Catch a cold from the grass?

Question

Every time I play with the dogs in the backyard, then the next day I get what feels like a 24-hour head cold. I've verified this at least 7 times. This doesn't happen to me when we run around on any other grass or anywhere else; it's specifically my backyard.

I first noticed it when the grass was all dead and we would run around and lots of dried grass dust would get kicked up.

Now the grass has grown back to being green and I don't think nearly as much dust gets kicked up but it still happened to me last week.

The symptoms feel like weak/sick feeling over my body, mildly sore throat, sneezing episodes, and runny nose. Other than this, I never get sick or have sneezing/runny nose.

So is it possible to catch a cold from a backyard? Can a specific patch of grass have a high concentration of cold viruses?

Answer 1

No, you can't catch a cold from plants. You can, however, inhale lots of grass pollen because...

we would run around and lots of dried grass dust would get kicked up.

The second clue it's a pollen allergy is the short nature of it. Colds last longer than 24 hours.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Cold-common/Pages/Introduction.aspx