Why fall yard care could start with doing less – but not nothing

Rites, and wrongs, of fall

Manjot Kaur Sidhu, University of Maine

Every autumn, homeowners and gardeners tend to engage in a familiar ritual. As trees shed their leaves, people drag out rakes, leaf blowers and lawn bags to strip their yards bare before winter arrives.

It is a tidy habit rooted in aesthetics, but ecologically, clearing away fallen leaves strips the very foundation of local ecosystems. Far from dead debris requiring disposal, this fallen foliage forms a dynamic layer and a biological interface that drives nutrient cycling and is essential for soil health and the environment, including biodiversity.

As a researcher of plant growth in yards and gardens, I would recommend leaving leaves on the ground. There, they can provide essential winter habitat for native pollinators – even in places that don’t have freezing temperatures. And they act as a nutrient-dense, natural mulch for the soil.

Here is the science behind why the first step of fall yard care could simply be doing less – along with practical ways to keep your yard looking neat while nourishing the ecosystem underneath.

A winter sanctuary for native pollinators

To understand why leaf litter matters, it helps to look closely at what happens beneath the surface as temperatures drop. While honeybees pass the winter in sheltered hives, the vast majority of North America’s native pollinators do not.

Leaves on the ground are part of the natural cycle
of nutrients. Manjot Sidhu, CC BY-SA

Up to 70% of native bee species, including many insects’ cocoons and larvae, nest in the ground. Fertilized queen bumblebees burrow just a few inches into the soil or hide under dense leaf mulch to survive the freezing months ahead, to lay eggs in the following spring.

Raking, bagging and blowing leaves away destroys this crucial winter nursery.

Many other insects depend on the shelter of fallen foliage:

South County man confirmed with case of life-threatening tick-borne Powassan disease

Tick bites can happen at almost any time of year

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is reporting a confirmed case of the tick-borne Powassan virus disease (Powassan) detected in a Rhode Island resident. This resident is a male in his 60s who lives in Washington County. He began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in late August.   

“We all need to be thinking about tick prevention measures when outdoors,” said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “Repel and reduce your exposure to ticks, check your body for ticks, and be sure to remove ticks if you find one on yourself, a family member, or a pet. Ticks are tiny. You may not be able to feel them or spot them right away. The sooner you find and remove them, the better your chances are at preventing the serious health issues caused by illnesses like Powassan and Lyme Disease.”    

This is Rhode Island’s third case of Powassan in 2026 and the eleventh case overall since it was first reported in Rhode Island in 2016. Powassan is a tick-borne disease that is found mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region of the United States and in eastern Canada. Over 397 cases of Powassan have been reported in the US in the past 10 years (2016-2025). Powassan cases are rare, but the reported number of cases has increased in recent years. In 2025, there were 76 cases reported nationwide, which represented the most Powassan cases ever in a year. That year, there were 27 cases of Powassan reported in New England: 12 cases in Massachusetts, 6 cases in Maine, 5 cases in Connecticut, and 4 cases in New Hampshire.   

Initial symptoms of Powassan include fever, headache, vomiting, and generalized weakness. The disease usually progresses to meningoencephalitis, which may include meningeal signs, altered mental status, seizures, aphasia (difficulty understanding or speaking), paresis (muscular weakness or paralysis), movement disorders, or cranial nerve palsies. People with severe Powassan disease often need to be hospitalized. There is no vaccine or treatment for Powassan, so preventing exposure to ticks is the best strategy to avoid this disease.   

Mice may drive Lyme disease more than deer

Hunting season on mice?

By Amanda Watford, Rhode Island Current

For more than three decades, researchers have been tracking ticks, mice, oak trees and other wildlife in a New York forest to better understand what makes Lyme disease more likely to spread.

Their latest findings challenge some long-held assumptions — including the idea that deer are a major driver of Lyme disease risk.

Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a nonprofit environmental research group, found that white-footed mice, not white-tailed deer, are closely linked to the number of young blacklegged ticks, the life stage most likely to infect people with Lyme disease.

A year with a large mouse population was followed by about a 40% increase in nymphal ticks the following year. But more mice don’t necessarily mean a higher percentage of ticks carrying Lyme bacteria. Researchers initially expected the two to rise together because white-footed mice are especially good at transmitting the bacteria to ticks.

The researchers found that other animals, including skunks, squirrels and opossums, also feed larval ticks. Because those animals are less efficient at transmitting the bacteria, the mix of hosts can affect how many ticks become infected.

In other words, mouse populations can help predict how many ticks there will be, but not necessarily how many will carry Lyme bacteria.

The researchers also found that large crops of acorns can set off a chain reaction: More acorns mean more food for mice, which can mean more ticks two years later.

Second Powassan case of 2026 confirmed

RI health officials urge precautions to reduce tick exposure

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island health officials confirmed Thursday the state’s second case of Powassan virus, a rare tickborne illness that can cause fatal encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.

A Newport County man in his 70s tested positive for the virus after experiencing symptoms in late July, the Rhode Island Department of Health confirmed. State health officials did not divulge his current condition or whether the man was hospitalized.

The man is the Ocean State’s 10th documented case of Powassan since the virus was first reported in the state in 2016 and follows another case reported in June, when a Providence County man in his 60s went to the hospital after first experiencing symptoms in May. The Providence County man spent time in the hospital but was recovering at home when RIDOH shared the case details with the public on June 26.

Before this year, the last two reports of Powassan in Rhode Island were in 2024. A Washington County woman in her 80s died after developing neurological symptoms related to Powassan disease in 2023.

Powassan is a viral infection much rarer than that more well-known tickborne illness, Lyme disease, which is bacterial. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received around 89,000 reported cases of Lyme in 2023. RIDOH data cites 2,563 cases of Lyme in Rhode Island in 2024.

There were 76 documented Powassan cases nationwide in 2025 — a record-breaking high. Twenty-seven occurred in New England, and from 2016 through 2025, there were about 397 reported nationwide.

In the Northeast, the virus is carried by Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer or blacklegged tick.

How to avoid tick bites in your yard or while hiking in the woods, and what to do if one starts feasting on you

Tick bites are not good for you

Amanda Roome, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Ticks can be tiny. An adult deer tick is on the left
and a nymph of the same species is on the right,
both sitting on an adult’s finger. CDC

Ticks are small, and you might not notice when they bite, but the diseases they carry can dramatically harm your health.

Each year, deer ticks alone cause an estimated 476,000 new U.S. cases of Lyme disease, which can do long-term damage to a person’s joints, heart and nervous system. You may be hearing about the lone star tick, as well – it can trigger Alpha Gal syndrome, which can leave infected people allergic to red meat and its byproducts, including certain vaccines, medications and products with gelatin.

Several other tick-borne illnesses, including Heartland virus disease, Powassan virus disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis, can cause serious health problems and, in severe cases, even death.

2026 has been a tough year, with emergency room visits linked to tick bites running high going into summer.

So how can you avoid getting bitten, and what preventive measures actually work? I’m the co-director of the Tick-Borne Disease Center at Binghamton University. Here are some of the questions my team hears – and some advice:

1. Why should I worry about ticks, and how do I know if I’ve been infected?

Ticks can really pack a punch when it comes to how sick they make you. Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, both caused by bacteria that deer ticks can carry, are the most common tick-borne diseases we see in the U.S.

About 70% to 80% of people with Lyme disease will see a rash develop that often looks like a bull’s-eye, and they’ll experience flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, chills, body aches and fatigue. Antibiotics can control the infection, but only if the disease is quickly treated.

Would Hunters Take a Lyme Disease Vaccine?

We Asked

By Bram Sable-Smith

(Kyle Pyatt for KFF Health News)

It’s tick season, possibly the worst in a decade.

More and more Americans are being exposed to these parasites as climate change expands the range where they can survive. 

That means more people are also exposed to the bevy of health conditions they can cause, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the alpha-gal-triggered red meat allergy, and, most common of all, Lyme disease.

For the latter, there may be some additional protection on the horizon. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Valneva announced this spring they plan to seek regulatory approval for a vaccine to protect against Lyme disease. A previous vaccine for Lyme became available in the late 1990s but was pulled only three years later due to lawsuits, public fear of side effects, and a lack of interest.

It’s unclear whether this latest stab at a Lyme disease vaccine will get a warmer reception if it’s approved, especially in the postcovid era of vaccine skepticism.

For a sense of how it might go over with rural populations at high risk of Lyme, KFF Health News spoke with a group of hunters.

Few people spend more time in the woods exposed to ticks.

At the same time, as a collective, hunters skew conservative, rural, and male, according to a survey from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. And these are identities associated with increased hesitancy about or resistance to vaccines, according to Ashley Kirzinger, associate director for Public Opinion and Survey Research at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.

At the same time, few people spend more time in the woods exposed to ticks and the possibility of Lyme disease.

Rhode Island man contracts rare tick-borne illness

RIDOH Confirms a Case of Rare Tick-Borne Viral Infection (Powassan)

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is reporting a confirmed case of the tick-borne Powassan virus disease (Powassan) detected in a Rhode Island resident. This resident is a male in his 60s who lives in Providence County. He began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in May. He was hospitalized but is now recovering at home.  

“With summer now here, we all need to be thinking about tick prevention measures when outdoors,” said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “Repel and reduce your exposure to ticks, check your body for ticks, and be sure to remove ticks if you find one on yourself, a family member, or a pet. Ticks are tiny. You may not be able to feel them or spot them right away. The sooner you find and remove them, the better your chances are at preventing the serious health issues caused by illnesses like Powassan and Lyme Disease.” 

This is Rhode Island’s first case of Powassan since 2024 and the ninth case overall since it was first reported in Rhode Island in 2016. Powassan is a tick-borne disease that is found mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and in eastern Canada. Over 397 cases of Powassan have been reported in the United States in the past 10 years (2016-2025). 

Ticks already sending more people to the ER in RI

Rhode Island has a tick expert in its own backyard.

RINewsToday News Team

Tick season is not waiting for summer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says emergency room visits for tick bites are running higher than normal in many parts of the country. In all U.S. regions except the South Central United States, weekly rates of ER visits for tick bites are the highest for this time of year since 2017.

For Rhode Island, the warning is especially relevant. The state remains a high-risk area for Lyme disease and other tickborne illnesses, with cases typically rising during the warmer months. The Rhode Island Department of Health says most Lyme disease cases are reported during the summer, with a peak in July. Washington County consistently has the highest Lyme disease rate in Rhode Island, with a 2024 rate of 723 cases per 100,000 people.

And Rhode Island has one of the country’s best-known tick resources in its own backyard: the University of Rhode Island’s TickEncounter Resource Center.

Led by Dr. Thomas Mather — URI’s “TickGuy” and one of the nation’s foremost tick experts — TickEncounter provides practical, plain-language guidance on tick identification, tick-bite prevention, and what to do after finding a tick. URI’s TickEncounter site also includes tools and videos to help people understand which ticks are active and how to reduce the risk of tickborne disease.

Mather has long emphasized that conditions matter. Ticks do not like dry weather, while damp, shady, leafy areas create more favorable tick habitat. In a URI summer-prevention update, he said Rhode Islanders can often judge tick risk by looking at yard conditions, including whether lawns and surrounding areas are dry or damp.

Ticks are not the only warm-weather pest concern. The National Pest Management Association is also warning that ticks, mosquitoes, ants and stinging insects become increasingly active as summer approaches. Mosquitoes can breed in small amounts of standing water and may transmit illnesses such as West Nile virus and Zika virus. Stinging insects are also a seasonal risk, especially for people with allergies.

The advice is simple, but important: act early, before pest activity peaks.

What to do now

Warmer temps bring soaring tick populations – here’s how to stay safe from Lyme disease

I HATE ticks!

Lakshmi Chauhan, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Northeast and Upper Midwest states have the highest incidence of Lyme disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Spring’s warmer weather lures people outdoors – and into possible contact with ticks that spread Lyme disease.

Already, the 2026 tick season is booming. On April 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that emergency room visits due to tick bites are at their highest level since 2017. That may portend an especially severe season for Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

State health departments reported more than 89,000 cases of Lyme disease in 2023, the last year for which data is available. But public health experts believe that close to 500,000 people in the U.S. get Lyme disease every year.

As an infectious disease doctor with experience treating some of this infection’s long-term outcomes, I know that Lyme disease can be tricky because people often don’t notice tick bites and may overlook early symptoms of an infection. But left untreated, the infection can cause serious lingering – and even permanent – health issues.

Here’s what you need to know about Lyme disease to stay safe this season:

New vaccine against Lyme disease seeking approval. Will Bobby Jr. give it?

Lyme disease vaccine shows over 70% efficacy in phase 3 trial

Not perfect but good enough

Laine Bergeson

An experimental six-strain Lyme vaccine has demonstrated more than 70% efficacy in preventing Lyme disease in people aged five years and older, according to a statement yesterday from Pfizer. 

Despite falling short of its primary statistical goal in a phase 3 randomized controlled clinical trial, in part because fewer than expected Lyme disease cases were reported during the study period, the vaccine showed about 70% to 73% efficacy in preventing confirmed Lyme disease after a four-dose series. In a secondary analysis, the vaccine did meet the statistical goal. 

The vaccine, being developed by Pfizer and Valneva, was studied at sites in areas of high Lyme disease incidence in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Pfizer said the reduction in infections is “clinically meaningful” and indicated that the companies will submit the vaccine for regulatory approval. If approved, it would be the first Lyme vaccine available for humans in more than two decades.

Six Federal Scientists Run Out by Trump Talk About the Work Left Undone

Trump and Bobby Jr. ousted some of our very best medical experts

KFF Health News

Marc Ernstoff, a physician who has pioneered immunotherapy research and treatments for cancer patients, said his work as a federal scientist proved untenable under the Trump administration.

Philip Stewart, a Rocky Mountain Laboratories researcher focused on tick-borne diseases, said he retired two years earlier than planned because of hurdles that made it too challenging to do his job well.

Alexa Romberg, an addiction prevention scientist focused on tobacco, said she “lost a great deal” of the research she oversaw when federal grants vanished.

“If one is thinking about the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda and the prevention of chronic disease,” Romberg said, “tobacco use is the No. 1 contributor to early morbidity and mortality that we can prevent.”

Rachana Pradhan and Katheryn Houghton
and Eric Harkleroad Photos by 
Eric Harkleroad March 6, 2026

The National Institutes of Health is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, with a mission statement to “enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness.”

Over decades, the value of the NIH may be the one thing everyone in Washington has agreed on. Lawmakers have routinely boosted its funding.

“I’m so pleased to be associated with NIH,” former Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican and one of the NIH’s biggest champions in Congress, said in 2022 shortly before he retired.

But in President Donald Trump’s second term, the NIH has seen an exodus of scientists like Ernstoff, Stewart, and Romberg. Federal data shows the NIH lost about 4,400 people — more than 20% of its workforce. Scientists say the departures harm the U.S.’ ability to respond to disease outbreaks, develop treatments for chronic illnesses, and confront the nation’s most pressing public health problems.

“People are going to get hurt,” said Sylvia Chou, a scientist who worked at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, for over 15 years before she left in January. “There’s going to be a lot more health challenges and even deaths, because we need science in order to help people get healthy.”

He ate a hamburger and died hours later. Doctors found a shocking cause

Murder by tick

University of Virginia Health System

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have confirmed the first known death caused by the condition commonly referred to as the meat allergy, which is transmitted by ticks.

The case involved a 47 year old man from New Jersey who was previously healthy and died suddenly about four hours after eating beef. For months, the cause of his death remained unclear. That changed when Thomas Platts Mills, MD, PhD, a UVA Health physician and internationally recognized allergy specialist, took a closer look. Platts Mills originally identified the condition years ago and continues to lead research into how it affects patients.

Don't you just hate ticks!?

Ticks carry decades of history in each troublesome bite

Sean Lawrence, West Virginia University

When you think about ticks, you might picture nightmarish little parasites, stalking you on weekend hikes or afternoons in the park.

Your fear is well-founded. Tick-borne diseases are the most prevalent vector-borne diseases – those transmitted by living organisms – in the United States. 

Each tick feeds on multiple animals throughout its life, absorbing viruses and bacteria along the way and passing them on with its next bite. Some of those viruses and bacteria are harmful to humans, causing diseases that can be debilitating and sometimes lethal without treatment, such as Lyme, babesiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

But contained in every bite of this infuriating, insatiable pest is also a trove of social, environmental and epidemiological history.

In many cases, human actions long ago are the reason ticks carry these diseases so widely today. And that’s what makes ticks fascinating for environmental historians like me.

Tips from URI in our on-going war with ticks

Ticks suck

Kristen Curry

Lone star ticks are increasing in our region; URI’s online resources offer information to avoid them.

The University of Rhode Island’s resident “tick guy” gets calls for his expertise far and wide, consulting regularly with media outlets across the country, even celebrity sites concerned about the new tick-driven meat allergy.

Thomas Mather is director of URI’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease, and regularly fields national and even international inquiries on the topic. Here in southern New England, his TickEncounter Resource Center (TickEncounter.org) offers a wealth of information and resources so that people can stay ahead of, or away from, tick exposure this summer.

Weather watch

Mather says Rhode Islanders can evaluate tick risks just by looking out the window or assessing their yard conditions this Memorial Day weekend.

“Ticks don’t like dry weather,” he says. “So if you have to water your lawn on Memorial Day, that’s actually not good for ticks.”

Beware of quack remedies for Lyme Disease

Unproven Lyme disease treatments regularly offered in US

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

Recently in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, researchers from the University of Minnesota reported that many non-traditional clinics for Lyme disease exist in states where the tick-borne disease is endemic, and the treatments offered at such clinics are often unproven and costly and raise safety concerns. 

For the study, the investigators analyzed treatments offered at standalone clinics in 14 states with high Lyme disease prevalence: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. 

Initial consultation could top $3,000

The authors devised a Google-based search for Lyme clinics in each state and identified 117 clinics. Costs for an initial consultation ranged from $87 to $3,250.

Less than half (53, or 45%) were staffed by a physician with an MD or DO degree. Roughly 20% had a naturopathic doctor on staff, 36 (31%) had an advanced practice provider, and 21 (18%) were staffed by a chiropractor.

Herbs and supplements were the most common treatment offered by the clinics (53 clinics; 45%) followed by non-antibiotic intravenous therapy (26%), unspecified antibiotics (22%), hyperbaric oxygen therapy (15%), and ozone-based therapy (13%).

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was the most expensive treatment ($85 to $6,400), followed by bioresonance therapy ($250 to $2,950) and oligonucleotide therapy ($2,750), the authors said. 

The Rising Threat of Tick-borne “American Malaria”

Tick-Borne Terror of Babesiosis

By Penn State University

Rates of babesiosis, a tick-borne parasitic disease, increased by an average of 9% annually in the United States from 2015 to 2022, with four in 10 patients also infected with another tick-borne illness such as Lyme disease. This is according to a new study from Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine.

“These findings suggest that clinicians should have a heightened vigilance of co-infection of other tick-borne illness among patients admitted with babesiosis,” said Paddy Ssentongo, infectious disease fellow, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and lead author of the study. “Ticks can carry other bacteria that cause Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases like anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis.”

They published their findings on October 8 in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

Could You Have Lyme Disease and Not Know It?

You really want to detect Lyme Disease early because early treatment offers the best results

By RUTGERS UNIVERSITY 

Ask CCA leader Cliff Vanover. He bragged about getting
bitten 50-60 times a year and contracting Lyme Disease
multiple times in an interview with Rhode Island Monthly

Every year in the United States, an estimated 476,000 people are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease. The estimate comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics. The best health outcomes are most likely when diagnosis is made within the first weeks of infection. If left untreated, the effects of Lyme disease can linger for years and cause neurological problems, arthritis, and a host of other ailments. But because diagnosing Lyme can be difficult, some cases of the disease go undetected long after initial transmission.

To help clinicians improve Lyme disease outcomes, physician-scientists at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Stony Brook University have published a guidance article in NEJM Evidence, The New England Journal of Medicine’s digital digest, on the informed evaluation and treatment of Lyme in its early stages.

Lead author Steven E. Schutzer, a professor of medicine at Rutgers Health, discussed how clinicians can approach patients who have the possibility of an early Lyme disease infection.

A germophobe's guide to surviving summer

How to avoid getting sick at the barbecue, in the pool or on the trail

Bill Sullivan, Indiana University

Taking precautions against outdoor pathogens can
keep you from getting sidelined over the summer.
 galitskaya/iStock via Getty Images Plus

As flowers bloom and temperatures climb, many are eager to get back outside. But while the Sun may be shining, there is a dark side that can make the great outdoors not so great.

Gangs of germs are lurking in the woods, in the soil, in the water and in your food, ready to rain on your summer parade.

I’m a professor of microbiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where I study and teach about infectious disease. Here are some things to keep in mind to help you and your loved ones stay free of illness while enjoying summer activities.

RI Health Department confirms case of rare tick-borne disease

Powassan virus confirmed in Kent County man

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is reporting a confirmed case of the tick-borne Powassan virus disease (Powassan) detected in a Rhode Island resident. This resident is a male in his 70s who lives in Kent County. He began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in late January. He is recovering at home.

"With spring around the corner we all need to be thinking about tick prevention measures when outdoors," said Interim Director of Health Utpala Bandy, MD, MPH. 

This is a very bad tick

Rise of the Lone Star Tick Brings New Disease Threats

By Rene Ebersole

Dressed in blue jeans tucked into gray socks and hiking boots, Jim Occi was prepared to round up some ticks from a New Jersey woodland. While some people might consider this a nightmare outing, it’s Occi’s idea of “fun”— he finds the arachnids fascinating, as proven by the tick tattoos on his forearms. It’s also useful because, as a microbiologist at Rutgers University’s Center for Vector Biology, he studies ticks and their diseases.

Occi marched along a forest trail, dragging a white muslin cloth attached to a PVC pole on the ground, working it through the leaf litter and along the grassy edges. Every few steps, he stopped to squint, searching for moving black specks that can be as small as a grain of sand.

New Jersey now hosts what Occi calls the “big five” tick species: blacklegged, lone star, dog, Gulf Coast, and the newly arrived Asian longhorned, most of which have been growing in numbers and expanding their range. 

These species “quest” for their hosts, meaning they perch in leaf litter or on a blade of grass with a pair of legs outstretched waiting for an animal, whether it’s a person, a small mammal, or even a bird or reptile.

“If anything comes by, they’ll just clamp on,” Occi said as he used the cloth on the end of the pole to mimic an animal shuffling in the underbrush. “They can’t hop, skip, jump, or fly — they have to have direct contact with the host.”

The species that he was hoping to catch, the lone star tick, doesn’t only quest — it also hunts. The lone star can sense vibrations and carbon dioxide emitted by a potential host. “They detect your breath and become alert,” Occi said. “And then you gotta watch out.” If a person sits down in a forest where they’re present, the lone stars will likely come crawling.