Mowing Your Lawn Before June In New York Could Be Dangerous
He hasn't said anything to me yet, but just one glance at my husband when he's staring out the window at our yard with a little drip of drool peeking out of the corner of his mouth is all I need to see to know that he is literally salivating at the thought of mowing our lawn.
I think this is the latest that my husband has ever gone without giving our lawn a trim and the nearly two feet of snow we got last week along with the mush left behind from all of the melting snow no doubt has something to do with it.
If you think my husband is jonesing now to mow the lawn, I bet you wish you could be a fly on the wall in our house later today when I suggest to Jay that he wait until June to mow for the first time.
Have you heard about the No Mow May Movement? Yes, this is a very real thing and it's not as ridiculous sounding once you learn the reason why waiting is better and definitely less dangerous.
The biggest reason behind No Mow May is about an inch long and sports a black and yellow body. That's right - the bees. It's about the bees. According to the Center for Biological Diversity and Bombus Pollinators Association of Law Students, the American honeybee has “declined by 89% in relative abundance and continues to decline toward extinction.”
The situation with honeybees is so dire that there is even a movement for our government to add the little pollinators to the list of endangered species. One species of bees found in both New York and Pennsylvania has already been declared endangered and that is the Rusty patched bumblebee.
The idea behind No Mow May is to allow more flowers to bloom which in turn will allow these vital nearly endangered creatures time to collect more nectar. In other words, mowing your lawn before June could potentially be quite dangerous for our pollinating friends and drive them even closer to extinction.
Before you pooh-pooh honeybees, consider this: over one-third of the food we eat relies on pollination by bees, either directly or indirectly and they play a vital role in our agricultural industry because they act as crop pollinators.