The increasing gas prices are having an impact on landscaping businesses in Massachusetts, and it may mean customers have to pay more.

Gas prices continue to climb across the country, and the average price of a gallon of regular in Massachusetts was $3.93 on Monday, according to AAA. That is up 13 cents from last week and 78 cents from one month ago.

It’s an extremely busy time for landscapers. Spring cleaning is underway, which means lawnmowers, blowers, weedwhackers and trimmers are in overdrive. Andrew Pecorella runs his own landscaping business serving areas like Natick, Framingham, Brookline and Newton. He says the increasing cost of gas prices is impacting the industry.

“Everybody wants their properties looking well so if it has to go up, then my prices are going to have to go up a little bit,” Pecorella said.

He uses diesel for his truck and premium fuel for his landscaping equipment. He goes to the pump every day to fill up. He’s noticed a big increase since last spring, which is why he has to charge his customers more.

“Mostly been saying to them that prices are going to have go up a little bit, mainly because of my cost of fuel and cost of materials,” Pecorella said. “Because the materials have to get to the yard and that costs more money for them to ship it to the yard and make the mulch and make all the products. It costs money. It costs fuel.”

He says fuel, materials and equipment costs are making it challenging, which is why he’s cutting it close to make sure he’s being fair to his customers and also being business savvy. He says if he has to drive further, it will cost more.

He’s been in the landscaping business since 2010 and started his own business in 2018. He says he loves his job even when it’s hard to predict how much things will cost each year.

“It’s just one step at a time, do the best that you can, and try to make sure all your customers are happy,” Pecorella said. 

WORCESTER, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A potentially rabid fox attacked a woman in Worcester, Massachusetts Friday in an incident that was captured on video.

It happened at about 7 a.m. on Esther Street. Video shows the fox running at the victim repeatedly while she tries to fight it off.

Witness Dahnyel Swenson said she saw the victim “running up the stairs, hitting it with the pocketbook, screaming” and she “got pinned against her home trying to fight this medium-sized fox.”

The fox then dragged the woman to the ground.

“It lunged at her so fast … she didn’t know which way to go,” said Swenson, who lives across the street and said she had just warned the victim about a recent fox sighting in the area.

Swenson said she noticed that the victim pinned the fox to the ground, so she and her daughter rushed to help. Swenson’s daughter managed to trap the fox with a green recycling bucket until the first responders arrived.

“There’s a hole in the bucket, so I had to get a rake because it’s viscous, it’s trying to come through the hole,” Swenson said.

Swenson grabbed a rake and a green recycling bucket, and her daughter managed to trap it under the bucket until first responders arrived.

The victim was hospitalized because the bites to her ankle and both hands drew blood, police said. Swenson said her daughter also went to the hospital because she had gotten blood on her during the incident.

“We’re taking all the precautions. Now she’s going through all the rabies shots series for the next week,” Swenson said.

The animal was euthanized, and its remains have been sent to a Webster Square Animal Clinic for rabies testing.

Worcester police said that hours earlier, someone reported that a fox tried to bite them near Gibbs Street. An animal control unit responded, but didn’t find the fox.

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North Carolina Tar Heels head football coach Bill Belichick was sued Thursday over an alleged incident at his Massachusetts home in June 2024.

In a complaint filed in Nantucket Superior Court, painter Andrew Jackson named Forty Five Fair Street LLC — a company managed by Belichick — alleging that unsafe construction practices created hazardous working conditions that led to his fall and resulting injuries.

What they’re saying:

“As a direct and proximate result of the fall, plaintiff sustained serious bodily injuries including a severe right ankle injury, together with pain, disability, medical expenses, lost wages, and other consequential damages,” the lawsuit stated.

Dig deeper:

The filing states that Jackson received workers’ compensation benefits after the fall but “retains his rights to pursue this third-party negligence action against non-employer responsible parties.”

It also alleges that Belichick’s company was responsible for ensuring the construction site was maintained in a safe working condition.

“Defendant breached its duties by, among other things: a. causing, permitting, or allowing unsafe conditions to exist at the premises; b. failing to maintain the work area in a reasonably safe condition; c. failing to inspect the premises adequately; d. failing to remedy hazardous conditions it knew or should have known about; e. failing to warn Plaintiff of dangerous conditions; and f. otherwise acting negligently in the ownership, operation, management, supervision, maintenance, and control of the premises.”

According to the Nantucket Current, which first reported the lawsuit, Jackson is seeking nearly $300,000 in damages.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Belichick’s representatives for comment.

Belichick purchased the Nantucket property for $4.8 million in 2024, according to Boston.com.