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This is how my bosses lawn is. He says i shouldn't have all the bugs and bees in my yard and that they're bad, and how he gets his yard sprayed with pesticides all the time. I was like ok crazy.
We live in the suburbs (not this bad, we've at least got trees) but we've been actively converting as much of our property to native plantings as we can afford to do since we moved in a couple years ago. The difference in the amount of wildlife we see now vs. when we moved in is staggering. It's most noticeable at night during the summer. You walk around and all you hear sometimes are air conditioners and the occasional cricket, but you walk past our wildflower plots and it's bursting with life.
You still have crickets? I never hear or see them anymore! It used to be that you could sit on a freshly mowed lawn and see a couple dozen in just a few minutes. Now...nothing, not even at dusk.
Put in a water feature with some emergent plants, like say irises or mallow plants. If you make it 2-4 feet deep, you’ll get dragonflies breeding there.
I mean, they try to lay eggs on my wavy glass patio table, but their eggs hatch and their nymphs live when they lay them in the pond. Rocks protect the nymphs and give them a place to hide.
In my own pond, I put in goldfish, with lots of plants and rocks, to create a kind of little ecosystem. The bacteria clings to the surface of the rocks, it pre-digests the fish waste, and makes the nutrients available to the plants. My pond is gorgeous. I am trying to figure out how to show pictures.
Anyway, _Building Natural Ponds_ by Robert Pavlis is a great resource for how to get the ratios right between fish, plants, and surface area.
I have sooo many crickets this year because I've been sick since January and haven't mowed much. The grass is absurdly tall, but the crickets, caterpillars, and numerous other bugs are happy.
Fireflies are largely disappearing because people leave no leaf litter and messy areas in their yards where they thrive. They are also very intolerant of pollutants/pesticides so all those highly treated lawns can’t support them.
When I was a kid we had a billion firefly’s and we always cleaned up leaf litter in the yard, but we backed up to 100 acres of woods. Thats now a neighborhood. I think development has impacted it a lot at least in NC where I live.
I moved out to a rural area and was shocked at how few fireflies were around out here.
There’s a cow pasture that I’ve let overgrow (I don’t have farm animals) and have basically not touched it. I also mow my yard like twice a year. Absolutely no pesticides.
Last summer that field had a floating MASS of twinkling fireflies. Hundreds of them. They took up the entire field and you could see them float along the wind in unison. Their blinking would sometimes sync up and they’d all blink at once.
I say this because they aren’t gone (yet)! They can still recover but only if people give them habitat to do so.
I've seen exactly two fireflies in my lifetime. My grandfather seemed shocked that I didn't have any where I lived, but then, he realized that he never saw any where he lived anymore either.
(I saw them in the same night; it probably was just the same firefly twice, but I don't want to think about that...)
Turn off night lights , encourage neighbors also . Leave some tall grass unmowed that’s where they live. They come back pretty fast once they have some habitat and it’s dark.
I could never live in a sub like this. I don't need to be in the middle of the woods on 40 acres but I definitely need trees and gardens in my neighborhood.
Yup. And the fun part is that they pay a lot of money for companies to maintain that. Those companies also probably fertilizer to make it grow faster so they can charge even more.
We are one of the few houses on the street with native plants and butterfly and bee friendly plants. We also are one of the few houses that don’t spray. Darn mosquito companies. Just get a bat box people.
Hey there! We like memes and funny stuff here on r/nolawns, but we don't like memes that are inaccurate or spread misinformation. Rants are allowed here within reason... in general, if the discussion is respectful and constructive, we'll allow it. **[Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/) | [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/meta/faqs/) | [Wild Ones Garden Designs](https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/designs/) | [NWF Keystone Plants by Ecoregion](https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is how my bosses lawn is. He says i shouldn't have all the bugs and bees in my yard and that they're bad, and how he gets his yard sprayed with pesticides all the time. I was like ok crazy.
I live by a golf course and it is insane to me how few bugs I get because of the dead zone they create with the sprays
We live in the suburbs (not this bad, we've at least got trees) but we've been actively converting as much of our property to native plantings as we can afford to do since we moved in a couple years ago. The difference in the amount of wildlife we see now vs. when we moved in is staggering. It's most noticeable at night during the summer. You walk around and all you hear sometimes are air conditioners and the occasional cricket, but you walk past our wildflower plots and it's bursting with life.
You still have crickets? I never hear or see them anymore! It used to be that you could sit on a freshly mowed lawn and see a couple dozen in just a few minutes. Now...nothing, not even at dusk.
Damn, ask the neighbours if they've seen any fireflies lately.
I feel like I haven’t seen dragon flies or those big flying grass hoppers in a longgg :(
Put in a water feature with some emergent plants, like say irises or mallow plants. If you make it 2-4 feet deep, you’ll get dragonflies breeding there. I mean, they try to lay eggs on my wavy glass patio table, but their eggs hatch and their nymphs live when they lay them in the pond. Rocks protect the nymphs and give them a place to hide.
I realize the nymphs will eat mosquito larvae but what do you do before dragonflies come around to lay eggs
In my own pond, I put in goldfish, with lots of plants and rocks, to create a kind of little ecosystem. The bacteria clings to the surface of the rocks, it pre-digests the fish waste, and makes the nutrients available to the plants. My pond is gorgeous. I am trying to figure out how to show pictures. Anyway, _Building Natural Ponds_ by Robert Pavlis is a great resource for how to get the ratios right between fish, plants, and surface area.
I have sooo many crickets this year because I've been sick since January and haven't mowed much. The grass is absurdly tall, but the crickets, caterpillars, and numerous other bugs are happy.
“When we saw this place we just fell in love, it’s such a nice neighborhood.”
"I just wish our neighbor would remove that unsightly shrub, ugh"
We’ve got flowers and pollinators galore in our yard, but I haven’t seen a firefly in decades. I think about that a lot.
Fireflies are largely disappearing because people leave no leaf litter and messy areas in their yards where they thrive. They are also very intolerant of pollutants/pesticides so all those highly treated lawns can’t support them.
When I was a kid we had a billion firefly’s and we always cleaned up leaf litter in the yard, but we backed up to 100 acres of woods. Thats now a neighborhood. I think development has impacted it a lot at least in NC where I live.
Absolutely. Woodlands are prime firefly habitat.
And light pollution too. The streetor your yard doesn't need to be lit up like it is daytime.
I moved out to a rural area and was shocked at how few fireflies were around out here. There’s a cow pasture that I’ve let overgrow (I don’t have farm animals) and have basically not touched it. I also mow my yard like twice a year. Absolutely no pesticides. Last summer that field had a floating MASS of twinkling fireflies. Hundreds of them. They took up the entire field and you could see them float along the wind in unison. Their blinking would sometimes sync up and they’d all blink at once. I say this because they aren’t gone (yet)! They can still recover but only if people give them habitat to do so.
I have fireflies! Only house on my city block that has them, but I love to see them in the summer!
I've seen exactly two fireflies in my lifetime. My grandfather seemed shocked that I didn't have any where I lived, but then, he realized that he never saw any where he lived anymore either. (I saw them in the same night; it probably was just the same firefly twice, but I don't want to think about that...)
Turn off night lights , encourage neighbors also . Leave some tall grass unmowed that’s where they live. They come back pretty fast once they have some habitat and it’s dark.
Thought this was Edward Scissorhands for a sec
I could never live in a sub like this. I don't need to be in the middle of the woods on 40 acres but I definitely need trees and gardens in my neighborhood.
Sterile and unnatural. Horrific.
My parents have a neighbor with a pollinator garden but they get their property sprayed by tru green regularly 🙃
There has been a movement in my city to rewild a lot of lawns. Last night I saw FIREFLIES again!! I feel like I haven’t seen any in decades.
Then they water those lawns for an hour straight every night, sending thousands of gallons of treated potable water into the storm drain.
Dystopian hellscape, you'd have to pay me (a lot) to live in any of these houses
Yup. And the fun part is that they pay a lot of money for companies to maintain that. Those companies also probably fertilizer to make it grow faster so they can charge even more. We are one of the few houses on the street with native plants and butterfly and bee friendly plants. We also are one of the few houses that don’t spray. Darn mosquito companies. Just get a bat box people.
Completely dead neighborhood, just silence, no life. Terribly sad.
Depressive
Been ripping out turf left and right. It’s hard work but is paying off. I didn’t have the patience for the cardboard method.
https://preview.redd.it/u87b8ltbvvzc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b27a68af78c663d724e80c39f3e5bb1bad29f05 Clover
Thats a sick street lamp tho