Especially gas powered ones. If you are going to blow refuse in the street, can’t you at least do it quietly?
Leaf blowers piss me the fuck offffff VvRrrmmmm Five seconds later… VRRRMMMMMM Sound gets closer… VRRRRRrrrMmmmmmMMMMM!!!
They were invented in the 1950s.
So the Depression and the World Wars were quieter…
I was also invented in the 1950s, and you did not start to see them until the 70s or 80s.
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.
The answer to the world’s problems … remove leaf blowers
you jest, but children around the world are no longer starving thanks to this post.
you jest, but various pollinators depend on leaf coverage for winter protection. Fewer pollinators does result in less food…
suck my stamen yo
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.
Have you ever used one to stoke a fire?
Or bring a woman to orgasm?
Or clean your gutters?
The female orgasm is a myth.
Counterpoint: your mom
We’re not talking about cheap whores here though.
Honestly this is a reason I would kinda like to have one. But I do have a 500w electric blower for cleaning dust from my PC. Have thought of using that to help get the BBQ going real hot sometime if I get an extension lead for it.
How would you like your steak? I can apply it directly to the coals anywhere from orange to white hot.
I’ve been doing my steak over 600 degree Fahrenheit charcoal lately and it turns out killer.
That is only 315°c, that can’t even be glowing surely?
Yeah I guess it’s not the coal temperature but the actual bbq temperature.
Yeah! Clean the coils onthe fridge fast and easy. (Open windows first. Close cupboard doors.)
Oof, I’d go shop vac there. You’re just spreading it around, no?
If on the scale of annoyance gas leaf blowers are 10/10, electric are 3/10.
Ditto. Primarily mine is used to “sweep” the shop and dry off motorcycles after washing.
we are blessed here to have the noise in the winter, too. more than three flakes of snow and there’s sure to be a legion of leaf blowers clearing off precious pavement in neighborhoods all over town. the guys that do it at 4-5am are the true treasures.
am i the baddie?
You know, I was just— bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Your comment blows, dude…
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.
Being in a tropical country, I imagine most/all of your trees are non-deciduous, as in they don’t lose all their leaves in autumn and then regrow in the spring? Imagine all the leaves drying up, falling off, and the mess is left all over the ground. Cleanup is a laborious effort. Leaf blowers speed up the process by blowing the leaves from trafficked locations and/or to more centralized locations that are easier to clean the debris. Helpful, noisy, and often environmentally unfriendly.
You’re correct about most trees not following your typical seasonal variance.
You’re incorrect about this meaning we don’t deal with significant amounts of leaves and flowers. Search for Handroanthus images, then imagine one on each sidewalk, and imagine all their flowers on the ground.
Peiple just use “rastelos” here (is there even a translation?)
A rake?
The massive jacaranda mimosifolia (native to Brazil) which is dominating my front garden, laughs at your suggestion that it does not leave much mess on the ground.
It regularly carpets the area below it in purple flowers, tens of thousands of small leaves, hundreds of twigs/seed pods and a few larger dried branches. Not just one season either - it flowers multiple times a year with how weird the weather is nowadays. The birds and bees like it though so we’re cool.
I live in the UK, I have never had an issue with leaves beyond a brief sweep of the main pathway.
I envy you. They are the bane of my existence. I have 4 neighbors that use them for landscaping once a week, most of the year. As for the appeal: you ever see a kid use a straw to blow stuff around? My theory is leaf blowers are on extension of that curiosity. A toy, really. When I hear someone rationalizing their use of a leaf blower, I hear someone talking about a toy they like. nevermind all the times i hear folks revving them like they’re on a motorcycle.
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.
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.
Blowers should be illegal.
Gas powered high volume blowers, yes.
Electric ones aren’t so bad.
They’re still unnecessary and enviriomentally harmful.
Maybe, but the hardware battery pack industrial complex needs to be regulated as well. So much e-waste and batteries use in most contexts where an extension cable is more suitable.
I always think about something along these lines about cars.
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?”
Idk I find using a rake is actually pretty hard
My property has dozens and dozens of trees, many of which are big leaf maples, it’s sweaty physical work that lasts months and months to keep up, the rainy months too, and if I don’t keep up my house gets overtaken by the forest
It goes against the perfect manicured lawn narrative.
And perfect lawns are horrible for the environment!
Won’t someone please think of property values‽
I will not, I own this property now and will do what I like with it! The front garden has taken care of its self for the past 2 years now. Loads of foxgloves growing right now and a mix of some other things. I do remove a few thorns though when they start getting big.
Mainly focusing effort on the back garden, got some shrubs growing but want them to get bigger to properly take up the area they are growing in and cover some of the bare soil a bit more. Its getting better over time. I think a cat keeps trying to dig in some of them too and having bigger established shrubs in the way should prevent that but it takes time. Overall focus is on low maintenance things.
And boring to look at, I would rather see a mix of flowers and bees.
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.
