Does it bother you when neighbors use pesticides on their lawn?

[Anonymous]

I live in a SFH in an upscale neighborhood where most neighbors use pesticides on their lawns. I love springtime but I hate the fact that I can smell the herbicides in the air and see those little flags all over people's lawns in April and May. We don't spray our lawn, and there are a few others in the neighborhood who also do not, but my two next door neighbors do. I hate that I can't be out with my kids in the yard during the week for fear of seeing a Chemlawn truck pull into the driveway of the house next door, or worse yet, walk out the door and they are already spraying and I can smell it saturating the air. Why do people disregard the health of their families and pets for a golf course perfect lawn? I don't get it and it really upsets me. Would be interested in hearing from those that do spray their lawns--aren't you concerned about what these chemicals are doing to your health, your kids' health and your pets' health, not to mention tracking it inside your house to linger in your carpets for years?

[Anonymous]

It bothers me. But there's not much you can do.

People are sheep.

[Anonymous]

No. It doesn't bother me, but only one or two of my neighbors do it.

[Anonymous]

The herbicides are worst. Next time you go to hardware read the bag on the weed & feed.

[Anonymous]

It bothers me. But there's not much you can do.

People are sheep.

+1

All you can do is lead by example and try to spread the word. But it's tricky, because they're your neighbors and you have to try not to be an asshole.

I've converted a couple in my neighborhood, I'm happy to say. (One to stop spraying, two to switch to electric lawnmowers.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It bothers me. But there's not much you can do.

People are sheep.

+1

All you can do is lead by example and try to spread the word. But it's tricky, because they're your neighbors and you have to try not to be an asshole.

I've converted a couple in my neighborhood, I'm happy to say. (One to stop spraying, two to switch to electric lawnmowers.)

How did you persuade your neighbor, PP? I'm interested to know what it was you said that persuaded them.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

And I find it particularly ironic that these are the same people who would never let non-organic food pass their children's lips, but let them roll around on grass soaked in chemicals.

It's also dangerous to dogs:

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/04/us/lawn-herbicide-called-cancer-risk-for-dogs.html

[Anonymous]

At least the little signs on my lawn keep my neighbors for letting their dog crap on my lawn and not pick it up. I leave the signs up for weeks sine I got tired of stepping in crap every time I gut the grass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least the little signs on my lawn keep my neighbors for letting their dog crap on my lawn and not pick it up. I leave the signs up for weeks sine I got tired of stepping in crap every time I gut the grass.

Why do you do it in the first place? Aren't you concerned about health risks?

[Anonymous]

It wouldn't bother me if they used the pesticides on their toxic bamboo.

[Anonymous]

Okay, totally ignorant here and admitting this up front. I actually live in a different area of the country (Texas), and we're first-time homeowners in terms of a house with a yard (in condos prior).

Our yard is a hot mess - tons of weeds. More than one could ever pull, and extremely ugly. The last owners didn't keep up with it. All of our neighbors have good yards, many seem to use a service. We're planning on having a service come in and spray 8x over the course of the season to try to eradicate the weeds and let the grass grow back.

Other than chemicals = bad, what's the big deal? Does it contaminate the water? They're pretty protective on water here and we haven't received anything saying not to use chemicals on your lawn.

So, follow up, since we don't get a hard freeze down here, you really do have to spray your house for bugs to prevent termites, ants, spiders, scorpions. Our house has the port where you can pump the chemicals through tubes in the walls too, but I've been told by many people in the area you MUST spray externally to prevent problems.

If you live in a bug-prone area, particularly destructive bugs like termites, how are you supposed to deal with them without pesticide?

All genuine questions - I'm open to doing things differently. I honestly had no idea this was an issue for people.

[Anonymous]

No. Don't care at all.

[Anonymous]

^^PP here... I do use an electric mower, if that gets me any points, haha! And when we were up north, we didn't need to use any pesticides because the bugs generally couldn't get a strong foothold.

Never had a lawn before, but my hope was we could treat it for 1 - 2 years to get it back to all-grass and then just spot-treat/pull weeds that pop up. I cut a sprinkler line using a weed puller, boo. I tried to do it sans chemicals...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a SFH in an upscale neighborhood where most neighbors use pesticides on their lawns. I love springtime but I hate the fact that I can smell the herbicides in the air and see those little flags all over people's lawns in April and May. We don't spray our lawn, and there are a few others in the neighborhood who also do not, but my two next door neighbors do. I hate that I can't be out with my kids in the yard during the week for fear of seeing a Chemlawn truck pull into the driveway of the house next door, or worse yet, walk out the door and they are already spraying and I can smell it saturating the air. Why do people disregard the health of their families and pets for a golf course perfect lawn? I don't get it and it really upsets me. Would be interested in hearing from those that do spray their lawns--aren't you concerned about what these chemicals are doing to your health, your kids' health and your pets' health, not to mention tracking it inside your house to linger in your carpets for years?

move to Berkley or Takoma Park....oh wait - you want to live in an "upscale neighborhood". listen to yourself you miserable ass.

[Anonymous]

Yes! It bothers me a lot.