The world will be better when people will stop following the medieval trend of having a lawn. Water consumption, leaf blowers, habitat invasion would be finally gone.

Gas ones are banned in my town starting June 1st. Going to be reporting so many people.

As a scandinavian I never got what the deal is. Just let it decompose? Or use a rake, it's not that hard.

Then I visited Texas, and leafblowers were everywhere to the point where I had to ask a coworker "why do you guys hate leaves so much?"

I'm Brazilian. As one can imagine, we do have a lot of leaves, being a tropical country and all.

I have not seen a leaf blower in my entire life, and I don't understand the obsession with them.

It sounds like a very American problem. I just let the leaves rot away on their own really, maybe sweep the path by my house and they can sit on a garden bed around some plants and rot down there.

Echoing a handful of comments in this thread, I'm from Argentina and I've seen maybe one leaf blower in my entire lifetime. However, I've been to the US , so I believe you (my condolences)

If my understanding is correct, leaf blowers contribute a lot to the current massive bug die-off that's been happening lately all over, because many bug species reproduce in leaf litter. In that regard, they're not only terrible noise-wise, but ecologically-wise as well.

So, terrible all around.

I sleep with earplugs in because I work nights and have no idea when the HOA maintenance people are going to start blowing those things at 8 in the fucking morning.

am i the baddie?

I'm always taken aback by the hate. Where and how do you guys live that this is an issue?! Let alone a major annoyance?! I can scarcely imagine noticing leaf blower noise. It's no worse than gas mowers and those are everywhere (or used to be), and go for far longer. Is this just a circle-jerk complaint kinda thing?

I know everyone around here thinks they're an ADHD, autistic, OCD mess, but can no one tune out background noise? (No, you're not special, more likely an normal adult human with modern life issues.) If anything it should be old people bitching as hearing discretion gets more difficult in middle-age+.

The homeless guy that lives behind our Lowe's probably gets annoyed at the 9PM blowing, but that's a 20-30 minute thing, and not too late. (Always felt a bit bad when I closed.) I pick every tiny bit of plastic out though. Not in my waterways!

A bit snarky, I know, but those were serious questions.

And BTW, organic refuse gets blown in the street because passing vehicles reduce it to dust very quickly. All organic, no harm no foul in my book. Also, it's hellacious to corral that stuff for sweeping, no point.

EDIT: This post reminded me I need a new battery blower. And if you think 5-minutes of noise while I blow out my truck bed and driveway is too much, I don't know what to tell you.

I get a lot of leaves. I have a battery powered 60v leaf blower. I blow them away from my foundation so I don’t get a rotting mound around my house. Then I have to blow those away or they won’t biodegrade without leaving giant dirt patches. What I’ve found works well is blowing them into the forest bed at the edge of my property. The deer and other animals seem to help break them down. I don’t have to worry about them until fall but there are just too many to leave lie where they land. I go through three batteries a day over the course of weeks to keep them from building up really bad. I’m not a mow every week manicured lawn kind of person either. Right now most of my back yard is over a foot tall with a mowed area for my small dog.

I also like the leaf blower for cleaning off my gutter guards, drive, lawn mower, garage floor, deck, and even when it’s just a light snow I’ll go out a few times to blow everything off so I don’t have to shovel.

I had a neighbor who was rather compulsive about her yard. She would mow her yard/have it mowed 2-3 times a week and would use a leaf blower to push the grass clippings onto her neighbors yard every time. She would also leaf blow her roof with surprising frequency.

I gotta say, I was a little relieved when I saw the for sale sign in the yard earlier this year.

I agree that overuse of them is an issue, but damn they come in handy more than I thought it would... Mine is at least electric, and cleaning out dusty stuff (fans, cars, rugs, etc) is so quick and easy... I almost never use mine for grass or leaves.

My grandfather got in a minor disagreement with his neighbor one time. Shortly after I went to his house to visit and saw his neighbor on the roof blowing leaves off his roof on to my grandfather's lawn.🤣

The answer to the world's problems ..... remove leaf blowers

I use mine to clear grass from the driveways (my neighbors more than mine since I don't care that much) and to blow leaves out of my gutters. As for blowing an entire yard full of leaves into neat little piles, hell no!. I've got better things to do with my time. I just keep mulching blades on my mower and grind the leaves up. Better for the lawn anyway.

Theyre banning them where I live. Good riddance.

They were invented in the 1950s.

So the Depression and the World Wars were quieter....