[senior citizen]

Our choice to buy on a golf course for the privacy out back is now in question after reading about the spraying ; just wondering if the wind is blowing a certain way, does it get into the lanai or home area?

Or, is it not a concern?

Have been following "resales" on golf courses, with land enough for a pool/birdcage.

We've been told NOT to buy near water, on water or near a nature preserve, thus the below researched newspaper article, which obviously was a long time ago, as the population of The Villages hasn't been 17,000 souls in a very long time............it all gets very complicated.

Can someone answer with regard to WHO DOES THE SPRAYING and HOW MUCH SPRAYING OF THE pesticides applied to the golf courses there is???
How often do they spray?

Everyone knows they are carcinogens........but it seemed back in the late '90s they really didn't know the exact amount which was applied??????

For those concerned with healthy diets and lifestyles, one would think they'd be concerned about "spraying"..........

Thanks in advance.........also, would anyone "share" which area of TV they think is the healthiest choice, even if it's away from a golf course....meaning not close to one.


Is Next-to-nature Sales Pitch A Sham?
The Villages Preserves Include Links Laced With Pesticides, Power Line Land


September 6, 1998|By Robert Sargent Jr. and Ramsey Campbell of The Sentinel Staff
LADY LAKE - Cutting through the suburban sprawl of The Villages' dense forest of neighborhoods, golf courses and shopping centers are the homes of its original denizens.

Burrowing owls, gopher tortoises and Sherman fox squirrels - all rare species of wildlife - live alongside humans in the massive development of more than 17,000 retirees.

Normally when development bulldozes large areas of wildlife habitat, planners set aside remote wetlands or other unsellable land - buffered from the human activity - for the displaced critters to live.

But The Villages came up with a unique scheme that blends nature with asphalt and cinderblock.

The results: A narrow ribbon of land under the high tension power lines that run through the development becomes a wildlife preserve.

So do the golf course roughs that are sprinkled throughout the retirement community.

And they're all named after the developer, his family and his business associates.

Some of the animals, like the large Sherman fox squirrel, have proved amazingly resourceful in adapting to their new environment.

``You have to watch for them ... sometimes they'll rob you blind if you have fruit, crackers or other food on your golf cart,'' said Pete Wahl, administrator for The Villages' governmental arm.

The Villages touts its unique next-to-nature atmosphere in its sales pitch to northern retirees looking for Southern-style living.

But wildlife experts aren't so sure the powerline habitats and golf course greens are friendly environs for the rare species that cohabit in The Villages' world.

Golf courses typically are heavily treated with chemical pesticides and herbicides, which can be fatal to birds and small mammals.

``We find racoons who live near golf courses are stunted and sickly,'' said Donna Morris, who runs a wildlife recovery center in Lady Lake. ``Birds don't do well. Even reptiles don't like living around a golf course.''

She blames the overuse of pesticides - the same type used by many homeowners to keep their lawns lush and green.

And high-tension power lines can be death traps, particularly for migratory birds, said Sandy Brogan, a spokesman for the Florida Audubon Society in Winter Park.

Though both golf courses and power line corridors attract wild animals because of their water hazards and open spaces, they are not good areas for wildlife preserves, she said.

The towering high tension power lines pose a threat in the air, and the pesticide-laden golf greens threaten from the ground.

How The Villages came to create these ``preserves'' is a story with a twist.
The developer didn't intend to provide wildlife habitat - it was designed as a retirement paradise for people. Lots of people.

More than 17,000 people live on 9,500 acres of the development that sprawls across northern Lake and Sumter counties. The community has a half dozen golf courses and a huge commercial and entertainment district. Plans call for a hospital and medical complex.

This year, the developer is expected to be the largest single-site builder in the nation.

But before construction started on a former cow pasture, wildlife experts discovered a concentration of burrowing owls and other rare species and required the developer to provide habitat before building.

Rather than abandon a significant portion of the planned development to nature, The Villages incorporated 900 acres of wildlife preserves - the Sharon L. Morse Owl Preserve, the H. Gary Morse Wildlife Preserve, the D.W. Mathews Family Wildlife Preserve and the Richard L. Murray Wildlife Preserve - into its maze of homes, buildings and golfing greens.

The burrowing owls, for example, are allowed to nest in a fenced field separating a new golf course from homes that border the property on two sides. The property fronts Morse Boulevard and the closest burrow is about 20 feet from the pavement.

The dozen or so burrows are staked off and surrounded by barbed wire, which a Villages environmental consultant said is there to keep cattle from stomping on the owls - even though cattle are long gone from the site.

There are no trees or cover in the grassy field, and that could prove a problem for owls trying to hunt for the small rodents that make up their diet, said Pam Bowen, who is preparing Florida's first burrowing owl census.

But she said the lack of cover also means the owls can see any predators, like hawks that might be trying to feed on them.

The Villages has tried to strike a balance between development and the needs of wildlife, said Bruce Day, principal planner with the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council, which oversaw the Sumter County side of the development.

``The problem is that you can't ask the animals,'' Day said.

Village officials, however, say their wildlife plan works.

``The Villages has successfully developed golf courses in a manner that provides suitable habitat for many different wildlife species,'' said development spokesman Bob Mervine.

A sign behind the post office describes the rare birds, mammals and reptiles that live side-by-side with the afternoon golfers in The Villages - gopher tortoises, burrowing owls, kestrels, snowy herons, Sherman fox squirrels.
A biologist from the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission visits the area twice a year to make an annual report, but there is little meaningful oversight. The information he collects - including population counts of wildlife - is provided by the developer.

While there is a plan on paper to limit pesticides on the golf course lands adjacent to the wildlife preserves, Village officials said they hire outsiders to do much of the greens maintenance work and are not certain how much pesticide is applied a year or how it is applied.

Despite the concerns, wildlife officials say any sort of wildlife preserve with green space is preferable to asphalt.

[gomoho]

I wouldn't let the pesticides on the golf course keep me from buying a golf course lot and all the beauty if could offer. The entire Villages has pesticides used everywhere. If we are not spraying for household bugs that might enter, we are spraying lawns, shrubs and anyother living thing that might harbor something we don't want to see. Not sure who uses what, but it is a reality here and part of the reason everything is so perfect in TV. My concern about a golf course lot would be the noise from the sprinkler systems going off and the workers that start their machines very early in the am to get the courses ready. But maybe a small price to pay for the right lot! Good luck with your selection and where ever you end in TV I'm sure you will be happy.

[Jim 9922]

Probably the only way you will avoid sprays and chemicals around here is to live 29 stories up in a highrise.
Golf courses and common areas are not the only ones you might worry about. Almost everyone chemically treats their properties, themselves or commercially, several times a year. (bugs, weeds, termites, critters, fertlizer, mold, -- you name it) Then there are the CDD trucks that periodically drive through the neighborhoods at dusk "cloud spraying" for flying insects. That process pretty well blankets the whole neighborhood in a chemical. (just like the old DDT trucks of the 50's and 60's)
So it is all around us all the time; a fact of Florida life.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by gomoho

I wouldn't let the pesticides on the golf course keep me from buying a golf course lot and all the beauty if could offer. The entire Villages has pesticides used everywhere. If we are not spraying for household bugs that might enter, we are spraying lawns, shrubs and anyother living thing that might harbor something we don't want to see. Not sure who uses what, but it is a reality here and part of the reason everything is so perfect in TV. My concern about a golf course lot would be the noise from the sprinkler systems going off and the workers that start their machines very early in the am to get the courses ready. But maybe a small price to pay for the right lot! Good luck with your selection and where ever you end in TV I'm sure you will be happy.

We were impressed with the beauty of the landscape all over The Villages. It did appear perfectly beautiful.

This is actually the first time I'm thinking of the spraying that goes on for the golf courses. I think I know where the high tension lines are as hubby drove the golf cart under them on or near the "exercise trail" while taking a short cut. I have several maps that show the various "preserves".......

We both get up very very very early so I doubt if any sprinkler noise would bother us....ditto for the mowers.

Thank you for your input........one minute we want to and the next we think we'd be better off just "wintering" there but keeping our home here.

As they say:
Caveat emptor in English :
Let the buyer beware, principle of commerce stating that if no warranty is provided then a customer buys at his own risk.

The purchaser is responsible for checking whether the goods suit his need.
Phrases modeled on this one replace emptor with lector, subscriptor, venditor, utilitor: "reader", "signer", "seller", "user".

Mature adults who have bought and sold many homes during their approximately 40 to 50 years upon retirement, realize that to buy, only to resell again, at a loss, is foolhardy.

I’d hasten to guess that most of the retirees to the Villages are not giddy teenagers or young 20’s buying their first home.

There are so very many “resales” that it does make one wonder. They can’t all be dying off at the same time. I'd say some have to do with the critters out of the preserves, like the coyotes and such, and others with the heat intolerance.......but this is the first time I've thought of the carcinogens.

Up here they don't even have to spray for mosquitos as we don't have any. Knock on wood. Up in the mountains, there are the black flies, but they are seasonal. I figure one more winter should do the trick. Again, thank you.

[jane032657]

I am curious why you were told not purchase by the water or a preserve? I bought on a preserve by Sumter Lake as well as by Live Oaks Park, so I see both and am so happy with our lot. The magnificent variety of birds, views, sounds of the crickets and bullfrogs, the water view to me is fabulous and it must be to all the other people as the view lots on the preserve sell before anyone can get to them to look. They can't spray any more than anywhere else it seems to me because there is not shortage of bugs....Curious what you were told, thanks!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by Jim 9922

Probably the only way you will avoid sprays and chemicals around here is to live 29 stories up in a highrise.
Golf courses and common areas are not the only ones you might worry about. Almost everyone chemically treats their properties, themselves or commercially, several times a year. (bugs, weeds, termites, critters, fertlizer, mold, -- you name it) Then there are the CDD trucks that periodically drive through the neighborhoods at dusk "cloud spraying" for flying insects. That process pretty well blankets the whole neighborhood in a chemical. (just like the old DDT trucks of the 50's and 60's)
So it is all around us all the time; a fact of Florida life.

Thanks for reminding me of the old DDT trucks from our childhood in the 1950's in New Jersey.........yes, they did spray for the mosquitos. Even our moms would spray the screens with the hand pump of DDT or whatever.

I guess we already are "pickled". Probably back in our youth, they didn't realize that what they were spraying were carcinogens.

Thanks.........

[billethkid]

the other you will "enjoy" are the frequent errant shots that may wind up in your yard and some will hit the house.

If you have never lived on a golf course before, know it will happen and depending on the lot location, happen very frequently.

If you have a low tolerance for the above, or frequent visitors looking for their ball....then please don't build a house on the golf course.

Also keep in mind, you ARE liable for the damage to your from a golf ball, not the player.

It is always an entertaining discussion when one who lives on a golf course goes into a rant about all the above.

It comes with the decision to live on the golf course!!

The majority who live on the golf course know and tolerate the above. And the majority of players who might damage a home with their ball will seek out the home owner.

As usual it is the 5% that make up the grumps in both categories.

btk

[jeffy]

Our home is on the golf course ( Palmer ). We absolutely love it. My biggest concern if you buy golf front is being "sprayed" by golf balls. This would elevate my blood pressure. Not that people hit my house, as that cant be helped most times, but that i bought in the line of fire. We have never had one ball on our property. As dumb luck had it that we bought out of the line of fire. Try and find a home at or just behind a tee box or otherwise situated so you dont get hit.

We dont mind the sprinkler noise or the early morning mowing that takes place. The sprinkler noise is kind of soothing. Kind of the same as a DISTANT train whistle is. And we are early risers so the morning mowing isnt obtrusive and only lasts about 5 minutes each morning.

jeff

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by billethkid

the other you will "enjoy" are the frequent errant shots that may wind up in your yard and some will hit the house.

If you have never lived on a golf course before, know it will happen and depending on the lot location, happen very frequently.

If you have a low tolerance for the above, or frequent visitors looking for their ball....then please don't build a house on the golf course.

Also keep in mind, you ARE liable for the damage to your from a golf ball, not the player.

It is always an entertaining discussion when one who lives on a golf course goes into a rant about all the above.

It comes with the decision to live on the golf course!!

The majority who live on the golf course know and tolerate the above. And the majority of players who might damage a home with their ball will seek out the home owner.

As usual it is the 5% that make up the grumps in both categories.

btk

Very interesting. Well, we've only lived on one for a single month last November in TV when we rented.

They must have all been really good as not one ball ended up at our place.

Just think it would be nice to have the big open green space out back.
WE're not grumps. Unless they gave one of us a concussion. But, thanks for the reminder.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by jeffy

Our home is on the golf course ( Palmer ). We absolutely love it. My biggest concern if you buy golf front is being "sprayed" by golf balls. This would elevate my blood pressure. Not that people hit my house, as that cant be helped most times, but that i bought in the line of fire. We have never had one ball on our property. As dumb luck had it that we bought out of the line of fire. Try and find a home at or just behind a tee box or otherwise situated so you dont get hit.

We dont mind the sprinkler noise or the early morning mowing that takes place. The sprinkler noise is kind of soothing. Kind of the same as a DISTANT train whistle is. And we are early risers so the morning mowing isnt obtrusive and only lasts about 5 minutes each morning.

jeff

I can echo what you just said above..........and thanks for the insight.
The house was on a cul de sac and the golf course was slightly over to the right of the birdcage......beautiful view of the entire course from the master bedroom..........across the other way (across the road) was the Legacy Country club, I think that was the name of it. We could see the players on both "hills"........one side of our rental house was not far from the golf cart path but everyone was polite and quiet.......no problems.

[lovesports]

Use search, there just was a thread on this topic.

[mulligan]

The most common cause of death in TV is excessive worry about all the things that may be cause for worry........Live more worry less. There's not all that much time left!!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by jane032657

I am curious why you were told not purchase by the water or a preserve? I bought on a preserve by Sumter Lake as well as by Live Oaks Park, so I see both and am so happy with our lot. The magnificent variety of birds, views, sounds of the crickets and bullfrogs, the water view to me is fabulous and it must be to all the other people as the view lots on the preserve sell before anyone can get to them to look. They can't spray any more than anywhere else it seems to me because there is not shortage of bugs....Curious what you were told, thanks!

Your location sounds perfectly lovely.

Many told me not to buy near water or ponds or preserves.
They didn't go "into detail" as I figure it's an unspoken knowledge.
I figured it was critters of assorted variety.

Even in Vermont there are swamps and wetlands as they now call them.
People just know not to build a home or buy a home in such a location.
We've known people in town, two lawyers raising their children for years in a certain home, finally "had it" and moved.....due to unwanted visitations for which they had to set out traps. Later heard that the entire street had "issues".

In our own property, approximately 4 to 5 years ago, we had a huge army of groundhogs invade us.......our little grandson (at the time) explained to me how they all lived under the hill where the shrubs were in "rooms" and "tunnels" and such.........we had bulldozers and cats to excavate and yank out all the old shrubs.........had the entire back re landscaped.......destroyed all the tunnels...........took out the patio and put on a large deck and later a screened in porch over the deck.......haven't seen a single groundhog (which are large rodents) since...........but that have a heart trap got a lot of mileage as hubby would take them away each evening.........some very ornery ones.

I think because he was "feeding them" apples with peanut butter, etc. he got the entire neighborhood to come on down and have a feast........can't believe all of them were living under our hill..........it was a huge army.
AT the time we had crawling grandbabies who would visit and I was concerned that one would come out of the shrubs.........they were brazen. The groundhogs, not the babies.....

[graciegirl]

Senior,

It is wise to consider all options...

But, you may be losing time in your considerations.

I am glad I am here and I am one who sold one house to buy another, people do it here all of the time.They are easy to sell by owner and it is cheaper to move, the cost of movers is low compared to other areas.

If you don't want to live on a golf course, consider a preserve or pond.

Or even a west facing lot with neighbors behind like we have.

It's better than we ever dreamed.

If someone had told me in my forties that I would be having more fun in my seventies, I would have smelled their breath.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by mulligan

The most common cause of death in TV is excessive worry about all the things that may be cause for worry........Live more worry less. There's not all that much time left!!

Good advice, but I'm one of the calmest people going.
Not worried. Just doing the homework. Been there, done that.

No time left? You mean December 2012?