Animal rights activists in Germany are calling for the use of robotic lawnmowers to be significantly restricted. “A night-time driving ban for robotic lawnmowers is the very least we can do,” says Corinna Hölzel from the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) to the German Press Agency. “It would be even better to do without robotic lawnmowers altogether.”
Another argument is that robotic lawnmowers are an invention that causes massive damage to biodiversity. “They mow away every daisy,” says gardening expert Hölzel. Wild bees, butterflies and beetles lose important sources of food as a result.
Dangers for nocturnal hedgehogs
Self-driving lawnmowers pose a particular danger to hedgehogs. Since the robots do their work unattended and almost silently, garden owners like to use them at night when the nocturnal hedgehogs go out to look for food.
“Hedgehogs are not flight animals and simply raise their spiny coat when in danger. But their spiny coat is not protected against the sharp, rapidly rotating blades of the robotic lawnmowers,” explains Hölzel. The result is often a real massacre: animal rights activists report severed body parts and scalped hedgehog backs.
Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research analyzed 370 cases of cuts to hedgehogs that were caused by “electrical gardening equipment.” “Almost half of the animals found and reported (47 percent) did not survive the injury at all, but had to be euthanized or died during care,” the researchers wrote in a statement.
Calls for stricter regulations
Like the animal rights activists, the scientists at the Leibniz Institute are therefore calling for a night-time driving ban in order to quickly improve the situation. According to the Leibniz Institute, the hedgehog population is declining. In 2020, it was placed on the early warning list of the Red List for Germany.
Some smaller communities in Germany have already introduced a night-time driving ban. Cologne, a major city, is currently considering a ban that would be based on twilight times depending on the time of year. The city has already responded positively to a corresponding application.
Alternative lawn care
Silvia Teich from the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) pointed out that, regardless of a night-time driving ban, you can also design your lawn so that it needs to be mowed less often. A herb lawn, for example, requires significantly less work and does not dry out as quickly as a short-cut conventional lawn, even in high temperatures.
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