Restrict leaf blowers & pesticides to avert "insect armageddon"

Leaf blowers are contributing to the "insect armageddon" which currently threatens all life on earth. They are fatal to insects and should not be used unless absolutely "indispensable", the German government recently told its citizens.

In 2019 the German government announced a roughly €100m (£85m) action plan to protect insects, which also included shoring up environmental regulation and limiting the use of pesticides. The controversial weed killer glyphosate will be banned by 2023.

Yet, here in the UK, both leaf blowers and pesticides are regularly used, privately and by councils, from schools to parks, gardens to streets, to keep green spaces 'tidy', even when everything in their path is scorched and obliterated. Small animals, insect species, plants, topsoil… nothing is left undestroyed.

Noisy leaf blowers are heavily polluting and pose the“risk that [insects and] small animals are absorbed or blown and thereby damaged”, the German Ministry for the Environment has said. The move followed a report from a top UK ecologist which warned bugs are dying out 8 times faster than larger animals, with 40 per cent of the roughly one million known insect species facing extinction as a result.

“If insect declines are not halted, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems will collapse, with profound consequences for human wellbeing,” Professor Dave Goulson’s report for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust concluded. “The main causes of decline include habitat loss and fragmentation, and the overuse of pesticides. Wild insects are routinely exposed to complex cocktails of toxins which can cause either death or disorientation and weakened immune and digestive systems.”

Leaf blowers are another huge part of the problem. “Leaf blowers are not only deafeningly loud and pollute the air through their internal combustion engines, they also harm the soil biology seriously.” Despite scores of cities across the US having previously instituted restrictions or bans on leaf-blowers, here in the UK they remain an almost daily fact of life.

The dangers posed by leaf blowers hint at a larger trend that is harming insect populations, according to Dr Edward Turner, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s zoology department and curator of insects at the university’s zoology museum. “I think that leaf blowers fall into the category of being ‘too tidy’ and this can be very bad for insects,” according to Dr Turner. “Generally, if we were to cut our road verges and open grass areas less frequently, let some weeds grow along our pavements, and leave leaves to decompose more, I think it would benefit insects a lot.“Really importantly ... We should limit our use of herbicides and insecticides to an absolute minimum, especially in our urban green spaces and gardens. Basically, I think we just need to be a little less tidy and a little more tolerant of ‘weeds’ and I think insects and therefore lots of other species would benefit.”

A leaf blower’s engine is environmentally awful. Designed to be air-cooled, (their original design was for crop spraying) 100% of their exhaust emissions spew directly into the area around them. They are also gas guzzlers. One hour of leaf blowing puts as many pollutants in the atmosphere as a sedan driven sedately for about 180 kilometres. One cheap leaf blower’s pollution is greater than an average-size long-distance lorries. Yet they are the main method used to keep children’s playgrounds free of leaves…

They excrete high frequency sound waves with decibel levels that far exceed acceptable limits. Hearing damage begins to occur when someone is around “extended exposure” to any sound of 85 decibels or higher. Just two hours of operating a leaf blower, which hits 90 decibels, can cause permanent damage and hearing loss. The greater the exposure, the deafer the person operating the leaf blower will become. Given the decibel damage, even if the leaf blower is being used at the house next door, you will be subject to some ear damage.

Please help me to get both leaf blowers and pesticides restricted unless “indispensable”. We are at the point of collapse for many insect populations - most well-known is the rate at which bees are dying – and can’t afford to keep inadvertently destroying our green spaces in the name of maintenance. Insect collapse would mean human collapse. We are also deafening children and each other, while poisoning and polluting the natural spaces we most rely on for human health.