North Texas' male trees causing allergies

[TexasStooge]

By DON WALL / WFAA ABC 8

If you're one of those who've entered the season of sneezing, you are by no means alone.

Experts say this is shaping up to be a brutal allergy season.

Rose Mary Taylor says this is the worst year ever for her allergies.

It's due to the rain and the hot dry days, stimulating new growth and pollen but another factor could be the sex of the trees.

That's right the sex of trees - boy trees and girl trees.

In North Texas, we have a lot of male trees. Males you see are lower maintenance, seedless, podless and litter free. However, they do produce more pollen than the female trees.

"We get a lot of complaints of oak trees, maple, hackberry, willow, walnut, those are the problematic trees in Texas," said one expert.

Add in cottonwoods and mountain cedar.

It also turns out, many of the people who do the most planting, could be triggering their own allergy attacks.

"They're putting in lawns, they're putting in trees, and these are the things that will eventually cause problems for them," said allergist, Dr. Jeffrey Adelglass.

Shalina Bodhrani knows she's allergic to oak, and she's got a big oak tree in the yard.

"This is sad, but it's such an old tree now, I'd hate to chop it down."

One big problem, the trees are not labeled according to sex, and it's almost impossible to tell the difference.

The only way to know for sure is to place a special order with the grower.

"I'm going to tell my husband as soon as I get home, don't plant any more male trees," Bodhrani added.

According to Pollen.com the five worst cities you can be in today if you suffer from allergies are Boston; Concord, New Hampshire; Worcester, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut and Albany, New York.

The five best cities for pollen levels today are Memphis, Oklahoma City, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Little Rock and Tulsa.

[LaPlaceFF]

Yeah right, boy trees and girl trees....

[gboudx]

Count me amongst those having major allergy problems this year. Even with taking Flonase and Allegra, I still have some issues. The allergies basically gave me chronic sinusitis. I did 2 antibiotic treatments for it, but it comes back in a few weeks. Guess I'll need to tough it out until the allergens quit spazzing out.