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Several years ago, developers cut down a giant tract of woods practically across the street from my house in order to build a brand new housing community. Cookie cutter homes with early 90’s Tim Burton level “perfect lawns” stretching over hundreds of acres.
I started taking my walks down that way, since at a minimum they had sidewalks along the entire stretch making my evening walks a bit safer than trying to navigate the roadsides without them.
A couple of springs after the monstrosity was built, there was a house where about 1/4 of the lawn was covered in the mounds of ground nesting bees. I specifically chose my walking path each day so that I could go by there to witness the spectacular display. It was so neat watching the bees, males hovering over the mound nests fighting off rivals and trying to entice females. The melodious buzz of hundreds of bees dancing around the entrances to their nests was the highlight of my stroll.
Then one day I walked by and the owner of that yard was outside talking to someone from a pest control company about how to get rid of the bees in their yard. I’m not one to intrude on people, but since I was stopped at the intersection due to traffic and I overheard the conversation, I did mention to them that these mounds would be gone in a matter of days regardless of whether they were sprayed or not, and that the bees are non-aggressive natives that wouldn’t/couldn’t sting you and posed no threat.
A week or so later there was a sign in the yard with some statement that basically said to avoid touching the grass, keep pets and children out, dangerous pesticides had been sprayed.
The optimist in me wants to believe that something I read is true, and it basically stated that traditional pesticides are not usually very effective against ground nesting bees because the adults are short lived anyway, and most of the commonly used pesticides bind to soil and therefore don’t usually penetrate deeply enough down into the soil to kill the larva/offspring.
I remember my old house, i replaced 75% of the lawn with a flower garden and meadow flowers, moss, etc. the HOA was PISSED. I swear HOAs exist only to be miserable killjoys
My dad did the same with his, only to find his neighbour had tried (sincerely) to be helpful and mowed it while dad was out of town. My dad does not speak highly of his neighbor’s intelligence.
Mowed…the moss?
I’m not sure what stage of rewilding his garden had reached at that time, don’t think there was a lot of moss, mainly flowers and whatnot.
This is why I refuse to touch that shit. It killed the birds and the bees! It’s toxic AF!
Incorrect. The earth is sick, infected with a particularly nasty strain of the Human virus. The fever may take a while to kill the infection, and may take a few species with it, but temperatures rise, and rise.
Is this your yard? No shame! Many people inherit landscapes like this when they move in and haven’t found the time to make a change. Check out the sidebar for resources on how to get started on a more pollinator-friendly landscape!
You don’t have to remove the whole lawn at once if it seems overwhelming. Even a small insect-friendly garden area or changes in how you manage the lawn can make a big difference.
This Xerces Society article also has some basic and easy steps: https://xerces.org/blog/bee-friendlier-with-your-lawncare
We literally didnt even need to do anything. We just mowed the lawn every couple of weeks and left some areas to grow as they please and now we have an assortment of the strangest plants ive ever seen. No idea what any of it is but theres an insane number of bees wasps and other bugs in the bushes in the summer now. The only downside is im scared to walk past a particular bush in fear that i mighr get stun so i might need to remove that one bush :D
Check out the sidebar for resources on how to get started on a more pollinator-friendly landscape!
That’s what I’m here for. Thanks!
Even a small insect-friendly garden area can make a big difference.
I appreciate the regular advice here, and that is what I’m starting with.
It’s not perfect, but I spread a lot of regionally appropriate clover all over my existing lawn. By getting a variety of colors it means I get pretty flowers, it doesn’t grow tall which keeps the neighbors from being too unhappy and I regularly have a decent number of polinators just doing their thing.
It hasn’t killed the grass, but it is doing a good job stunting it.I’m still occasionally required to mow by code, but when I do it doesn’t eliminate the flowers and just lops off the top few inches of grass and clover.
Same! Clover is great ground cover.
Its not, I found the picture somewhere else.
Haha I meant to direct more at the general audience, as in does your yard look like this?
I figured it out from context, but you could add "Readers, " to the beginning of the comment to make it clearer.
Ohh, right. also, the resources are really useful btw.
Lawns are giant funko pops for the modern suburbanite home owner.
The bees are dying because of neonicatinoids in RoundUp presticides.
Yes, neonicotonoids probably kill bees.
But if we want to be taken seriously, we need to be knowledgeable about the subject. Neonicotonoids are a class of insecticides. Roundup is a herbicide (glyphosate). They can both be bad, but they are bad in different ways.
And parasitic mites
And the lack of dead leaf cover over winter.
We’ve stopped mulching at the end of the year. We let the leaves fall and stay. In the spring we wait a long time until the grass is quite long.
Loose the bees and things will get bad, quickly.
We replaced our grass with clover as the bees like the flowers.
Chuck some creeping thyme into it also and some creeping camomile.
Both are factors
Nope, not my yard.
Its not even blue!
I have a yard for my dog. But also have a massive vegetable garden, insect houses, different flowers for attracting different helpers, worm garden, and soon bees will be getting a home for honey.
All this can be done in a backyard and it’s honestly way less hassle to set up than dealing with fruit and veg picking in the store.
Assess what’s on your plate most, what grows well in your region, which bugs help the most, and grab some seeds! Tastes so much better too, omg.
Current contents of my yard:
Misc cardboard garbage (the bin fell over due to wind recently)
An exhausted pipe (the mounts broke, and I’m getting rid of the car soon anyway, so it was easier to just tears it off)
Misc trash wood and furniture (indoor building projects)
An old crappy looking car (because for the next month I will still be driving an old crappy looking car)I may not be helping the bees, but neighborhood cats love the “terrain”
Also, I’ll be supporting a local dumpster rental as soon as the building project and shit weather is over, hopefully in a week or so.
You sound like me. Also an old trampoline. My grass has a lot of other stuff growing in it too, it all mows though. But I won’t be ready to rent a dumpster for a few months.
The trampoline in my yard is reasonably new. The kids are waiting for better weather so we can properly rig it.
*Solely
Fuck. I googled it and everything, but still misread it.
Now you got me looking at the word “solely” and wondering for the first time at how weird a word it is.
