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Careful! Your robot lawnmower might be a hedgehog killer
14-6-2023
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
Do you run your robot mower at night so your lawn is free to use the next day? Unfortunately, it’s not a great idea. Why? Because it could be a death sentence to hedgehogs. They’re highly active this time of year.
What an invention robot lawnmowers are! No question about it. After all, who likes mowing the lawn anyway? Probably the same people who enjoy ironing or consider Coldplay to be good music. With a robot mower, you can rid yourself of this tedious chore. These mobile helpers with their mowing unit will happily cut your lawn without your intervention. All you need to do is mark out a predefined area with wire so your device knows where to mow. Thanks to their built-in sensors, robot mowers should manage to detect obstacles without your help. But there’s one problem. Animals, of all things, aren’t always registered and detected.
«The rotating blades of robot mowers can injure or even kill wildlife. These include hedgehogs, toads, lizards, grasshoppers and spiders that rummage around in your garden looking for food,» the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union of Germany (NABU) points out on its website. Another issue is that hedgehogs don’t take flight but curl up into a ball when there’s danger. That’s why an encounter with a robot lawnmower is often fatal for them. This was confirmed by a Danish study. It involved placing 18 hedgehogs that had died shortly before in the grass. The robot mowers used for the study failed to recognise the animals as obstacles and collided with them or even drove right over them, injuring them or even cutting off their limbs.
How to avoid killing hedgehogs
So what to do? German consumer magazine Stiftung Warentest already compiled tips last year (article in German). If you stick to these, you’ll avoid mutilating hedgehogs:
Never switch the robot on at night
As hedgehogs are almost exclusively nocturnal, make sure you only run your robot lawnmower during the day. Many models out there have a built-in timer.
Go for a quality model
Invest in a model that mows the lawn swiftly and efficiently. The less often your robot chops its way through your garden, the lower the risk a hedgehog’s going to get hurt.
Opt for centrifugal blades
The Danish study mentioned above also revealed that mowers with large fixed blades inflicted more severe injuries on animals than those with small centrifugal blades mounted on a blade disc. Centrifugal blades are only a few centimetres long and cut the grass like a scythe. When they approach an obstacle, they fold away.
Check cosy corners
Lawn trimmers can also be a threat to our prickly friends. Hedgehogs like to sleep in overgrown corners of your garden, where the grass and bushes are unkempt. The best thing to do in this case is to cut the grass down to 20 centimetres first. Next, check no one’s using that space for their beauty sleep. Only then is it safe to let the robot do its work.
Create havens for hedgehogs
Is your garden on the large side and you’d like to do something positive for the flora and fauna in it? Try letting one corner grow wild. Leave the grass unmown and let the animals have fun in that patch. It’s a great way to create a safe haven for hedgehogs and other creatures.
Don’t forget the exits
Will hedgehogs find their way in and out of your garden? Make sure your garden fence has the odd little passageway animals can crawl through.
Love hedgehogs and want to read more about them? My coworker wrote a guide that might be up your street:
Header image: Ivashchenko Alla/Shutterstock
A true local journalist with a secret soft spot for German pop music. Mum of two boys, a dog and about 400 toy cars in all shapes and colours. I always enjoy travelling, reading and go to concerts, too.