You learned me somethin.

As far as grass goes, I hate cutting it.
But.... if I lived in Australia where probably even butterflies are deadly, I would have that lawn cut down short all the time so I could spot the snakes, spiders and what not.

a reply to: kingparrot

...So if you don’t feel up to mowing, and the beer fridge is over stocked, crack a tinny, and instead of mowing sit back and relax safe in the knowledge that your helping retain the circle of life, which is a perfect excuse if the missus is on your back about it 👍

I've just done both of those things, and it's not the Missus that's doing me' back in! 🤣



On-point though, I agree, I never mow my lawns in the spring for that very reason.

At this time of year, in my parts, the bees have all but vanished by now. Sleepy time for sleepy heads, I guess,

🙂 🍻

originally posted by: dragonlover12
a reply to: AccessDenied

Avoid the ticks at all costs ! My husband got a tick bite (didn`t even know he had been bitten) and was hospitalized with a severe intestinal infection from a "tick borne illness" .

After massive doses of multiple antibiotics, and an infusion of platelets, he is over the infection --- but now has ITP (autoimmune disease that destroys the platelets) and we start with a hematologist in a couple of weeks , hoping to get it into remission.

They are a much more serious problem than I ever knew. Now our lives are changed forever .

Lyme disease is a real issue here. We have a few different species of ticks. Dog ticks are more prevalent and do not carry Lyme but black legged ticks do. Since my dog uses my yard every day I have to use as many preventative measures as I can to keep her safe.
If it weren't for that, I'd gladly let the yard go wild as I have no neighbors to complain.

a reply to: kingparrot

It does lol...
It was big, about 2 inches long. Almost as big as my thumb. A Bumblewasp

a reply to: AccessDenied

I don't know what your situation is (suburbs or a bit more rural)... But even in many suburb areas, you can have chickens.

Just a few will do a great job at controlling tick population in the area (not sure how doggo will get along with them).

My friends who have a cabin on a mountain nearby in the woods have chickens, and I've never gotten a tick on their property (knock on wood).

You also get fresh organic eggs.

My pet wombat takes care of those nasty buggas. He doesn’t eat grass though. He eats roots and leaves. a reply to: butcherguy

Cheers if im being honest I do like the smell of two stroke in the morning but the old mower is getting a bit stubborn these days. Even with a clean plug it takes ten minutes and some serious cursing to kick her over. a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

a reply to: kingparrot

If I dont mow and grass gets to tall the city will fine me. Then if I still dont mow they will send people.over to do it then they will send a way over priced bill in the mail. Dont pay that and you go to jail.

Imagine having to tell the bloke in the cell next door that you got locked up for not mowing your lawn. All jailhouse credibility lost... though if I remember correctly that’s what they got Andy Dufresne on from Shawshank Redemption.
Seriously though, that 30% population increase that I mentioned in the original post was based on changing from mowing once every fortnight to once every three weeks, so it probably wouldn’t make to much difference to the passer by. My wife however seems to know when it’s due for mowing before the grass does... a reply to: cognizant420

We are really low on Tree frogs this year, but have a real lot of toads in the yard. I hate to kill those frogs and toads, they control the bugs. So, I do not mow the yard very often unless I have a spotter to pick up the frogs ahead of the riding mower. I feel like a terrorist when I see frogs flying out of the mower, some with a missing leg, others are dead. Stepping on a rotted frog carcass is not fun, I would rather step on a live frog.

Save the world, do not mow your lawn, my lawn gets full of pretty flowers and bumblebees frequent it when they are around. I did have a major problem with lack of bees this year to polinate the garden and the berry plants. Bad year for everything.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: AccessDenied

I don't know what your situation is (suburbs or a bit more rural)... But even in many suburb areas, you can have chickens.

Just a few will do a great job at controlling tick population in the area (not sure how doggo will get along with them).

My friends who have a cabin on a mountain nearby in the woods have chickens, and I've never gotten a tick on their property (knock on wood).

You also get fresh organic eggs.

Closest neighbors have chickens. Not my thing. Rooster has no sense of time. Definitely dog would be an issue as she is a hunting / retriever breed.

a reply to: Bigburgh
I fed around 40 pounds of sugar this summer. Hummers out the wazoo.
I have that same wasp in my area. I call them Hornets.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

To train the dog, just get a mean turken. A turken is a cross between chicken and turkey...and in my experience anyway, they're born psychotic. We had a dog that loved chickens, didn't hurt 'em, or try to eat 'em, just liked 'em. He was weird.

But anyway, the turken decided enough was way past enough, and attacked the dog. Dog avoided chickens from the day forward. The feathered psycho tried with me, one morning when I was hunting the eggs, and I smacked him over the head with an empty feed bucket...I was boss of the yard after that.

Turkens are good layers, and they taste good, too. Big. Mean. Tasty.

a reply to: seagull

Turken sounds like it could put up a good fight with Canadian Geese for biggest winged assholes.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

At times, yes. But geese are still in a class of their own.

I loved having chickens around. The eggs are better, the meat is, too. ...and the bug population takes a drastic turn downward. The bad ones, or merely annoying, seem to be their favorite flavor.

a reply to: kingparrot


That's really something: a 30 percent increase? I don't think I can do it, living in the city, but I have planted every pollinator plant I can think of here. We have some honeybees, MANY bumblebees, moths, wasps, and even Monarch's. Just planted a milkweed for them this year.

I'd be worried about mice with an overgrown lawn. Our small, outside, four-cat colony already kills several per day, many days. We noticed that they like to stalk an overgrown area between one house and the street. I'm thinking mice like brush?

a reply to: kingparrot

The trouble is that everything is out of whack, due to the devastating effect we humans are having on ecosystems.

Don't want ticks? Well then the balance needs to return to the ecosystems, and the ticks will be less of a problem. It may seem counter intuitive to let the grass grow long, but the less there is, the more ticks there will be... up until the whole ecosystem collapses! Then what!?

So yes, I agree, don't mow the lawn, as that will encourage all wildlife (not just the bees), and we might just see things starting to normalize if enough people do it.

When we moved to the property we own now, it must have had 1/2 an acre of lawn. Today there is probably a bit over half that, and I'm thinking about reducing that further. Less lawn also means less co2 emitted due to mowing, which is another bonus on top of the time saving and other benefits.

We don't have ticks here (at least I have yet to find one), but the deer flies (they bite) can be a problem. I'm not too bothered by them, but my wife reacts badly to the bites and won't even go outside at times or to certain areas. The only effective way to control them is to encourage the predators such as dragon flies and birds.

We also leave some areas to get completely over grown by bushes/trees, and I'm sure it has had a positive effect on the wildlife as we see species here that are in serious decline in other areas not far away. In spring/summer the air is filled with clouds of insects much of the time, and it is a beautiful sight. It can be a little annoying at times, but that is a small price to pay to be able to watch herons stalking our property for amphibians, raptors swooping down for unseen rodents (presumably) only feet away, and all the other little dramas we see playing out here all the time.

It is amazing what could be achieved if enough people just do nothing, and let things recover a bit IMHO.