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This is the nastiest-looking pollen in recent memory for me. I think because the worst days of it have either been immediately preceded or followed by rain events so it seems to be much more "sticky" than usual. Less clouds of dust in the air that grit your teeth which is refreshing but now it's just caked onto everything in a slimy/dried-booger texture.
People love saying this - is there link that shows this is true? I'm not saying it's not, but I don't think I've ever seen anything to back it up.
If I touch pine pollen, and touch anywhere near my eye, my eyeball blows up. I have a hard time believing that isn't also happening inside of my nose and in my sinuses.
The difference is, that pine pollen getting into your eye/nose is causing a response to fine particulates, just like a response would be to fine sawdust or something similar in your eye/nose. Those big pine grains are abrasive and irritating, just like you say. However, they are not allergenic. You do not get an allergy response, which involves the histamine pathway being activated in your body, and all the consequences that follow. So yes, pine pollen is aggravating, but if you don't rub you eyes (for example), nothing will happen.
I just checked and yesterday Mar 28, the main allergens were juniper/cedars and hickory. The main pollen sources were pine (duh!), oak, birch, and ash. Even my computer screen, in the house, has pine pollen on it!
After making this strong comment, though, it is entirely possible that a few people might be allergic to one of the proteins in pine pollen. Pine has very little protein on the surface and those proteins are not strong allergens. But all proteins are potential allergens so theoretically a rare person could be allergic. The problem is that there are so many other trees producing pollen at the same time that it is much more likely that those are the culprits since those other trees have well studied allergenic properties.
Last edited by luv4horses; 03-29-2017 at 07:18 AM..
This is the nastiest-looking pollen in recent memory for me. I think because the worst days of it have either been immediately preceded or followed by rain events so it seems to be much more "sticky" than usual. Less clouds of dust in the air that grit your teeth which is refreshing but now it's just caked onto everything in a slimy/dried-booger texture.
It reminds me of crumbled up hard boiled egg yolks.
Maybe (?) it's not technically an "allergic" reaction. But I know that it causes my throat to get dry, which causes me to breath through my mouth, and that causes sore thoat. My eyes get dry and scratchy (maybe from the "big" pollen grains), and my mouth tastes like crap for three weeks while I breath in the yellow funk.
Allergic or other, it causes some kind of reaction. Calling it "not an allergy" does not relieve the discomfort, and I tend to get it pretty mild compared to others....
Yes, my kids have been complaining of dry scratchy throats the last few days. They spend a lot of time outside. I know it's the pollen irritating them. They aren't allergic in the classic sense that histamines are being unleashed in their bodies but I don't see how anyone wouldn't be irritated in SOME way by the pollen here. I was at my son's baseball game the other night and tears were just running down my face, not from the play [they won] but from my eyes being irritated, although they did not feel scratchy or anything.
DH hosed off the porch and deck the other day and it has not built back up significantly so maybe we are close to the end of this.
Yes, my kids have been complaining of dry scratchy throats the last few days. They spend a lot of time outside. I know it's the pollen irritating them. They aren't allergic in the classic sense that histamines are being unleashed in their bodies but I don't see how anyone wouldn't be irritated in SOME way by the pollen here. I was at my son's baseball game the other night and tears were just running down my face, not from the play [they won] but from my eyes being irritated, although they did not feel scratchy or anything.
DH hosed off the porch and deck the other day and it has not built back up significantly so maybe we are close to the end of this.
Agreed.
It doesn't have to be an allergen to be an irritant. Breathing that stuff in, having it collect in your tear ducts, nostrils, and in your teeth, is definitely irritating.
I'm a native North Carolinian and one of the lucky ones. Neither pine nor any other pollen really bothers me much. Only once or twice in my lifetime have I had a reaction to pollen. Doesn't bother me much as a foreign matter irritant either. Our dog busted out our window last Friday so we just opened up all the windows in the house and it just doesn't bother us much. We live in a heavily wooded neighborhood too with pines adjacent (probably too close) to the house.
It has not bothered me till this year. I had to take out my contacts yesterday and I NEVER take them out - put them in as soon as I get up in the morning and take them out right before bed.
I open my windows anyway if it's nice out though - it gets in no matter what anyway!
I must chuckle at the post that said the pollen storm must be over because the male cones have turned brown. The past two days I have carefully lowered some of my pine branches and lightly tapped the little cones. Poof! A great cloud of yellow comes out. We are in the midst of it. Guessing it will be gone in two weeks.
I must chuckle at the post that said the pollen storm must be over because the male cones have turned brown. The past two days I have carefully lowered some of my pine branches and lightly tapped the little cones. Poof! A great cloud of yellow comes out. We are in the midst of it. Guessing it will be gone in two weeks.
That was me! No where near the amount of pine pollen this year as compared to other years in my neck of the woods.
I'd expect to see pollen still on the brown pods that have not fallen. Point was that if you see brown the worst of it is over.
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