Cleaning all the leaves from your lawn can be a tedious and frustrating job. Especially when you spend all day raking your lawn, just to wake up the next day to a layer of freshly fallen leaves. Or even worse, you’ve put together the perfect leaf pile just to have your dog decide the pile was too enticing not to go run and jump in. Which then sends the leaves flying around your yard all over again.
If you don’t keep up on your leaf cleanup, there could be some scary surprises hiding in your leaves. Insects, critters, and other pests love homes that don’t rake their leaves. Some of these are harmful, while others are not only creepy but potentially dangerous to allow to live around your home.
But, despite all the grueling work yard clean ups entail, it seems like every suburban dad has their own “leaf raking hacks” they live by each fall. However, those hacks will not be needed this year. We recommend saving the time by hiring someone to do it so you can relax.
While fallen, dead leaves will eventually break down, that process can take weeks or even months. It’s best to tackle this problem mid-autumn when most or all of the leaves have already fallen. The leaves covering your lawn block sunlight, which you probably know, isn’t good for your lawn. It’s best to rake and remove the leaves from your lawn or hire a yard cleanup service in the fall.
What Could Be Hiding in Your Leaf Piles?
Pests love to hide in fallen leaves, especially in the fall and early spring when they seek shelter from the cold air. The most common pests will be your typical beetles, caterpillars, ants, roaches, and other bugs. However, harmful bugs like termites and ticks will also find comfort in your leaf piles and begin to call them home. Leaves can even hold water that mosquitoes need to reproduce, and they do so in large numbers. The past few years have seen high activity for ticks and other harmful insects, they don’t just go away when the Summer ends.
Common bugs that hide in your leaf piles:
Ticks
Termites
Ants
Caterpillars
Inch Worms
Cockroaches
Beetles
Stinkbugs
Cutworms
What could be possibly worse than bugs in your yard?
The smaller pests aren’t the only thing to be on the lookout for this fall. Spiders, centipedes, mice, and even snakes are on the hunt for food before winter, and that means they will go wherever these little insects are hiding. These and other critters will live in the leaf piles until the weather becomes too cold outside, but then they’ll be looking for a warm place to take shelter. And don’t be surprised if that warmer place they take refuge to is your home!
Pests that thrive in and under leaves around your home:
Spiders
Mice
Centipedes
Millipedes
Snakes
The Dangers of Fallen Leaves
Lastly, while leaves typically will decay back into the soil, that doesn’t happen overnight. If the leaves sit outside and dry out for a long enough period of time without rain, they become an excellent source of kindling to start a fire. So if your intention was to potentially light your yard, car or house on fire, mission accomplished. Check out the news story below on how common it is for leaf piles to cause car fires.
Luckily for you there’s an app for that! Click below to download the Plowz & Mowz app on your smartphone to place a yard clean order. We’ll handle the leaf raking for you this year! Or click here to order online today.
