Ragweed on city land has Laval mother seeing red

A field full of ragweed that's owned by the City of Laval is producing a summer of woe for one local family.

Marisa Annibale Borne said she has to give her five-year-old son Lorenzo a daily dose of antihistamine medication so he can cope and not cough too much.

And she's keeping him inside.

"It's like holding a lion in a cage," Borne said. "It's affecting his mood, it's affecting his life."

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Borne said she's called the City of Laval and asked it to deal with the ragweed, but she says she was told it can't.

"I've reached out to the city and they are failing to help me protect my son's health," she said.

Her husband has done what he can to reduce the ragweed, but the field is too large.

Laval spokesperson Nadine Lussier said the city already had a crew out to manually remove ragweed from the field.

She said the city will send a crew again to correct the problem, but environment ministry regulations limit how far they can go to eradicate the invasive weed.

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Lorenzo, meanwhile, is suffering, his mother said.

"I try everything in my power — I give him the nasal spray cortisone, I give him the pump cortisone, I give him the blue pump, I give him the allergy medicine and nothing is helping unless he is visited by a doctor in the emergency room," Borne said.

If things don't improve, Borne says the next step is moving out, and she's hoping to avoid that.