Fairygirl, I also live surrounded by farmland but almost all of this seems to be rented to turf growers so it is largely barren of wildlife, sprayed with weedkillers and nitrates and flattened by huge machines. I can see "lawn" all around me so I don't mind letting the wild flowers and bees into my lawn. I am trying no-grow May and so far the grass looks good spotted with daisies. I have always left some areas of longer grass, to let bulbs die down for example, and may extend these or just cut shorter patches or paths through the grass.
The areas near the house has to be mowed once very four weeks though as I don’t want fleas too close to the house, which my dear cat drags in almost every other day if left long.
Interesting @Cecelia-L, can you tell me what cat fleas have to do with lawn? I have to say that our cat gets now and then fleas going on for some weeks. She brings them from outside in and I was wondering if we have a flea haven in the garden as it was this time during the winter. Our neighbours have lawn but we don’t have any lawn.
The areas near the house has to be mowed once very four weeks though as I don’t want fleas too close to the house, which my dear cat drags in almost every other day if left long.
Interesting @Cecelia-L, can you tell me what cat fleas have to do with lawn? I have to say that our cat gets now and then fleas going on for some weeks. She brings them from outside in and I was wondering if we have a flea haven in the garden as it was this time during the winter. Our neighbours have lawn but we don’t have any lawn.
Thanks in advance.
I am by no means an insect expert. According to my research fleas lurk in long grass and pounce on animals when the opportunity arises.
Ever since I kept the grass low ish the cat doesn’t suffer so easily anymore.
The above link is a commercial promoting their product for insect control. Expectedly it is quite extreme in approach. Nonetheless there is a grain of truth in it.
Cat fleas live on cats. They are therefore not likely to be found in places only infrequently visited by cats and a flea is very unlikely to lay eggs in a place where cats will just occasionally walk past. Instead eggs are laid in favoured sleeping spots in the garden and, even more likely, favoured sleeping spots in the house.
I think the link between fleas and lawns is pretty tenuous. If a cat develops a flea infestation I would be hoovering or washing the places in the house where it sleeps rather than assuming the lawn is the source.
Maybe because fleas are more common in warmer weather and cats go outside more that’s where the connection is I was always told that cats get fleas from long grass. Not sure if it’s accurate, we have no lawn, my cats get fleas, my cats do go into other gardens though so I just treat the fleas.
My sister has a small lawn in a small garden that she likes to keep tidy and short but is leaving one corner longer for insects. That’s not just for May though.
Sorry for not catching up earlier. Thanks to all your ideas and opinions about fleas. It’s interesting because I thought during the winter that the fleas might be in the one corner of the garden where the bay leave tree is, but thought that fleas are transmitted from cat to cat only. Knowing that will help us to keep the fleas more under control. My cat doesn’t always have fleas. It’s just the one or other odd month in a year.
When we had cats, one was allergic to fleaspray. We got some expensive stuff from the vet that you sprayed on the carpet, bedding etc. It worked really well.
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I ♥ my garden.
I think the link between fleas and lawns is pretty tenuous. If a cat develops a flea infestation I would be hoovering or washing the places in the house where it sleeps rather than assuming the lawn is the source.
I ♥ my garden.