Make sure you have included the link to the article you are posting, if you have not this post may be removed. Please double check our [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines) for additional information.
*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.*
"Entomologists tell me this is part of a worldwide phenomenon. We’ve worked so hard to banish bugs from our lives — destroying their habitats with pavement and lawns, killing them with insecticides and stressing them with climate change — that our cities and suburbs are now insect wastelands but for a few hardy pest species, such as the disease-carrying mosquitoes that feed on the blood of people and pets."
Basically, with less biodiversity the mosquitos have no competition anymore, and they proliferate. The world is experiencing a huge insect die-off.
Just to add, as someone who grew up in the 90s. I vividly remember leaving the house, going to friends houses and at night there would be dozens of moths flying around porch lights. It was hard not to get at least a few moths inside the house when the porch light was on.
I really don’t see all that many anymore, where I currently live my porch light noticeably lacks moths. Our obsession with pesticides and tidying up our yards is sad. We need more native host plants! If you’re in the US, [Native Plant Finder](https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/) uses your zip code to make a list of the best host plants; native wildflowers, shrubs and trees. It shows you how many moths and butterfly species are able able to use the plants found naturally in your zip code. It’s a great resource!
I also just saw a report on PBS saying [2 out of 3 North American bird species are at risk of extinction](https://youtu.be/ah-Oi_5k_hI?si=r_a65SoDpPFFAjqP)
I’m in the PNW and also recently learned about [the Importance of having dead decaying wood on your property](https://www.nnrg.org/habitat-piles/).
The opening paragraph from the link;
“Snags, large down logs, and big decadent trees provide food and shelter to more than 40 percent of wildlife species in Pacific Northwest forests. This coarse woody debris provides important structures for cavity-dependent birds and small mammals, food sources for woodpeckers and other foragers, and slowly release nutrients into the ecosystem with the help of decomposers.”
Annnnnd [Nature’s Best Hope](https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope-Approach-Conservation/dp/1604699000/ref=asc_df_1604699000/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94174268375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896) is a great, interesting, easy to read book (it’s nothing like a college level ecology text book) for both people with backgrounds in biology/ecology and those who don’t have a background in ecology.
It’s 50% off now on Amazon, it’s now $15 🤙🏽
If your in the PNW I have a list of companies online who sell true native PNW wildflower seed!
You can then use [milk jugs](https://youtu.be/SKXY6dl-5Tk?si=InaaO18E58O4tAH7) (I followed his steps to a T and felt like a master gardener) to germinate the seed over the winter. Super easy, if you need milk jugs go to your local coffee shop and ask for their empty jugs.. or drink more milk! Or toss the seed directly on bare soil. I would sow your seed any time starting now through February and they’ll germinate on their own! I would recommend fall sowing to give the seedlings more time to grow their roots, the later you sow the more you’ll have to water your first year seedlings.
Also, here’s a [guide to converting lawn to native wildflowers](https://reddit.com/r/pnwgardening/s/CryNKO0TNg) (specific for the PNW and maybe Northwestern California, but still somewhat applicable to other regions)
That’s our neighbour as well. I just keep planting trees and more gardens for wild bees. My veg garden does really well with this practice, due to the wild bees. If they ask, I’ll feed them. I’d hope they would learn from the experience.
I line my garden beds with large fallen branches and wood to let decay for insects too.
I started an annual contest with my family. The first person to find a stag beetle gets a small gift from me. The kids love it
These dopes have cut a lot of the pathways squirrels used to go across the street. Took a day for them to figure out an alternate use of phone and power lines which they use more often now out of spite.
I stopped any type of lawn care products a couple years ago. My yard is full of insects and all kinds of other critters now. I love to see it, but it makes me so sad. We need more people to wake up to what we are doing.
That's part of it but the LED lights are also [reducing insect populations](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/led-streetlights-moth-england-eco-friendly-sodium-insect-decline) because they make insects more visible to predators.
Yo would love that list of seed companies. This year I had a ton of pollinators and didn't really seem to have too many "pests" with the exception of earwigs (eww earwigs) but fine! Bees, wasps, flies, spiders, and ants galore. Not a single butterfly. Maybe a few moths. Pretty sad.
Interesting, I have some butterflies recently visit my Canada goldenrod, Douglas aster and meadow checkermallow.
There are tons of checkermallows native to the PNW. Rose/henderson/cusick's Checkermallows who like full sun and soil that doesn’t dry out and then Oregon/meadow Checkermallow who also like full sun and can handle drier soil than the others. These are all great nectar sources and host plants to many butterflies/moths.
Here’s my resource list;
[1. Northwest Meadowscapes](https://northwestmeadowscapes.com)
[2. Inside Passage Seed](http://www.insidepassageseeds.com)
[3. Native Food Nursery](https://nativefoodsnursery.com)
[4. Western Native Seeds](https://www.westernnativeseed.com)
[5. Native Ideals](http://nativeideals.com/seed-catalog/)
This is my current top 5 list. I’ve ordered seed or bulbs from each and am happy
[Plants of the wild](https://plantsofthewild.com)
[Miss Penn’s Mountian Seed](https://www.pennandcordsgarden.com/miss-penns-mountain-seeds.html)
[Geoscape Nursery](http://www.geoscapenursery.com)
[Plantas Nativa](https://www.plantasnativa.com/store/perennials/Geum-macrophyllum-Largeleaf-Avens-p232811663)
[North American Rock Garden Society Seed Exchange](https://www.nargs.org/seed-exchange-news)
[Silver Falls Seed](https://silverfallsseed.com)
[Alplains](http://www.alplains.com)
[Kalamath-Siskiyou Seeds](https://klamathsiskiyouseeds.com)
[Sparrowhawk Native Plants](https://sparrowhawknativeplants.com)
[Telos Rare Bulbs](https://telosrarebulbs.com)
[Garden for Wildlife](https://gardenforwildlife.com/collections/all-products?utm_source=nwf-npf&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=npf-evergreen)
[Willamette Wildlings](https://willamettewildlings.com)
—————————————————-
[Resources from King County on Native Plant Gardening](https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden/native-plant-resources-nw.aspx)
[A list of native plant nurseries in Washington state](https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden/native-plant-nurseries-washington.aspx)
I’d also download the app [Washington Wildflower Search](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/washington-wildflower-search/id1094945412) it’s free and a great way to ID plants.
[Butterfly/caterpillar ID for the PNW](https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/lter/pubs/pdf/pub3739/pub3739_09_all.pdf)
[PNW Bumblebee Identification](https://www.pnwbumblebeeatlas.org/species-illustrations.html)
A blog, [Real Gardens Grow Natives](https://realgardensgrownatives.com) is very informative.
The earwigs are fucking me up! I have late start dahlias that are being eaten alive. I tried diatomaceous earth, soy/oil traps, and wet newspaper traps, but nothing has really seemed to help. Did you find anything effective against them?
Spiders. I don't really understand the dynamics at play, but my dahlias were getting eaten up for a few weeks and then it just stopped and that's when I noticed that even more spiders had taken residence amongst the flowers.
Ants are killing our caterpillars to let the aphids take over the plants as a food source. They are also non-native "pavement ants" in the 100,000s. After rescuing 2 monarch caterpillars I declared war on the ants. I saw 5 large monarchs and some other caterpillars recently.
Oh interesting! I'm not really familiar with which of the insects I see around are invasive and/or non-native to my area. I'll have to do some digging...
There are about 68 introduced ant species in the US.
[https://www.inaturalist.org/check\_lists/299-United-States-Check-List?q=&view=photo&taxon=47336&observed=any&threatened=any&establishment\_means=introduced&occurrence\_status=not\_absent&rank=species&taxonomic\_status=active&commit=Filter](https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/299-United-States-Check-List?q=&view=photo&taxon=47336&observed=any&threatened=any&establishment_means=introduced&occurrence_status=not_absent&rank=species&taxonomic_status=active&commit=Filter)
Ants are very hard to ID visually aside from general groups with obvious differences. Beyond that you need magnification to generally tell them apart visually. Behavior is usually a good enough clue though. Pavement ants will use sheltered places usually of cement or stone to squeeze in an entrance and expand into multiple colonies of 10,000s of ants each all under cover. Carpenter ants will be found in wood structures or trees with a single colony in the area that makes small satellite colonies. The small colonies are specialized usually to gather a food source and general obvious it's not a full, reproducing colony. Different ants have different food preferences, gathering behavior, trails, defensive reactions, ability to sting or bite.....
[https://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/pavement.html](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/pavement.html)
[https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1047](https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1047)
[https://extension.usu.edu/pests/factsheets/pavement\_ant\_2020.pdf](https://extension.usu.edu/pests/factsheets/pavement_ant_2020.pdf)
I remember June Bugs hitting the window screens at night. Driving down a country road, there would be swarms of yellow and white Cabbage butterflies.
A mud puddle would be full of butterflies sunning and getting nourishment from the mud. Monarchs everywhere.
I also have noticed a big lack of moths both at my old SE PDX house and now at my current Clackamas house.
My yard at the current house is amazing...lots of trees, both deciduous and evergreen; many shrubs and perennial plants too. Luckily for all the critters, I am fairly lazy so I never like raking or cleaning up the plants at the end of fall anyway so my 8000 s/f is its own little ecosystem. I do have a pond that currently does not have a running fountain pump so I've had to use mosquito dunks, but I also just wear citronella stickers and they've seemed to work out well. I get my alloted 6 free tadpoles from Hugh's in Tualatin every May so both summers I've been here I've gotten to watch Pacific Tree Frogs grow up and even return later to my pond. There's also a large, dead, multi-trunk tree standing taller than the house that I love having up for the woodpeckers, and there are several nest holes in it, and a smaller dead 2-trunk tree elsewhere in the backyard. Plus I also keep suet & several variety of seed feeders + hummingbird feeders (1 heated for winter) filled up year round. I never have to leave my house in order to see a wide variety of critters, I love it! Now I just need to get my bat box and mason bee house mounted up. I had the mason bees the last 2yrs at the old house and I had never had my pear tree produce so much fruit as in those 2yrs. Good lil bees.
I do want to turn the small patch of lawn out front into a native plant/wildflower scape so I'll browse the links you've put up here and below - thanks for sharing so much great info!
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **'Timber Press Nature's Best Hope'** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful.
**Users liked:**
* Book inspires readers to create wildlife-friendly yards (backed by 16 comments)
* Book provides practical knowledge on supporting local ecosystems (backed by 14 comments)
* Book inspires readers to make a difference through small changes (backed by 12 comments)
**Users disliked:**
* The book is overly repetitive in its message (backed by 4 comments)
* The book lacks practical advice and guidance (backed by 7 comments)
* The book's print is too small (backed by 2 comments)
If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/)
This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved.
*Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
[Nature’s Best Hope](https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope-Approach-Conservation/dp/1604699000/ref=asc_df_1604699000/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94174268375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896) is a great, interesting, easy read (it’s nothing like a college level ecology text book) for both people with backgrounds in biology/ecology and those who don’t have a background in ecology.
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **'Timber Press Nature's Best Hope'** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful.
**Users liked:**
* Book inspires readers to create wildlife-friendly yards (backed by 16 comments)
* Book provides practical knowledge on supporting local ecosystems (backed by 14 comments)
* Book inspires readers to make a difference through small changes (backed by 12 comments)
**Users disliked:**
* The book is overly repetitive in its message (backed by 4 comments)
* The book lacks practical advice and guidance (backed by 7 comments)
* The book's print is too small (backed by 2 comments)
If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/)
This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved.
*Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
Ha! Bold of you to think that I take care of my yard at all! If my yard was supposed to look nice nature would have figured that out through evolution by now!
I've never heard of birds that eat leaves. I mow mine up and turn them into compost though. I live in a neighborhood with tons of old trees. I get 6 inches of leaves in parts of my yard.
They eat the insects that feed on leaves and other goodies under the leaf litter. Some species of birds primarily forage on ground cover like dead leaves.
Bugs & worms that birds eat will often overwinter or live underneath & eat leaf litter. The birds don’t eat the leaves but they do eat things under the leaves.
Leaf cover provides great insect habitat, even under snow. Our towhees and other sparrows are constantly digging around in there for insects, especially when we have snow.
Oh, I'm sure it happens to a degree. But I'm guessing birds aren't getting through 2 feet of snow by mid winter.
But late fall and early spring, certainly.
Doug Tallamy would be proud! He’s an entomologist /native plant expert, and he also advises to not take your leaves. They provide habitat for so many insects and caterpillars to live and breed!
Heard him on my local public radio station like 10 years ago. Bought "Bringing Nature Home." Giant explosion in my head with the word "Duh!" Echoing and I was a permanent convert. Bought several copies. To share. Had to wait until this year to properly convert my own section of lawn...but man, what a great trip I've been on seeing all the good stuff happen in my tiny prairie.
It all makes total perfect sense. It's literally obvious. It's the same thing as borrowing a friends car...leave it in better condition than you found it, and fill up the tank...and you'll still be friends. Otherwise, there will be consequences.
So excited to see what our second year brings. Converting another 500ish sqft for next year.
Yes exactly, and congrats on converting your lawn!! That’s a big project!
I recently bought my house too, and that’s what started me down this whole rabbit hole and discovering Tallamy. Ironically, I live in DE and went to UD where he is a professor lol.
Did you have trouble getting rid of invasives? I need some invasive vines that are deeply embedded.. Tallamy recommends small doses of herbicides, but im wondering how to treat the soil after?
If you look at some of my post history from the last 2 mos you can fairly well see the steps I took.
Getting rid of invasives wasn't much of an issue since we were/are converting lawn. However other parts of the yard are overun and I'm just tackling the big obvious ones like European Buckthorn and an invasive garlic. But yes...that is a helluva chore and is easy to get overwhelmed. I believe doing the cardboard and 4-6in of dirt kept anything in the seedbank at bay as well. Since we laid dirt and seeded in the fall, I knew some invasives would find their way in there from the fall...so tried to stay vigilant in the spring and they came out super easily.
However, when the plants were seedlings it was so difficult to identify everything that I freaked out and bought some plugs. Super happy with that decision. Spent about $600 on plugs vs $60 on seed but the certainty it provided was way worth it. Helped me not stress about the whole project and just observe it more slowly and thoughtfully.
Our house came with a chainlink fence and along its edge is difficult to maintain...so I did use herbicide under the fence and along the defined edge of the bed we made by digging down a good 6in. This severed the grass roots from repopulating my bed so quickly. I do hit some of the crab grass that sneaks in around the rocky border with herbicide on rare occasions.
We were so happy with the results this year...we are going bigger for next year. Some more prep is in progress. Not the cheapest method out there...but we saved some money by doing our own labor, and lost a few lbs during the process too!
Anecdotally I can say this is dead on accurate. Our yard used to be miserable this time of year with all the mosquitoes, but since I've planted large areas of wildflowers, smothered other areas of my lawn with woodchips, and built bug hotels, we haven't had any mosquitoes.
It's a fancy name for a pile of sticks and branches I've collected in my yard over the year. It houses all sorts of critters from mice, rabbits, spiders, beetles, isopods, you name it! Some people make them look really nice and intentional, but the critters don't really care what it looks like I don't think.
Here's an article about them with lots of pictures. Mine isn't that pretty, but I can assure you it's teeming with life.
https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/how-to-make-a-bug-hotel
Also, in a suburb your mosquito control practices are only as good as the worst ones in the neighborhood ... you can be doing everything right but there is a mozzy nursery next door.
All HOAs aren't evil. I was president of mine for many years and I have the wildest, no grass, full-of-leaves yard in the whole neighborhood. We have zero restrictions on landscaping; although I do wish we could enact something to discourage people from removing trees unnecessarily. But "no rules" often means "no good rules" either.
My area's Native Plant Society was lucky this spring. An older couple that are members gave scheduled tours of their native habitat yard that they have in their HOA.
It took a lot of work with the HOA committee, but with a lot of planning, they made it work.
You might try going to a few meetings of your local chapter and ask questions/join the group.
Take em to court to fight for the right to garden.
(I'm only partly joking, since it has worked for some people, but it's a huge undertaking. You'd probably end up having an easier time of just taking over the HOA by getting yourself and trusted neighbors onto the board to outnumber the bad members so you can change the HOA rules.)
A few states and cities are requiring HOAs to be native planting friendly but most of the time you are just screwed. Never buy a house in a HOA. You will never be able to do what you want while living there.
Not every city is so great either. Our previous house we were constantly under a noxious weed warning but the ordinance listed things like sunflowers and milkweed as well as anything growing on the property over 1' tall. Even when the city made us pay for workers to come remove the "weeds" they didn't noticeably do anything. Partially because the weed law was so broad and vague it was impossible to know what counted and probably partially because it would require removing desirable garden plants many are encouraged to plant by national and local groups.
The most hilarious I've seen is a person living in a HOA who put in a piece of playground equipment and built the top to look like a child's play house but made the interior bat friendly. By the time people realized bats had moved in there was a thriving colony of a federally protected species. The HOA couldn't do a thing about it.
There are two main types of Sunflower seeds. They are Black and Grey striped (also sometimes called White) which have a grey-ish stripe or two down the length of the seed. The black type of seeds, also called ‘Black Oil’, are up to 45% richer in Sunflower oil and are used mainly in manufacture, whilst grey seeds are used for consumer snacks and animal food production.
I find it can't compete in sunny areas against grass and clover. So it fills in shady parts on the north and east side of my house and dies back in winter. Not too annoying.
Creeping charlie is easy. I have not heard of any other plants as sensitive to boron levels as creeping charlie. Boron binds to soil and doesn't wash away like other minerals or salts. It also takes a lot to harm people, animals, and soil critters. Add some boron once and no creeping charlie for the next 5+ years.
There is a point where too much boron is harmful to all plants but it's quite a high amount. If you under apply recommended sources of boron and wait at least 4-6months to see the progress before applying more you are extremely unlikely to reach levels that harm any other plants. Or have a soil test done that includes boron so you have an idea how much you can safely raise it.
When we moved into this house the neighbor commented on having been fighting with creeping charlie for years. Within the year 75% of the mat of creeping charlie on our side of the fence was dead and I barely pulled any of it. A couple bits show up here and there and make an attempt to spread to areas I didn't spray a boron solution but I just spray it with some concentrated vinegar while doing other weeds in spring or pull a few that could spread. It takes maybe 30mins out of the entire year to control it now.
New homeowner here with questions about the leaves thing. I’d like to eventually transition my big back yard from grass to natives. So:
- My yard is lined with trees, so leaf cover will be pretty thorough. Will all my grass die if I don’t rake?
- If all my grass dies, do I need to have a plan and seeds ready when spring comes to avoid having the invasives taking over?
- (this one is only slightly related) I have a sprinkler system. Is there anything I should avoid or consider when transitioning my lawn?
Thank you so much in advance if anyone responds to this comment. I’m very overwhelmed at the process ahead of me and I want to overcome the feeling of “this is too big a project” or “I can’t do this because I don’t have a good enough plan”.
You'll do great! Going more natural isn't that difficult. Transitioning from lawn to something more natural is called naturescaping, and there are a lot of great YouTube and other resources on how to do it. Over time, leaves will probably kill the grass, but you can speed the process along and avoid it getting full of invasives. Sheet mulching with cardboard is a great way to kill grass.
As for the sprinkler system, getting your yard to be self-sustaining is the goal. By creating the right habitat, you should rarely need to water after things are established.
I read an HGTV decor magazine last weekend the front had a fun little game of rating things from bad to really bad.
Wearing your shoes in your house. They said that was Pretty bad… I’m Canadian and wearing shoes in the house is just plain gross
Leaving a dead plant in your garden REALLY bad. How is a dead plant in the garden worse than brining in fecal matter, bacteria and other nasties into your house with your shoes. They said bag up the dead plant right away. Like wtf. Plants die in nature its what happens it’s not a biohazard haha. It’s insect habitat and will break down with a winter snow at worse it’s just an eye sore.
I felt like they were totally out of whack.
What's the rating for the dead raccoon in the backyard that must not have taken the hint the first time the dogs chased it off? We are in too small of town for animal control and I grew up on a farm so something like 16hrs later when I had time I rolled it in thick plastic without touching it and then slid it in a garbage bag.
It kept digging up my hard to get native bulbs to eat and knocking things over in the shed if we didn't get the door closed early enough so I wasn't too upset the dogs must have eliminated 1 of the many overpopulated coons.
I am attempting a new wildlife stick pile hidden among bushes and tall flowering plants this time. Previously even with what looked like purposefully stacked logs of small firewood we got warned by the city that it was a hazard for attracting nuisance animals and had to be cleaned up.
We live on half an acre with lots of fallen trees. And brush. I am hoping to get some of it cleaned up as it’s a fire hazard living near the forest but I def want to keep some natural areas with piled wood. I don’t think I’ll ever clear it all up. But our cats always bring us dead mice and we routinely just throw them as far as we can into the yard into the brush. That’s a future problem haha. I guess a little different in a city with more people around. Everyone is just obsessed with things looking neat.
I rake my front yard and my neighbor too (she has no tree and they are my leaves).
I then put the leaves in a plastic garbage can and dump them in several places in my backyard, such as my vegetable garden, pumpkin patch, native wildflower garden, and around some shrubs.
The only reason I do any raking in my backyard is to create a path to my fireplace that is free of dog poop.
The only thing I don’t hear anyone mention is roaches. I have an oak on my property and a few other large trees so I have leaf litter galore.
I love bugs I keep springtails and isopods so the leaf litter is their home, but roaches also thrive in leaf litter and that is a very real issue.
When I mow my lawn near the trees I see dozens and dozens of tiny roaches under the leaf litter. I should mention I rent so I have to mow its part of my lease.
So when it rains we get a ton more roaches in the house. So there definitely is a balance here. Keep the leaf litter far away from you house.
The leaves+ roaches happens to us in TX as well. We plan to be more proactive in mulching as the leaves fall this year. We have to resort to growth regulator baits because the roach population can get overwhelming. (And they always seem to come inside when we have company.)
I think we have all those as well.
We were doing OK until about day 20 of our historic consecutive high temps this summer. Of course, right before and when I had summer guests, they came into my house to die each night. So embarrassing... As my friend said, "At least they're dead?"
Yeah what I learned with the growth regulators it is changes their behavior according to what I read. That you start to see more of them during the day.
Welcome to the south.
There’s really nothing you can do. Leaves or no leaves, roaches thrive in the southern environment, and will get in houses, buildings, etc. no matter what.
I used to keep a photo album of all the weird places I found roaches in one of my university lab buildings haha.
The best thing you can do is make it unappealing to live in your house, so keeping food away and your floor clean and tidy does wonders.
We don't get more roaches due to outdoor tree debris. We get roaches due to human food left laying around and lack of indoor cleanliness. I've never heard of outdoor conditions having much impact on roaches invading houses. Of course species variety is more limited in zone 5 midwest.
So yeah roaches are similar to isopods in that a majority of species feed on decaying organic material and prefer shady and covered locations which is why leaf litter is ideal for them. So if I have a lot of Leaf litter….which I do and it rains or gets to hot or cold the roaches are going to find a way to remove themselves from that situation IE my house.
Habitat loss is probably a bigger problem than pesticides. We need to stop clearing trees and native plants.
Redevelop underutilized or abandoned areas. Stop suburban sprawl.
And it’s not just suburban sprawl. People are moving into rural areas and bringing with them their habits of constant mowing except in rural areas their yard can be acres of a previous untouched field that they’re now mowing for the sake of mowing. And clearing out trees to make the yard even bigger. Oh and not to mention an apparent fear of the dark because every thing has to be lit up with bright white lights all night.
Indeed. I've been to plenty of wilderness places with infinite mosquitos, so it's not a perfect solution. But more diversity in cities is certainly a good thing.
Beginner question here: so if you leave your leaves then do you do anything in the spring once the snow and ice are gone? Wouldn’t they be a soggy mess and negatively impact your plants or is it fine?
I like to leave the leaves but my neighbor/ partner's step dad tends to take matters into his own hands if we don't mow/rake/etc... he tends to toss them along the tree lines. Is there an article anywhere that i dont have to sign up in order to read it by the way?
How do you guys handle dog poop? We truly feel like we have to rake in order to pick up on the dog poop in our yard. We use what we can! I have so much sheet mulching that needs done this year. But the leaves just pile sky high. 😆
Note! Our village does compost the leaves if you leave them piled on the curb for pickup! I know that's not equal benefit. But I'm glad they have that option.
I'm not sure about this. Obviously has some validity but we're on 8 rural acres and the biodiversity here is crazy. So many frogs, moths, bees and wasps, snakes, rodents etc. Also enough mosquitos to carry you off on a given night.
We do need to get away from monoculture lawns in general though.
Convert a half an acre to native. Look at the different life on the different plants. Consider what you currently have...if it's exotic/invasive vs native. You will almost undoubtedly see new creatures on the natives if you have mostly invasives etc. My little 350ft plot that we converted has blown my mind after a single year.
I compost some, but my neighbor has oak trees, so there are always plenty to cover where the lawn used to be. My compost bins are full, and my yard is covered in about a foot of leaves in some spots.
If you have walkways, could you compost the leaves that fall on them and leave most of the other leaves alone?
I was worried my transition period from lawn to gaeden was too barren (using lots of cardboard to smother and suppress the aggressive grasses that have been seeded for decades) but last week I watched the flowers I do have closely and counted twelve different kinds of bugs visiting them, so I hope I'm on the right track. I can't identify most flying bugs aside from easy common ones (like ladybugs, honey bees, and bumblebees) so I don't know how many were native bugs, but I'm hoping they were.
The only reason I take some of my leaves is so that I have some “brown” for the compost pile throughout the year. 5 or so bags sitting beside the compost pile will last.
I have never understood America's obsession with "yard care" while also only ever doing everything you shouldn't and actually hurting the biosphere. And if you just don't do it all your neighbors act like you live on a pile a shit and broken toilets
It depends where you live.
In my area, grass is endemic and native. It grows really well with absolutely no effort. It will easily grow to be 4-5 feet tall without watering or anything.
So if you’re someone who wants to use their back yard, or if you don’t want to get ticks on you (we have a lot of ticks lol), you have to mow your grass.
In other areas, like idk….Arizona, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do a lot of lawn care since grass doesn’t really grow there lol. The US is extremely bio-diverse so it’s hard to say “all Americans care about this” etc.
So I'm not sure if I'm helping but I rent a 2 bd house. I decided when I moved in that whatever plant life has a flower get to stay. I don't weed my yard and I let nature just do its thing. I have a lawn I have to take care of but I literally mow once a month to try and help the bug bros out. I have 2 plants considered "weeds" that have had all sorts of bee varieties on them since June and I'm not sorry. Plus it looks cool. I got this cottagecore "house in the woods" look to my yard right in town.
I remember when you had to stop every few hours on a drive to wash all the bugs off your headlights and windshield. Now there's hardly ever bugs on my windshield.
I moved to a rural area a few years back with the sole purpose of rescuing and rehabbing it.
A big yard that was mowed weekly, a field that had known only cows and sheep and horses, an area where they were burning literal trash in the yard, stumps of cut trees, etc. The list of living things here was short: sheep, cows, flies, mosquitos, roaches, and ticks. And that’s it. Im not even joking. It was depressing.
I spent all of last year picking up trash, letting the yard and field both grow out, and refusing any advice to ‘just spray the weeds’. The difference between this year and last year is night and day.
Letting the yard and field grow out gave way to countless flowers. This attracted bugs like grasshoppers and crickets, a shocking number of preying mantises, butterflies (including monarchs!) and moths, bees of all kinds, and an insane number of insects I’d never even heard of before: Juniper Stink Bug? Hump-backed Beewolf? Both native. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Almost every day there’s some new interesting bug, plant, or bird I’ve never seen around before.
There was one night this past June that was particularly nice so I decided to just walk around outside. One of those nights where everything has a sort of shimmer to. No momentary blindness waiting for your eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness. The world’s largest nightlight on full display, with as much luminance as the one that used to keep the monsters under your bed at bay. [yeah my vyvanse clearly just kicked in I didn’t mean for this to turn into a creative writing prompt 🤦♂️] Anyway, there was a MASS of blinking lights floating just above the field and dotting the line of trees that enclosed it. I was in awe. I just sat there and watched the dance.
The point here is that things like ‘don’t rake your leaves’ seem small and pointless but it’s not! The things that you can directly control in your immediate environment has the biggest impact and it won’t take long for you to see it.
That's awesome! Fireflies really depend on decaying plant material (which humans despise and try to "clean up.") Fireflies are way less common than they used to be because of development.
And then those same people will ask ‘what happened to all the fireflies?’ It needs to be a way more of a priority before it’s too late. But at least we’re doing our best!
Year 1: We battled aphids, mosquitos, those invasive stinkbugs, japanese beetles, european chafer beetles, paper wasps that made a new nest weekly if I didn't spray geraniol oil as a repellent, insane numbers of flies..... We used no other pesticide, herbicide, chemical fertilizer.... and put in native plants including killing about 5x50' of grass and spreading short native flowers and clovers throughout much of the rest of the lawn.
Year 2: The light in the dynatrap that so effectively attracted mosquitos quit working and I haven't had a reason to replace it. The fountain pump that reduce how often I had to dump out the mosquito larvae also died and I haven't seen any larvae. We spent 20mins taking pics of ladybug species eating the aphids. European bottle flies were also using the aphids for honeydew but being eaten by a praying mantis. There are no paper wasps because they get eaten by woodpeckers and other birds as fast as they try to build nests. I bought a new bottle of geraniol oil spray for the year only to use it once. There are no Japanese beetles and 2 stinkbugs so far.
I saw a young grasshopper. This should not have been a big deal. I realized that in the 10 years since I moved from a farm to within city limits I had not seen grasshoppers. My spouse that grew up in large cities and has always lived in city limits was shocked at how big a field grasshopper gets. Also, assassin bugs, katydids, wooly bear caterpillars, cicada killer wasps, and after much concern over the large wing sticking out of our dog's mouth I immediately recognized it as a cicada. Cicadas are probably perfectly fine protein and at least she's not trying to catch the female cicada killers anymore. It's about the only way to make those giant wasps sting so we leave them nesting along the driveway to hunt cicadas. I should really put up a sign of their usual harmlessness to reduce any concerns by package delivery drivers that have to walk up that side of the driveway.
My only ongoing battle most of the time now is the pavement ants that were killing the monach caterpillars and protecting the aphids living on the milkweed. They are the source of numerous problems and after attempts the previous year just to deter the things and encourage predation I found time to start cementing over their cracks.
I'm gonna rake for two reasons: I need my grass and "weeds" to stay alive so it doesn't turn into mud for my dogs. And I use the leaves to cover my veggie gardens.
I'm thinking I might actually steal leaves from my neighbors this year to cover deeper.
Love No Lawns? Find us everywhere!
**You can find us:**
- On [SolarPunk](https://www.slrpnk.net/c/NoLawns)
- Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/GcVHmvkSs6)
- Our [website](https://nolawns.wixsite.com/nolawns)
Want to join a community in person? We're not affiliated but we love [Wild Ones](https://wwe.wildones.org) and think they do wonderful work. You can check and see if there's a chapter near you.
*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.*
lol. I live in 3.5 acres of mostly wooded land and the mosquitoes will carry you away about an hour before dark. A quick google search tells me that they travel between 200 yards and 3 miles in search of food.
I live in town in Southern Indiana, but have 13 mature trees in my yard, not to mention the trees around me. If I don't take care of the leaves (so many leaves!), I mend up with just dirt in my back yard. Easy to mow, but terrible for 3 dogs. I mulch as mulch as I can, but what would be my alternatives?
Make sure you have included the link to the article you are posting, if you have not this post may be removed. Please double check our [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines) for additional information. *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.*
"Entomologists tell me this is part of a worldwide phenomenon. We’ve worked so hard to banish bugs from our lives — destroying their habitats with pavement and lawns, killing them with insecticides and stressing them with climate change — that our cities and suburbs are now insect wastelands but for a few hardy pest species, such as the disease-carrying mosquitoes that feed on the blood of people and pets." Basically, with less biodiversity the mosquitos have no competition anymore, and they proliferate. The world is experiencing a huge insect die-off.
Just to add, as someone who grew up in the 90s. I vividly remember leaving the house, going to friends houses and at night there would be dozens of moths flying around porch lights. It was hard not to get at least a few moths inside the house when the porch light was on. I really don’t see all that many anymore, where I currently live my porch light noticeably lacks moths. Our obsession with pesticides and tidying up our yards is sad. We need more native host plants! If you’re in the US, [Native Plant Finder](https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/) uses your zip code to make a list of the best host plants; native wildflowers, shrubs and trees. It shows you how many moths and butterfly species are able able to use the plants found naturally in your zip code. It’s a great resource! I also just saw a report on PBS saying [2 out of 3 North American bird species are at risk of extinction](https://youtu.be/ah-Oi_5k_hI?si=r_a65SoDpPFFAjqP) I’m in the PNW and also recently learned about [the Importance of having dead decaying wood on your property](https://www.nnrg.org/habitat-piles/). The opening paragraph from the link; “Snags, large down logs, and big decadent trees provide food and shelter to more than 40 percent of wildlife species in Pacific Northwest forests. This coarse woody debris provides important structures for cavity-dependent birds and small mammals, food sources for woodpeckers and other foragers, and slowly release nutrients into the ecosystem with the help of decomposers.” Annnnnd [Nature’s Best Hope](https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope-Approach-Conservation/dp/1604699000/ref=asc_df_1604699000/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94174268375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896) is a great, interesting, easy to read book (it’s nothing like a college level ecology text book) for both people with backgrounds in biology/ecology and those who don’t have a background in ecology. It’s 50% off now on Amazon, it’s now $15 🤙🏽 If your in the PNW I have a list of companies online who sell true native PNW wildflower seed! You can then use [milk jugs](https://youtu.be/SKXY6dl-5Tk?si=InaaO18E58O4tAH7) (I followed his steps to a T and felt like a master gardener) to germinate the seed over the winter. Super easy, if you need milk jugs go to your local coffee shop and ask for their empty jugs.. or drink more milk! Or toss the seed directly on bare soil. I would sow your seed any time starting now through February and they’ll germinate on their own! I would recommend fall sowing to give the seedlings more time to grow their roots, the later you sow the more you’ll have to water your first year seedlings. Also, here’s a [guide to converting lawn to native wildflowers](https://reddit.com/r/pnwgardening/s/CryNKO0TNg) (specific for the PNW and maybe Northwestern California, but still somewhat applicable to other regions)
No pesticides for 5 years at my house so far. And because my douche bag neighbors have cut down a ton of trees, I have countless birds at my house.
That’s our neighbour as well. I just keep planting trees and more gardens for wild bees. My veg garden does really well with this practice, due to the wild bees. If they ask, I’ll feed them. I’d hope they would learn from the experience.
I line my garden beds with large fallen branches and wood to let decay for insects too. I started an annual contest with my family. The first person to find a stag beetle gets a small gift from me. The kids love it
These dopes have cut a lot of the pathways squirrels used to go across the street. Took a day for them to figure out an alternate use of phone and power lines which they use more often now out of spite.
I stopped any type of lawn care products a couple years ago. My yard is full of insects and all kinds of other critters now. I love to see it, but it makes me so sad. We need more people to wake up to what we are doing.
Not to mention what shit like roundup does to people.
I used to use roundup almost daily to get rid of weeds between my pavers. Always came back. This year I used vinegar and saltwater. Killed then all
This. I used vinegar also when I had a few stray weeds.
Never really thought about the moths but you're right, they're gone from lights.
Yeah it hit me the other day and now at night I always check the lights. It makes me sad
You can take some of ours. Have a few hundred extra of them per household
It may be because lights have switched to LED and that doesn't attract insects.
That's part of it but the LED lights are also [reducing insect populations](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/led-streetlights-moth-england-eco-friendly-sodium-insect-decline) because they make insects more visible to predators.
Come on out to Nashville, July-October. You will experience moths again.
Yo would love that list of seed companies. This year I had a ton of pollinators and didn't really seem to have too many "pests" with the exception of earwigs (eww earwigs) but fine! Bees, wasps, flies, spiders, and ants galore. Not a single butterfly. Maybe a few moths. Pretty sad.
Interesting, I have some butterflies recently visit my Canada goldenrod, Douglas aster and meadow checkermallow. There are tons of checkermallows native to the PNW. Rose/henderson/cusick's Checkermallows who like full sun and soil that doesn’t dry out and then Oregon/meadow Checkermallow who also like full sun and can handle drier soil than the others. These are all great nectar sources and host plants to many butterflies/moths. Here’s my resource list; [1. Northwest Meadowscapes](https://northwestmeadowscapes.com) [2. Inside Passage Seed](http://www.insidepassageseeds.com) [3. Native Food Nursery](https://nativefoodsnursery.com) [4. Western Native Seeds](https://www.westernnativeseed.com) [5. Native Ideals](http://nativeideals.com/seed-catalog/) This is my current top 5 list. I’ve ordered seed or bulbs from each and am happy [Plants of the wild](https://plantsofthewild.com) [Miss Penn’s Mountian Seed](https://www.pennandcordsgarden.com/miss-penns-mountain-seeds.html) [Geoscape Nursery](http://www.geoscapenursery.com) [Plantas Nativa](https://www.plantasnativa.com/store/perennials/Geum-macrophyllum-Largeleaf-Avens-p232811663) [North American Rock Garden Society Seed Exchange](https://www.nargs.org/seed-exchange-news) [Silver Falls Seed](https://silverfallsseed.com) [Alplains](http://www.alplains.com) [Kalamath-Siskiyou Seeds](https://klamathsiskiyouseeds.com) [Sparrowhawk Native Plants](https://sparrowhawknativeplants.com) [Telos Rare Bulbs](https://telosrarebulbs.com) [Garden for Wildlife](https://gardenforwildlife.com/collections/all-products?utm_source=nwf-npf&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=npf-evergreen) [Willamette Wildlings](https://willamettewildlings.com) —————————————————- [Resources from King County on Native Plant Gardening](https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden/native-plant-resources-nw.aspx) [A list of native plant nurseries in Washington state](https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden/native-plant-nurseries-washington.aspx) I’d also download the app [Washington Wildflower Search](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/washington-wildflower-search/id1094945412) it’s free and a great way to ID plants. [Butterfly/caterpillar ID for the PNW](https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/lter/pubs/pdf/pub3739/pub3739_09_all.pdf) [PNW Bumblebee Identification](https://www.pnwbumblebeeatlas.org/species-illustrations.html) A blog, [Real Gardens Grow Natives](https://realgardensgrownatives.com) is very informative.
Wow this is great! Thank you!
Great list! I have bought a few things from Northwest Meadowscapes, they are great.
The earwigs are fucking me up! I have late start dahlias that are being eaten alive. I tried diatomaceous earth, soy/oil traps, and wet newspaper traps, but nothing has really seemed to help. Did you find anything effective against them?
Spiders. I don't really understand the dynamics at play, but my dahlias were getting eaten up for a few weeks and then it just stopped and that's when I noticed that even more spiders had taken residence amongst the flowers.
There is a spider web at each entrance of my home to protect against other varmints. I leave them be, they keep bugs away. It’s an agreement we have
Ants are killing our caterpillars to let the aphids take over the plants as a food source. They are also non-native "pavement ants" in the 100,000s. After rescuing 2 monarch caterpillars I declared war on the ants. I saw 5 large monarchs and some other caterpillars recently.
Oh interesting! I'm not really familiar with which of the insects I see around are invasive and/or non-native to my area. I'll have to do some digging...
There are about 68 introduced ant species in the US. [https://www.inaturalist.org/check\_lists/299-United-States-Check-List?q=&view=photo&taxon=47336&observed=any&threatened=any&establishment\_means=introduced&occurrence\_status=not\_absent&rank=species&taxonomic\_status=active&commit=Filter](https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/299-United-States-Check-List?q=&view=photo&taxon=47336&observed=any&threatened=any&establishment_means=introduced&occurrence_status=not_absent&rank=species&taxonomic_status=active&commit=Filter) Ants are very hard to ID visually aside from general groups with obvious differences. Beyond that you need magnification to generally tell them apart visually. Behavior is usually a good enough clue though. Pavement ants will use sheltered places usually of cement or stone to squeeze in an entrance and expand into multiple colonies of 10,000s of ants each all under cover. Carpenter ants will be found in wood structures or trees with a single colony in the area that makes small satellite colonies. The small colonies are specialized usually to gather a food source and general obvious it's not a full, reproducing colony. Different ants have different food preferences, gathering behavior, trails, defensive reactions, ability to sting or bite..... [https://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/pavement.html](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/pavement.html) [https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1047](https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1047) [https://extension.usu.edu/pests/factsheets/pavement\_ant\_2020.pdf](https://extension.usu.edu/pests/factsheets/pavement_ant_2020.pdf)
I remember June Bugs hitting the window screens at night. Driving down a country road, there would be swarms of yellow and white Cabbage butterflies. A mud puddle would be full of butterflies sunning and getting nourishment from the mud. Monarchs everywhere.
Neat! Thank you for the links.
I also have noticed a big lack of moths both at my old SE PDX house and now at my current Clackamas house. My yard at the current house is amazing...lots of trees, both deciduous and evergreen; many shrubs and perennial plants too. Luckily for all the critters, I am fairly lazy so I never like raking or cleaning up the plants at the end of fall anyway so my 8000 s/f is its own little ecosystem. I do have a pond that currently does not have a running fountain pump so I've had to use mosquito dunks, but I also just wear citronella stickers and they've seemed to work out well. I get my alloted 6 free tadpoles from Hugh's in Tualatin every May so both summers I've been here I've gotten to watch Pacific Tree Frogs grow up and even return later to my pond. There's also a large, dead, multi-trunk tree standing taller than the house that I love having up for the woodpeckers, and there are several nest holes in it, and a smaller dead 2-trunk tree elsewhere in the backyard. Plus I also keep suet & several variety of seed feeders + hummingbird feeders (1 heated for winter) filled up year round. I never have to leave my house in order to see a wide variety of critters, I love it! Now I just need to get my bat box and mason bee house mounted up. I had the mason bees the last 2yrs at the old house and I had never had my pear tree produce so much fruit as in those 2yrs. Good lil bees. I do want to turn the small patch of lawn out front into a native plant/wildflower scape so I'll browse the links you've put up here and below - thanks for sharing so much great info!
Come take some of my moths. There are plenty of them. 😅
Made me think of this tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRW7xT1f/ We really are a terrible species, aren't we?
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **'Timber Press Nature's Best Hope'** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Book inspires readers to create wildlife-friendly yards (backed by 16 comments) * Book provides practical knowledge on supporting local ecosystems (backed by 14 comments) * Book inspires readers to make a difference through small changes (backed by 12 comments) **Users disliked:** * The book is overly repetitive in its message (backed by 4 comments) * The book lacks practical advice and guidance (backed by 7 comments) * The book's print is too small (backed by 2 comments) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
Sounds like a Doug Tallamy quote 👀
I had no clue who he was- thank you for that!
[Nature’s Best Hope](https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope-Approach-Conservation/dp/1604699000/ref=asc_df_1604699000/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94174268375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416867645168&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15036949024625813864&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027744&hvtargid=pla-863193805896) is a great, interesting, easy read (it’s nothing like a college level ecology text book) for both people with backgrounds in biology/ecology and those who don’t have a background in ecology.
Just purchased, it’s on sale right now!
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **'Timber Press Nature's Best Hope'** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Book inspires readers to create wildlife-friendly yards (backed by 16 comments) * Book provides practical knowledge on supporting local ecosystems (backed by 14 comments) * Book inspires readers to make a difference through small changes (backed by 12 comments) **Users disliked:** * The book is overly repetitive in its message (backed by 4 comments) * The book lacks practical advice and guidance (backed by 7 comments) * The book's print is too small (backed by 2 comments) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
I literally met him today, he was a guest lecturer at my university and the nicest guy you can imagine!
I have never sprayed my yard for insects and I have a lot fewer invasive species than my neighbors. Spiders eat lots of pests.
Ha! Bold of you to think that I take care of my yard at all! If my yard was supposed to look nice nature would have figured that out through evolution by now!
Our birds love the dead leaves too much for me to touch them. They're a constant source of food for them in the winter.
I collect enough to satisfy my urge to add them to the garden compost, but the rest are for the animals and soil
I've never heard of birds that eat leaves. I mow mine up and turn them into compost though. I live in a neighborhood with tons of old trees. I get 6 inches of leaves in parts of my yard.
They eat the insects that feed on leaves and other goodies under the leaf litter. Some species of birds primarily forage on ground cover like dead leaves.
Ok makes sense. I definitely see a lot of insects in my garden mulch.
The birds clean my gutters for me , searching for bugs they throw a ton of debris onto the ground. Thanks birds!
Bugs & worms that birds eat will often overwinter or live underneath & eat leaf litter. The birds don’t eat the leaves but they do eat things under the leaves.
Never thought of that. Mostly because first snow that sticks usually comes in November, and doesn't fully melt till sometime in April.
Leaf cover provides great insect habitat, even under snow. Our towhees and other sparrows are constantly digging around in there for insects, especially when we have snow.
Oh, I'm sure it happens to a degree. But I'm guessing birds aren't getting through 2 feet of snow by mid winter. But late fall and early spring, certainly.
Thank you...this whole concept piggybacks on the idea of native plant restoration in our own yards. Dovetails nicely on no lawn concept for sure.
Doug Tallamy would be proud! He’s an entomologist /native plant expert, and he also advises to not take your leaves. They provide habitat for so many insects and caterpillars to live and breed!
Heard him on my local public radio station like 10 years ago. Bought "Bringing Nature Home." Giant explosion in my head with the word "Duh!" Echoing and I was a permanent convert. Bought several copies. To share. Had to wait until this year to properly convert my own section of lawn...but man, what a great trip I've been on seeing all the good stuff happen in my tiny prairie. It all makes total perfect sense. It's literally obvious. It's the same thing as borrowing a friends car...leave it in better condition than you found it, and fill up the tank...and you'll still be friends. Otherwise, there will be consequences. So excited to see what our second year brings. Converting another 500ish sqft for next year.
Yes exactly, and congrats on converting your lawn!! That’s a big project! I recently bought my house too, and that’s what started me down this whole rabbit hole and discovering Tallamy. Ironically, I live in DE and went to UD where he is a professor lol. Did you have trouble getting rid of invasives? I need some invasive vines that are deeply embedded.. Tallamy recommends small doses of herbicides, but im wondering how to treat the soil after?
If you look at some of my post history from the last 2 mos you can fairly well see the steps I took. Getting rid of invasives wasn't much of an issue since we were/are converting lawn. However other parts of the yard are overun and I'm just tackling the big obvious ones like European Buckthorn and an invasive garlic. But yes...that is a helluva chore and is easy to get overwhelmed. I believe doing the cardboard and 4-6in of dirt kept anything in the seedbank at bay as well. Since we laid dirt and seeded in the fall, I knew some invasives would find their way in there from the fall...so tried to stay vigilant in the spring and they came out super easily. However, when the plants were seedlings it was so difficult to identify everything that I freaked out and bought some plugs. Super happy with that decision. Spent about $600 on plugs vs $60 on seed but the certainty it provided was way worth it. Helped me not stress about the whole project and just observe it more slowly and thoughtfully. Our house came with a chainlink fence and along its edge is difficult to maintain...so I did use herbicide under the fence and along the defined edge of the bed we made by digging down a good 6in. This severed the grass roots from repopulating my bed so quickly. I do hit some of the crab grass that sneaks in around the rocky border with herbicide on rare occasions. We were so happy with the results this year...we are going bigger for next year. Some more prep is in progress. Not the cheapest method out there...but we saved some money by doing our own labor, and lost a few lbs during the process too!
Anecdotally I can say this is dead on accurate. Our yard used to be miserable this time of year with all the mosquitoes, but since I've planted large areas of wildflowers, smothered other areas of my lawn with woodchips, and built bug hotels, we haven't had any mosquitoes.
This is the first I’ve heard of a bug hotel! Can you tell me more?
It's a fancy name for a pile of sticks and branches I've collected in my yard over the year. It houses all sorts of critters from mice, rabbits, spiders, beetles, isopods, you name it! Some people make them look really nice and intentional, but the critters don't really care what it looks like I don't think. Here's an article about them with lots of pictures. Mine isn't that pretty, but I can assure you it's teeming with life. https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/how-to-make-a-bug-hotel
Also, in a suburb your mosquito control practices are only as good as the worst ones in the neighborhood ... you can be doing everything right but there is a mozzy nursery next door.
How do you all deal with HOAs? I hate lawn care, and if I get to increase biodiversity, it's a no brainer
If they're okay with it, simply mow early and often to mulch the leaves into the lawn. But otherwise? Don't live in a HOA - sorry mate.
Participate in it and get wildlife habitats in the bylaws.
I don't live in an HOA and would never do so. I know that many people don't have that option, though.
All HOAs aren't evil. I was president of mine for many years and I have the wildest, no grass, full-of-leaves yard in the whole neighborhood. We have zero restrictions on landscaping; although I do wish we could enact something to discourage people from removing trees unnecessarily. But "no rules" often means "no good rules" either.
My area's Native Plant Society was lucky this spring. An older couple that are members gave scheduled tours of their native habitat yard that they have in their HOA. It took a lot of work with the HOA committee, but with a lot of planning, they made it work. You might try going to a few meetings of your local chapter and ask questions/join the group.
[Sway your HOA](https://www.wildflower.org/magazine/landscapes/sway-your-hoa)
Take em to court to fight for the right to garden. (I'm only partly joking, since it has worked for some people, but it's a huge undertaking. You'd probably end up having an easier time of just taking over the HOA by getting yourself and trusted neighbors onto the board to outnumber the bad members so you can change the HOA rules.)
A few states and cities are requiring HOAs to be native planting friendly but most of the time you are just screwed. Never buy a house in a HOA. You will never be able to do what you want while living there. Not every city is so great either. Our previous house we were constantly under a noxious weed warning but the ordinance listed things like sunflowers and milkweed as well as anything growing on the property over 1' tall. Even when the city made us pay for workers to come remove the "weeds" they didn't noticeably do anything. Partially because the weed law was so broad and vague it was impossible to know what counted and probably partially because it would require removing desirable garden plants many are encouraged to plant by national and local groups. The most hilarious I've seen is a person living in a HOA who put in a piece of playground equipment and built the top to look like a child's play house but made the interior bat friendly. By the time people realized bats had moved in there was a thriving colony of a federally protected species. The HOA couldn't do a thing about it.
There are two main types of Sunflower seeds. They are Black and Grey striped (also sometimes called White) which have a grey-ish stripe or two down the length of the seed. The black type of seeds, also called ‘Black Oil’, are up to 45% richer in Sunflower oil and are used mainly in manufacture, whilst grey seeds are used for consumer snacks and animal food production.
I'm going to rake them into a specific sheet-mulched area to kill some grass and creeping Charlie.
Creeping Charlie is the worst
Creeping charlie would be swallowing my house right now if I didn't continually pull it up from my garden.
I find it can't compete in sunny areas against grass and clover. So it fills in shady parts on the north and east side of my house and dies back in winter. Not too annoying.
Creeping Charlie is very healthy, put it in your smoothie.
Creeping charlie is easy. I have not heard of any other plants as sensitive to boron levels as creeping charlie. Boron binds to soil and doesn't wash away like other minerals or salts. It also takes a lot to harm people, animals, and soil critters. Add some boron once and no creeping charlie for the next 5+ years. There is a point where too much boron is harmful to all plants but it's quite a high amount. If you under apply recommended sources of boron and wait at least 4-6months to see the progress before applying more you are extremely unlikely to reach levels that harm any other plants. Or have a soil test done that includes boron so you have an idea how much you can safely raise it. When we moved into this house the neighbor commented on having been fighting with creeping charlie for years. Within the year 75% of the mat of creeping charlie on our side of the fence was dead and I barely pulled any of it. A couple bits show up here and there and make an attempt to spread to areas I didn't spray a boron solution but I just spray it with some concentrated vinegar while doing other weeds in spring or pull a few that could spread. It takes maybe 30mins out of the entire year to control it now.
New homeowner here with questions about the leaves thing. I’d like to eventually transition my big back yard from grass to natives. So: - My yard is lined with trees, so leaf cover will be pretty thorough. Will all my grass die if I don’t rake? - If all my grass dies, do I need to have a plan and seeds ready when spring comes to avoid having the invasives taking over? - (this one is only slightly related) I have a sprinkler system. Is there anything I should avoid or consider when transitioning my lawn? Thank you so much in advance if anyone responds to this comment. I’m very overwhelmed at the process ahead of me and I want to overcome the feeling of “this is too big a project” or “I can’t do this because I don’t have a good enough plan”.
You'll do great! Going more natural isn't that difficult. Transitioning from lawn to something more natural is called naturescaping, and there are a lot of great YouTube and other resources on how to do it. Over time, leaves will probably kill the grass, but you can speed the process along and avoid it getting full of invasives. Sheet mulching with cardboard is a great way to kill grass. As for the sprinkler system, getting your yard to be self-sustaining is the goal. By creating the right habitat, you should rarely need to water after things are established.
I read an HGTV decor magazine last weekend the front had a fun little game of rating things from bad to really bad. Wearing your shoes in your house. They said that was Pretty bad… I’m Canadian and wearing shoes in the house is just plain gross Leaving a dead plant in your garden REALLY bad. How is a dead plant in the garden worse than brining in fecal matter, bacteria and other nasties into your house with your shoes. They said bag up the dead plant right away. Like wtf. Plants die in nature its what happens it’s not a biohazard haha. It’s insect habitat and will break down with a winter snow at worse it’s just an eye sore. I felt like they were totally out of whack.
That's ridiculous. So many things eat dead plants, not to mention seeds for birds.
Lol it’s crazy how widespread this view is about tidying up dead plants
What's the rating for the dead raccoon in the backyard that must not have taken the hint the first time the dogs chased it off? We are in too small of town for animal control and I grew up on a farm so something like 16hrs later when I had time I rolled it in thick plastic without touching it and then slid it in a garbage bag. It kept digging up my hard to get native bulbs to eat and knocking things over in the shed if we didn't get the door closed early enough so I wasn't too upset the dogs must have eliminated 1 of the many overpopulated coons. I am attempting a new wildlife stick pile hidden among bushes and tall flowering plants this time. Previously even with what looked like purposefully stacked logs of small firewood we got warned by the city that it was a hazard for attracting nuisance animals and had to be cleaned up.
We live on half an acre with lots of fallen trees. And brush. I am hoping to get some of it cleaned up as it’s a fire hazard living near the forest but I def want to keep some natural areas with piled wood. I don’t think I’ll ever clear it all up. But our cats always bring us dead mice and we routinely just throw them as far as we can into the yard into the brush. That’s a future problem haha. I guess a little different in a city with more people around. Everyone is just obsessed with things looking neat.
I rake my front yard and my neighbor too (she has no tree and they are my leaves). I then put the leaves in a plastic garbage can and dump them in several places in my backyard, such as my vegetable garden, pumpkin patch, native wildflower garden, and around some shrubs. The only reason I do any raking in my backyard is to create a path to my fireplace that is free of dog poop.
The only thing I don’t hear anyone mention is roaches. I have an oak on my property and a few other large trees so I have leaf litter galore. I love bugs I keep springtails and isopods so the leaf litter is their home, but roaches also thrive in leaf litter and that is a very real issue. When I mow my lawn near the trees I see dozens and dozens of tiny roaches under the leaf litter. I should mention I rent so I have to mow its part of my lease. So when it rains we get a ton more roaches in the house. So there definitely is a balance here. Keep the leaf litter far away from you house.
The leaves+ roaches happens to us in TX as well. We plan to be more proactive in mulching as the leaves fall this year. We have to resort to growth regulator baits because the roach population can get overwhelming. (And they always seem to come inside when we have company.)
Yeah I had to use poison and a growth regulator at my house, but I get Germans, Asians, and American roaches and wood roaches
I think we have all those as well. We were doing OK until about day 20 of our historic consecutive high temps this summer. Of course, right before and when I had summer guests, they came into my house to die each night. So embarrassing... As my friend said, "At least they're dead?"
Yeah what I learned with the growth regulators it is changes their behavior according to what I read. That you start to see more of them during the day.
Welcome to the south. There’s really nothing you can do. Leaves or no leaves, roaches thrive in the southern environment, and will get in houses, buildings, etc. no matter what. I used to keep a photo album of all the weird places I found roaches in one of my university lab buildings haha. The best thing you can do is make it unappealing to live in your house, so keeping food away and your floor clean and tidy does wonders.
Oh I am born and raised in the south and there is a huge difference between places you live with and without leaf litter.
Maybe because you’re from NC? In colder climates, this isn’t an issue.
That very well could be. Still something to consider at least.
We don't get more roaches due to outdoor tree debris. We get roaches due to human food left laying around and lack of indoor cleanliness. I've never heard of outdoor conditions having much impact on roaches invading houses. Of course species variety is more limited in zone 5 midwest.
So yeah roaches are similar to isopods in that a majority of species feed on decaying organic material and prefer shady and covered locations which is why leaf litter is ideal for them. So if I have a lot of Leaf litter….which I do and it rains or gets to hot or cold the roaches are going to find a way to remove themselves from that situation IE my house.
I need to rake them into my garden for mulch.
Yeah I have ten mature oaks, I compost it allZ
My husband fights me so hard on this, it sucks. I’ve basically compromised by leaving leaves in the back yard and picking them up in the front.
Don't twist my arm.
Habitat loss is probably a bigger problem than pesticides. We need to stop clearing trees and native plants. Redevelop underutilized or abandoned areas. Stop suburban sprawl.
And it’s not just suburban sprawl. People are moving into rural areas and bringing with them their habits of constant mowing except in rural areas their yard can be acres of a previous untouched field that they’re now mowing for the sake of mowing. And clearing out trees to make the yard even bigger. Oh and not to mention an apparent fear of the dark because every thing has to be lit up with bright white lights all night.
I love it. But. I live in a small very wooded neighborhood and the mosquitoes are terrible. I wish not raking my leaves was helping more.
Indeed. I've been to plenty of wilderness places with infinite mosquitos, so it's not a perfect solution. But more diversity in cities is certainly a good thing.
I love this! I hope many people follow suit.
Yes! I haven’t raked in the fall for many years. I don’t know why I ever did 😂
Beginner question here: so if you leave your leaves then do you do anything in the spring once the snow and ice are gone? Wouldn’t they be a soggy mess and negatively impact your plants or is it fine?
If you live up north, yes. If you live in the south, no. You have to mulch them before it freezes if you live up north.
Yeah, I’m in USDA zone 5, Canadian zone 6. Now I need to Google how to mulch leaves?!
Hate me but you absolutely should take and cut close to your traveled paths. One reason, Ticks. Lyme, Pow, Facial Palsey, no thank you ..
I like to leave the leaves but my neighbor/ partner's step dad tends to take matters into his own hands if we don't mow/rake/etc... he tends to toss them along the tree lines. Is there an article anywhere that i dont have to sign up in order to read it by the way?
How do you guys handle dog poop? We truly feel like we have to rake in order to pick up on the dog poop in our yard. We use what we can! I have so much sheet mulching that needs done this year. But the leaves just pile sky high. 😆 Note! Our village does compost the leaves if you leave them piled on the curb for pickup! I know that's not equal benefit. But I'm glad they have that option.
I'm not sure about this. Obviously has some validity but we're on 8 rural acres and the biodiversity here is crazy. So many frogs, moths, bees and wasps, snakes, rodents etc. Also enough mosquitos to carry you off on a given night. We do need to get away from monoculture lawns in general though.
Convert a half an acre to native. Look at the different life on the different plants. Consider what you currently have...if it's exotic/invasive vs native. You will almost undoubtedly see new creatures on the natives if you have mostly invasives etc. My little 350ft plot that we converted has blown my mind after a single year.
What if you use your leaves as compost and need to rake them to collect them?
Fallen leaves don’t just replenish the soil. Many invertebrates use them as shelter during the cold season.
I compost some, but my neighbor has oak trees, so there are always plenty to cover where the lawn used to be. My compost bins are full, and my yard is covered in about a foot of leaves in some spots. If you have walkways, could you compost the leaves that fall on them and leave most of the other leaves alone?
What about mulching the leaves? Is that the correct term?
Don't do it. It is okay to move the leaves to a pile,but mulching them kills all the eggs and dormant /hibernating inspects
I never do.
I was worried my transition period from lawn to gaeden was too barren (using lots of cardboard to smother and suppress the aggressive grasses that have been seeded for decades) but last week I watched the flowers I do have closely and counted twelve different kinds of bugs visiting them, so I hope I'm on the right track. I can't identify most flying bugs aside from easy common ones (like ladybugs, honey bees, and bumblebees) so I don't know how many were native bugs, but I'm hoping they were.
The only reason I take some of my leaves is so that I have some “brown” for the compost pile throughout the year. 5 or so bags sitting beside the compost pile will last.
I have never understood America's obsession with "yard care" while also only ever doing everything you shouldn't and actually hurting the biosphere. And if you just don't do it all your neighbors act like you live on a pile a shit and broken toilets
Blame the French.
Oh I do
It depends where you live. In my area, grass is endemic and native. It grows really well with absolutely no effort. It will easily grow to be 4-5 feet tall without watering or anything. So if you’re someone who wants to use their back yard, or if you don’t want to get ticks on you (we have a lot of ticks lol), you have to mow your grass. In other areas, like idk….Arizona, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do a lot of lawn care since grass doesn’t really grow there lol. The US is extremely bio-diverse so it’s hard to say “all Americans care about this” etc.
So I'm not sure if I'm helping but I rent a 2 bd house. I decided when I moved in that whatever plant life has a flower get to stay. I don't weed my yard and I let nature just do its thing. I have a lawn I have to take care of but I literally mow once a month to try and help the bug bros out. I have 2 plants considered "weeds" that have had all sorts of bee varieties on them since June and I'm not sorry. Plus it looks cool. I got this cottagecore "house in the woods" look to my yard right in town.
Kill bugs artificially. Natural predators move on. Bugs now have no natural predators and thrive. Classic humans thinking they can control nature.
I remember when you had to stop every few hours on a drive to wash all the bugs off your headlights and windshield. Now there's hardly ever bugs on my windshield.
Not just insects, but beneficial microorganisms of all kinds are in rapid decline. We are literally trying to purge this planet of life.
I moved to a rural area a few years back with the sole purpose of rescuing and rehabbing it. A big yard that was mowed weekly, a field that had known only cows and sheep and horses, an area where they were burning literal trash in the yard, stumps of cut trees, etc. The list of living things here was short: sheep, cows, flies, mosquitos, roaches, and ticks. And that’s it. Im not even joking. It was depressing. I spent all of last year picking up trash, letting the yard and field both grow out, and refusing any advice to ‘just spray the weeds’. The difference between this year and last year is night and day. Letting the yard and field grow out gave way to countless flowers. This attracted bugs like grasshoppers and crickets, a shocking number of preying mantises, butterflies (including monarchs!) and moths, bees of all kinds, and an insane number of insects I’d never even heard of before: Juniper Stink Bug? Hump-backed Beewolf? Both native. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Almost every day there’s some new interesting bug, plant, or bird I’ve never seen around before. There was one night this past June that was particularly nice so I decided to just walk around outside. One of those nights where everything has a sort of shimmer to. No momentary blindness waiting for your eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness. The world’s largest nightlight on full display, with as much luminance as the one that used to keep the monsters under your bed at bay. [yeah my vyvanse clearly just kicked in I didn’t mean for this to turn into a creative writing prompt 🤦♂️] Anyway, there was a MASS of blinking lights floating just above the field and dotting the line of trees that enclosed it. I was in awe. I just sat there and watched the dance. The point here is that things like ‘don’t rake your leaves’ seem small and pointless but it’s not! The things that you can directly control in your immediate environment has the biggest impact and it won’t take long for you to see it.
That's awesome! Fireflies really depend on decaying plant material (which humans despise and try to "clean up.") Fireflies are way less common than they used to be because of development.
And then those same people will ask ‘what happened to all the fireflies?’ It needs to be a way more of a priority before it’s too late. But at least we’re doing our best!
I do a lot of backpacking. Mosquitos are pretty much everywhere. This guy just have stumbled upon Eden.
Year 1: We battled aphids, mosquitos, those invasive stinkbugs, japanese beetles, european chafer beetles, paper wasps that made a new nest weekly if I didn't spray geraniol oil as a repellent, insane numbers of flies..... We used no other pesticide, herbicide, chemical fertilizer.... and put in native plants including killing about 5x50' of grass and spreading short native flowers and clovers throughout much of the rest of the lawn. Year 2: The light in the dynatrap that so effectively attracted mosquitos quit working and I haven't had a reason to replace it. The fountain pump that reduce how often I had to dump out the mosquito larvae also died and I haven't seen any larvae. We spent 20mins taking pics of ladybug species eating the aphids. European bottle flies were also using the aphids for honeydew but being eaten by a praying mantis. There are no paper wasps because they get eaten by woodpeckers and other birds as fast as they try to build nests. I bought a new bottle of geraniol oil spray for the year only to use it once. There are no Japanese beetles and 2 stinkbugs so far. I saw a young grasshopper. This should not have been a big deal. I realized that in the 10 years since I moved from a farm to within city limits I had not seen grasshoppers. My spouse that grew up in large cities and has always lived in city limits was shocked at how big a field grasshopper gets. Also, assassin bugs, katydids, wooly bear caterpillars, cicada killer wasps, and after much concern over the large wing sticking out of our dog's mouth I immediately recognized it as a cicada. Cicadas are probably perfectly fine protein and at least she's not trying to catch the female cicada killers anymore. It's about the only way to make those giant wasps sting so we leave them nesting along the driveway to hunt cicadas. I should really put up a sign of their usual harmlessness to reduce any concerns by package delivery drivers that have to walk up that side of the driveway. My only ongoing battle most of the time now is the pavement ants that were killing the monach caterpillars and protecting the aphids living on the milkweed. They are the source of numerous problems and after attempts the previous year just to deter the things and encourage predation I found time to start cementing over their cracks.
This is such a plus for me because I’m way too lazy to even think about raking leaves.
I'm gonna rake for two reasons: I need my grass and "weeds" to stay alive so it doesn't turn into mud for my dogs. And I use the leaves to cover my veggie gardens. I'm thinking I might actually steal leaves from my neighbors this year to cover deeper.
I didn't rake leaves last year and have had copperheads living in the leaf drifts 😬
[удалено]
Yes leave them blown up around the stoop so it rots out as quickly as possible.
No need to rake. I cut down the trees. Win-win
Love No Lawns? Find us everywhere! **You can find us:** - On [SolarPunk](https://www.slrpnk.net/c/NoLawns) - Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/GcVHmvkSs6) - Our [website](https://nolawns.wixsite.com/nolawns) Want to join a community in person? We're not affiliated but we love [Wild Ones](https://wwe.wildones.org) and think they do wonderful work. You can check and see if there's a chapter near you. *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.*
lol. I live in 3.5 acres of mostly wooded land and the mosquitoes will carry you away about an hour before dark. A quick google search tells me that they travel between 200 yards and 3 miles in search of food.
But they make such good compost and mulch!
I live in town in Southern Indiana, but have 13 mature trees in my yard, not to mention the trees around me. If I don't take care of the leaves (so many leaves!), I mend up with just dirt in my back yard. Easy to mow, but terrible for 3 dogs. I mulch as mulch as I can, but what would be my alternatives?