A lot of towns around here implemented bans. Unfortunately, ours is not one of them.

They've been banned here for a few years. I still see them being used occasionally.

We have both a gas blower and a battery one. We have a mulching lawnmower. The keaves seem to work well on our yard, yet you do not see them; they are tiny pieces. The Mr. uses the gas blower to blow leave off of sidewalks, patio, etc to be mulched. Honestly, i can just tune them out and we’ve had no exhaust smell inside, The battery blower is mine.😂 I use it if need be on the porch/patio, etc. if needed. We have alot of trees and alot of yard. Raking would not be feasible. I live in the county, not city, so no bans.

You would have to pry mine out of my cold dead hands! "Fumes"? never has there been a fumes issue. I use mine year round. It cleans off the driveway so nicely! DH uses the blower to assist my riding tractor as I 'blow" /mow all the leaves into the garden beds. I gave up the rakes years ago. For the porch and walk and patio I have a battery operated blower we use almost daily in the summer. Technology is what enables us to be in our home, how silly to move because of a bit of noise from the blower!!! Next time ask the workers to lend you one of their ear protection. If we have one we have a dozen ear muffs for all the occasions we need them.

We mulch up the leaves until there are just too many for the mower to get through them. My tiny yard isnt worth buying a larger mower. I have an electric blower.

We have a pine forest, pine needles get dropped. We rake...the neighbors blow. It IS NOISY!

I think the gas blowers should be banned; the exhaust is awful. I can't imagine having a respiratory issue and dealing with that.

The dust they blow up gets into the house HVAC. At least we can put the car on recirc.

The saving grace is that they do stop by dark now.

They aren't banned here and they are the main reason I wish the people on our street had a common yard care day of the week. Instead, we have blowers going somewhere nearly every day.

I do not like the gas ones. we have electric but don't use it much. It is easier to rake since they can be inches deep. Mowing when it's that deep is impossible. We have large yard bags and it's easy to rake (or shovel) the leaves into the bags. I also enjoy the exercise.

I have a battery powered blower and it works fine - much quieter than gas and no fumes at all. Very lightweight as well.

This is the second one we've had - first one was lost to hurricane Helene. It was Hubby's favorite toy 🙂

Our city has an ordinance against blowing yard debris into the street where it can clog storm drains, but I see yard service workers doing it all the time. We always blow everything from the gutters back into the yard.

My husband recently brought home a battery powered leaf blower to replace our gas powered one which we seldom used...loud, heavy, difficult to start. What used to take us hours to do with a rake now takes mere minutes. Best invention ever!

I don't even hear them. They're just background noise to me, almost like a louder white noise machine. 🤷‍♀️ I get it, everyone finds something else hard to tolerate. For me it is barking dogs. Lawn services here use gas ones and fortunately for me, they don't even register on me. The lawn mowers seem louder than the blowers to me.

Yeah, we have a lot of yard equipment noise here in SC - mowers, blowers, edgers, trimmers, etc. Everyone has beautifully maintained grounds which I do enjoy seeing and only once in a while does the noise get to me if I'm sitting in the screen porch. Our neighbor has a cordless electric leaf blower that is pretty quiet but it runs out of juice before he finishes the yard. Ours is not gas - it's electric plug in and it's not exactly quiet. We only use it once in a while as the lawn service takes care of most of the leaves. I doubt legislating gas blowers out of existence would solve the noise problem. Do they outlaw all gas lawn and landscape equipment?

DH has a backpack gas leaf blower at the lake in MN. He's not into doing yard work but he loves that thing. If we had one here in SC I'm sure he would take care of all the leaves.

We have an electric leaf blower that is rarely used, but it’s good for the gutters. It is loud! But not like a gas blower.

There is something about gas leaf blowers that is more painful to the ear than a gas lawn mower, even the heavy-duty mowers the landscapers use.

My husband and I absolutely despise the sound of gas leaf blowers. When we lived in the suburbs I would have several days every week during warmer months where the landscapers would blow all of the grass off driveways and into the road after mowing. It was so loud and they stink! So glad I don't have to listen to that now.

There are absolutely battery powered leaf blowers. We have one and it's powerful. My understanding is that professionals don't like to use them because the batteries are more of a hassle than a tank of gas. They'd need an array of batteries on their trucks for the work day.

I have been so happy switching from gas powered lawn and garden tools to battery. No stink. Quieter. But most of the professional landscaping companies stick with gas.

I have 4 batteries that can be shared in different tools - we also have a trimmer, and a mower that miraculously still runs after being flooded. Extra batteries can be pricey, but most tools come with them, and it's so convenient to be able to simply switch out a spent battery and put it on the charger. We have 2 chargers, which makes things even easier. My chargers both came with the tools as well.

We have a battery blower as well as other attery powered tools. The batteries are interchangeable with the different tools. Before that we had an electric blower. That one got sent to the lake. DH prefers the battery one because the long cord is a pain to deal with.

Everyone living around us and on our street has professional landscapers, and they use gas blowers-I guess I’ve always “tuned” them out because they don’t bother me at all. I say “everyone” except our weirdo next-door neighbor(s), lucky me-who have to be continually threatened by the city (whom I have on speed dial from spring through summer) to mow their lawn. Believe me, in the beginning hubby and I, tried being nice-he still doesn’t care. I actually love the sound of people mowing and taking care of their lawns.

I suppose they bothered me less when I was in and out of the house during the day with picking up kids or grocery shopping or being a room parent or busy and making noise inside. But I noticed. And now that I'm home more and engaged in quieter activites, it's all I hear. Even Saturdays and Sundays aren't quiet. Like right now.

It isn’t just annoying, it affects how we live in our own house. If we close all the interior doors, and move our activity, whatever it is we are doing, to the opposite side of the house from the current blower, it is barely bothersome. Until one starts up on the another side of the house at the same time.

There is a reason we do not live next to the airport or the interstate. But we may as well.

Sometimes we don’t do anything about our fallen leaves, and the wind removes them from the lawn and drops them into the shrubs or flowerbeds where they act as mulch. That suits me fine.

Leaf material adds beneficial organic matter to lawns., buttoo many leaves can mat the grass down and cause it to die or get moldy. Here is a good solution.

We sometimes use a mulching mower. It’s at the blade high Ish because you don’t want to scalp the lawn. Sometimes we bag the mulch leaves, and sometimes we just run the mulching more without the bag over the lawn. It chops the leaves up finally, and it doesn’t make too thick a pile over the grass. The leaf material will break down much faster and it won’t be blown all over the place. Later, we can take a lawn spreader and add a layer of powdered lime. We find this a good solution.

Sometimes I rake the leaves or use the bagger at the mulching mower, and I put the leaves into a cage made of wire fencing. It’s a tall cylindrical cage at the back of our estate. The lease can decompose here and the material of the bottom can be removed and used for mulch in the spring . The worms think this is a mighty good idea.

I used to rake with a large wide bamboo rake that was good exercise, and of course, very quiet.

My thoughtful, considerate DH raked our leaves today so not to bother our neighbors with the sound of the blower on Sunday morning. The blower is electric but not silent of course. Fortunately at age 69 he is still physically able to do that kind of thing and likes to get the exercise.

DH went to the compost center this morning to drop off yet another carload of leaves, raked. He got there 10 minutes before the gates opened and was already fifth in line!

As I sis with my Sunday paper (digitial edition), commercial leaf blowers are, once again, assaulting the neighborhood.

As to blowers, I am with bpath 100%. One next door neighbor has four guys with blowers and they all move together as they go around the yard (and they are mostly blowing grass cuttings since he cut down every tree excet for two in his yard when they moved in including six or so huge old oaks). The noise and fumes are inescapable, even inside the house the noise is completely deafening. Other days, someone has a crew mowing and blowing each day.

We do not have a lawn service. I also let the leaves lie for the insects who winter in them. Mulching leaves with a mower also destroys the cocoons and insects there and I would love to see lightning bugs return someday for my granddaughters. They spend their first two years underground and later the days are spent on the ground until they turn night into a wonderland. That is not likely because every one of my neighbors spray not realizing (not caring?) that they are killing the beneficial insects as well as the not-so-beneficial ones which are good bird food. ha- I garden for the future of both humans and other creatures. ;-)

This winter, I am covering the lawn to kill the grass and weeds and will plant the front yard with natives. I have ordered over 400 plugs. Not sure what I was thinking to be honest, but it will be lovely I hope.

Historically, the leaf pickup was pretty much done by early November. The crews would be heading back home in mid-November so the landscapers asked their clients if they had any special work they wanted done before that, like winterizing a garden or laying gravel or taking something out.

But that has changed.

And now here we are in the last days of November. Last night driving home I was really struck by how many leaves are still falling in abundance, and this morning once again awoke to not the alarm but leaf blowers. One two sides.

Today I am thankful, I suppose, that I live in a community that values properties enough to, and can afford to, have the landscapers blow the last of the leaves on Thanksgiving Day.

I am getting the sense bpath may not like leaf blowers.... (😄)

I am so sorry. I wish I could share my indifference to them with you. If you figure out how to help me ignore barking dogs we'll have a fair trade.

Our HOA landscapers mow every Wednesday and yesterday was the last for the season. So nearly all the leaves have been removed. While the noise from leaf blowing is annoying at least the entire neighborhood is done at the same time.

Except! My next door neighbor is obsessed with leaves and he'll blow them several times a week. Even his wife complains about the near daily noise.

Ally, the occasional barking dog is one thing, most around here just bark a couple of times to be let in from the back yard. But a former neighbor dog twice barked for over an hour non-stop and I'm not kidding. The family wasn't home. The second time we called the police, but they can't enter a yard with a barking dog because it could be a danger. The wife pulled in just them and he gave her a ticket, $40. I felt bad about that, but we didn't really know the neighbors, they were nice enough and the dog was too but the barking. She didn't believe it had barked that long without stopping. Trust me, it did.

The leaf blowers is similar. The issue is one finishes and another starts. All day, every day, Sundays, and holidays. They did stop today. There'll be a bit more next week but then we should be good till March cleanup.

Edit: nope, I hear one now.

Totally understand. I agree, a few minutes of barking is fine. It is nonstop hours of it that makes me lose my tiny mind.

I hope you get some peace soon.

For my 64th September B-day this year, DW wanted me to get a Blower! She made a cute "Coupon" that said "Good for one Leaf-Blower!". So, off to work we went. I was gonna get a Stihl BGA-86CE Gas, but a co-worker reminded me about the Milwaukee & Stihl Battery units!

Ended up getting the M18 Milwaukee 12ah kit. It's a heavy battery, but lasts a long time! I LOVE the grab-&-go aspect of it! Normal retail for Battery ALONE is $299! The KIT (Battery, Charger, & Blower) retail is $399 I think??

I like yardwork, & even raking, but my right RC had torn again at some point, & not fixable any more. That was discovered this March during an MRI for my severe AC-Joint arthritis surgery. So.....gotta watch what/how I do things now. That's why I got a new TORO Electric-start GAS mower this spring.

I actually ENJOYED my Fall leaf-care this year!! No more endless raking for THIS Dude!!

Faron

New Years Eve. It snowed yesterday, so there’s about 2“ of light snow on the ground. Commercial leaf blowers have been running since 8:30, it’s now noon. Not leaves, but blowing snow off driveways, front walks, and patios. I get it, they do the job with this little bit of snow, but a broom would be as fast and cheaper.

It is a bit noisy here the day the landscaper comes and does my yard and several of my neighbors. I have never noticed fumes. And the only time the sound is deafeningly loud is when they come on the porch in the front and deck in the back to blow the leaves. But that only lasts a few minutes so not a big deal.

I guess if they were to be banned, they'd switch to battery powered? I don't know. I don't think there is any talk of banning it here.

My chore as a child was raking the leaves. We had a ridiculously large back yard. A tiny house, but an enormous back yard. I hated raking so much. Once I was an adult in a home of my own I swore I would never do it again and I haven't.