I hate pollen

[pgp]

This time of year is making car washing difficult. I did a quick rinseless wash with Duragloss. As I came back around the car, it was covered in pollen. I was just near the edge of a tree. I wish I had a garage.

[MisterSnoop]

You gotta live with it to some degree. Gonna have to take the car out of the garage at some point. Yesterday I went to a self wash bay just to use the pressure washer and spot free rinse to blast the pollen off. Worked pretty well since the car was otherwise clean.

The rear hatch of my car gets it the worst from using the rear wiper. It looks like someone spilled mustard on my car.

[Bert]

I know the feeling. With my dad`s arthritis getting worse, I often wash his and my car together on the weekend. I will get the first done, then go on to the next and when I finish the second one, the first already has a noticeable layer of pollen on it, lol. If I had the money, I would definitely get a garage.

[Lonnie]

Any idea what specific trees or plants are giving off this pollen?
Pines are terrible, as are birch. They are somewhat "sticky" in nature and when it rains it creates a real gooey mess.

We in Wisconsin are also coming up on the time when budding trees will start leafing out, dropping their buds that have been protecting the leaf. Some of these buds can have a sticky sap on them that adheres to whatever it drops on and can cause discoloration on clothes or painted surfaces. Balsam poplar is one, but THE worst are cotton wood trees. This ubiquitous tree found around water sources like we have in Wisconsin and especially here in Green Bay are a REAL pain in the butt. The yellow sap will stick to EVERYTHING and it will discolor and stain whatever it adheres to, like white exterior vehicle paint or boat gel coat. I have found that 3M`s General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner/Remover Part No. 08984 works very well to remove the sap, BUT if it has been there for more than 36 hours, the yellow stain will generally require some type of abrasive to remove the stain, even as simple as a hand polishing to full-blown machine compounding and polishing. And yes, if left to sit in the sun for that length of time, it will etch paint (not sure on gel coat, however). While the etching may not be as bad as pine sap that has been a vehicle paint for a while (more than 30 days), it is still undesired etching of some sort on a vehicle exterior surface.

As a side note, does anyone else suffer from "seasonal allergies" to tree and plant pollen?? Mine are not THAT bad and ceritizine Hydrochloride (generic Zertec) works OK for me. Diphenhydramine HCl (generic Benadryl) works even better, but I hate the side effect of being tired and "loopy".

[Desertnate]

This time of year is making car washing difficult. I did a quick rinseless wash with Duragloss. As I came back around the car, it was covered in pollen. I was just near the edge of a tree. I wish I had a garage.

Not to be a downer for you, but having a garage only means it might build up pollen a bit slower. Since it`s everywhere in the air right now, the minute you pull it out, the stuff will start to accumulate.

I feel the pain you and the others mention. I`ll be drying the car after a hand wash and watch the pollen grains start landing on the roof while I`m drying... I just live with it and know I`ll be washing more frequently for a while. Fortunately, since I use coatings if our cars get caught out in a good hard rain, most of it will rinse away.

Any idea what specific trees or plants are giving off this pollen?
Pines are terrible, as are birch. They are somewhat "sticky" in nature and when it rains it creates a real gooey mess.

The only one I can nail down are the pines/evergreens which tend to be very fine, dusty, and bright yellow. I know that because I get clouds of the stuff while mowing around my Norway Spruce tree. We have some many varieties of deorative and hardwoods it would be hard to tell when they all good into full pollen mode this time of year. There is one that drops gigantic pollen spores that are individually visable when they land on a dark colored car and can been seen blowing through the beam of the porchlight on a breezy evening.

Balsam poplar is one, but THE worst are cotton wood trees. This ubiquitous tree found around water sources like we have in Wisconsin and especially here in Green Bay are a REAL pain in the butt. The yellow sap will stick to EVERYTHING and it will discolor and stain whatever it adheres to, like white exterior vehicle paint or boat gel coat.

I grew up around the cottonwood trees in the Denver area but somehow avoided the sap. The fluffy seeds blowing around is bad enough. We have a family member in Seattle who lives near a river and there are GIGANTIC cotonwoods everywhere and those seads clog up vents on homes and car radiators all the time. A real pain.

As a side note, does anyone else suffer from "seasonal allergies" to tree and plant pollen?? Mine are not THAT bad and ceritizine Hydrochloride (generic Zertec) works OK for me. Diphenhydramine HCl (generic Benadryl) works even better, but I hate the side effect of being tired and "loopy".

For me it depends on how much they unleash. This year, spring has come on slowly so each variety of tree and bloomed/pollenated at a different time and at a fairly slow rate so I haven`d had to take many meds. When we have a "snap" in the weather like we did last year which saw temps go from the 40`s to the 80`s in the span of two weeks, I was really hurting. Every tree exploded into full total bloom all at the same time in a matter of days.

Alavert is the only one that seems to work from me. Many alergy meds are either ineffective, leave me really jittery, or both. Alavert seems to hit a happy middle.