The past week or ten days I have encountered dozens of people who live and work in Douglas County who claim to suffer something that's "going around". I have sympathized with coughing, sneezing, irritated eyes and sinus congestion--just like mine.
Welcome, wheezers, to ragweed hell.
Since the effects of ragweed pollen mimic those of cold and flu viruses, it is easy to assume, as I did the first couple of years living here, that a highly contagious virus is being passed among us. The virus, however, that spreads like wildfire each year, usually twice, is no virus at all. What's "going around" is ragweed pollen.
Ragweed misery or, as I call it, Douglas County flu strikes annually and with clockwork predictability first in May and again, with a vengeance, in mid to late August. When weather conditions are just right--plenty of prior moisture, warm days and nighttime temperatures dipping into the sixties--our flu bug bites.
Because of this year's widespread suffering, I decided to scout near us. I think I located one source of concern, a Douglas County flu incubator, of sorts.
Embankments on the east side of south Daniels Park Road bordering Castle Pines Village are covered with thick ragweed this season at least four feet high. With winds typically coming from the south and southwest, homes within Castle Pines Village are getting hit hard with the toxic pollen, particularly those along Castle Pines Drive, Country Club Parkway, Good Hope Drive and Swandyke Drive.
According to countless sources, ragweed is the number one cause of allergic symptoms in the general population, even among those who claim not to have allergies. One ragweed plant can produce enough pollen to blow hundreds of miles. No region of the United States is completely free of ragweed pollen, though concentrations of the sickening plants are especially prevalent in certain areas, Colorado among them.
Information is plentiful concerning how to treat and cope with the misery ragweed brings. But, as with all illnesses, prevention is best and prevention starts with eradicating ragweed plants before they become a bumper crop like those seen along Daniels Park Road near our homes in Castle Pines Village.
Whether those embankments are owned by Douglas County or Castle Pines Village, the ragweed growing there presents a real health hazard and needs to be eradicated. Mowing ragweed before it has a chance to bloom in May and, again, in August would be in the best interest of public health.
Homeowners, too, can help by making sure we recognize ragweed plants and plucking them from the ground before they have a chance to mature and spread.
It is too late this year to stop the heavy concentrations of ragweed pollen already blown into our yards, homes and sinuses. Though we cannot stop ragweed from growing in 2011, we can stop the blooming if mowing schedules and weed abatement efforts include chopping the public enemies down in early May and early August.
Aaaachooo!
Douglas County Weed Management, Jonathan Rife, Weed Inspector: (303) 660-7480
Castle Pines Village Homes Association: (303) 814-1345
Track our pollen levels at: www.pollen.com