Ragweed Causing Watery Eyes And Running Noses Into October

If your eyes are watering and your nose is running, you can likely blame ragweed.

Ragweed grows annually every summer and can grow pretty much anywhere. A single plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains. UT Extension Agent Dill Hughes said ragweed has very light pollen that can travel long distances in the breeze

“It is a competitive weed in a lot of place.” Hughes said. “It just grows, there’s a lot of seeds out there. Most folks don’t control they just let it go, and it goes to seed and reproduces and does what it does.”

Experts say the the tall golden ragweed plants often get blamed for allergies, but it more likely the tooth-leaved ragweed that lives low in the grass. Hughes said the plant begins growing in August and the season can run into October.

“That plant has to grow, and then what happens is that it produces its reproductive parts, which includes a pollen and that is this time of year and that’s why that happens,” Hughes said. “You know, Depending on the weather we have, whether its dry, whether its wet, whether its the growing conditions that plant prefers, has a lot to do with when it gets to that stage.”

Hughes said ragweed has been here since before the Ancient Greeks and is here to stay.

“You probably can’t avoid the allergies in realistic terms,” Hughes said. “If you have ragweed around your home you can control the plant by doing some mowing and spraying. You can control it close to you, but you got to remember pollen travels a long distance, and its going to be hard to get completely away from it, because you might leave your house, but you may go somewhere else where its close by. Unfortunately, that’s just one of those things that some folks deal with.”

Hughes said other plants also produce pollen and cause allergies not just ragweed.

“Ragweed is probably not the only one to blame,” Hughes said. “Although, it’s probably very prevalent and most people say okay it’s ragweed. But there’s other plants also that help you have your allergies that you’ve got.”