Here’s Why Weeds Should Stay In Oklahoma Lawns

The grass is greening, trees are blooming and flowers are sprouting across Oklahoma as spring begins. With that, most Oklahomans are contacting their local lawn service or dusting off their spray cans to tackle weeds. But experts are urging Oklahomans to leave their weeds alone to give pollinators more food sources.

Over the past several years, experts have been collecting data regarding the decrease in pollinator populations, particularly bees and monarch butterfliers. Pollinators, like bees and monarch butterfliers, are crucial to the entire ecosystem, because without them, "the human race and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive." Pollinators are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the world's food production, and they produce "larger, more flavorful fruits and higher crop yields."

Entomologists from Washington State University recently reported that bee colonies across the United States could decline up to 70 percent in 2025. The reason for substantial loss is due to a "a combination of nutrition deficiencies, mite infestations, viral diseases and possible pesticide exposure during the previous pollinating season."

And last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it is considering adding monarch butterflies to the threatened species list by the end of 2025. This decisions was driven by the monarch butterflies decreased population over the last several years, and Oklahoma has had a direct effect.

Oklahoma is a center point for the monarch butterfly's spring and fall migrations, and over the years, the state has significantly reduced the butterfly's main food source, milkweed, due to drought and modern landscaping. This has made it nearly impossible for the monarchs to locate food and to reproduce.

Oklahoma is a pollinator hotspot.

In a video from the Sam Nobile Museum, University of Oklahoma professor Dr. Keng-Lou James Hung, a pollinator biologist, discusses how Oklahoma is a pollinator hotspot and is home to a diverse range of pollinators. And over the last several years, the habitat for most pollinators has been destroyed due to climate change and habitat destruction, like the removal of weeds, decrease in natural flowering plants, etc.

Oklahoma residents can help pollinators by planting native wildflowers and practicing low maintenance landscaping.

Since Oklahoma is a pollinator hotspot and a center point for monarch butterflies, residents should consider doing their part in helping maintain the pollinator populations. One way is to consider planting native wildflowers. Most Oklahoma-owned greenhouses offer wildflower seed packets that can easily be distributed in gardens and can be easily maintained overtime.

Another way to help pollinators is by practicing low maintenance landscaping, which can include leaving weeds in yards. Weeds are just undesirable plants and are often removed only because people don't like the look of them. Early spring weeds actually provide a food source and habitat for pollinators, and some of them die off naturally in the summer due to the extreme heat.

Residents who opt to keep their weeds will save time and money by leaving the spring weeds alone, and will enjoy the butterflies and other pollinators that will visit their yard this spring!