Having neighbors can be a wonderful way to build community. You can advocate together for healthier streets, or you can enjoy each other's gardens. However, we don't always get so lucky with environmentally conscious neighbors. One homeowner's backyard time was disrupted by someone next door spraying a cloud of pesticides.
One mom took to Reddit to detail their neighbor's carelessness, lamenting having to run inside after noticing clouds of pesticides wafting over the fence.
"It's a beautiful, blustery spring day and I'm outside in our backyard … when I hear a leaf blower and look up and our new back neighbors (we share a fence) have a lawn care guy leaf blowing with one hand WHILE SPRAYING a cloud of pesticides/weed killer all over their yard (and into ours) with the other," the OP wrote.
"Do people still care THAT much about a perfectly manicured green lawn? I'm also sad because I try so hard to grow flowers and plants for the bees and butterflies and to make our yard a haven for all the small birds and creatures in our area."
The United States uses massive amounts of pesticides. According to the EPA, "U.S. pesticide usage totalled over 1.1 billion pounds annually in both 2011 and 2012." Unfortunately, this has led to the majority of Americans having regular exposure to these chemicals. CBS News reported that "A government study [found] glyphosate in more than 80% of urine samples from U.S. kids and adults."
Roundup is shown to be toxic to human and ecological health. The Ecology Center wrote, "Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance."
Bayer, the company that sells Roundup-branded glyphosate, faced more than 100,000 lawsuits for its link to cancer, AP News Reported. As the OP showed, sprayed herbicides are hard to contain, but you can avoid these harmful chemicals with natural alternatives for reducing weed growth.
Other Redditors were rightfully upset for the OP. One person wrote, "It makes me so upset. Thankfully none of the 3 properties adjacent to mine seem to spray, but of course you can't control it and never know who will move in."
Someone added, "If anything dies you can go after whoever their lawn care is, they're required to mitigate drift as far as I am aware."
Hopefully, the OP doesn't lose any plants to careless chemical application.
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