Robotic lawnmowers: Motion calls for night-time ban in Basel-Stadt
A motion before the Grand Council calls for a ban from dusk until morning. What the machines do at night is something hedgehog rescue centres see every autumn.
Photo: James Smith / Unsplash
The night belongs to the hedgehog
In the canton of Basel-Stadt, robotic lawnmowers are to be banned from running at night. A motion addressed to the Grand Council calls for a ban from 30 minutes before sunset until 30 minutes after sunrise, as the Basler Zeitung reports. The government is to present an amendment to the law within a year or issue the rule at ordinance level. The motion describes the measure as “simple” and “proportionate”. It is intended to benefit not only hedgehogs but all nocturnal small animals in built-up areas.
Motion invokes Basel's nature conservation act
The motion refers to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act of the canton of Basel-Stadt. This obliges the canton and municipalities to prevent native animal and plant species from becoming extinct. Whether the night-time ban can be implemented at ordinance level or requires an amendment to the law is for the government to clarify. The hedgehog is regarded in the canton as a native species worthy of protection, is listed as “near threatened” on the federal Red List and is Animal of the Year 2026. Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft already run a joint protection project called “Freie Bahn für Igel” (Clear Path for Hedgehogs).
Elsewhere in Switzerland, the demand has so far failed to gain traction. In St. Gallen, the city council stated that it could not impose a night-time ban because the canton had not explicitly protected the hedgehog. In Bern, the municipal council recommended rejecting an identically worded motion. How Cologne, Leipzig and other German cities have long regulated night-time operation by decree is something we documented in our article Robotic lawnmowers kill hedgehogs: German cities ban night-time operation, Bern and St. Gallen wave it away. Besides Bern, the Basel motion also cites a motion in Riehen.
What hedgehog rescue centres see
The motion quotes Anja Straumann, head of the Igelhilfe Baselbiet hedgehog rescue centre: they very often see serious cut injuries that can be traced back to robotic lawnmowers or similar devices. A study published in 2021 tested 18 robotic lawnmower models in collision tests with dead hedgehogs. None detected the smallest juveniles under 200 grams, and larger animals were only detected after bodily contact. Some models caused severe injuries, while others left the animals unharmed in the tests. Injured hedgehogs often withdraw and later die unnoticed.
Barbara Trentini, who runs a hedgehog rescue station, sent us pictures of such cases: cuts, severed limbs, and some animals found cut into pieces. According to her, the injuries come from robotic lawnmowers and disc mowers, that is, brush cutters with a bladed disc. A large proportion of the animals, she says, lived on for a long time while badly wounded. According to Trentini, it is not only hedgehogs that are affected, but also amphibians, slow worms and many insects.
Warning: the following image shows serious injuries.
Pasture nets are a trap too
Cutting devices are not the only danger to hedgehogs. According to Trentini, hedgehogs die in pasture nets every year, including nursing females whose young then starve. Our petition “Pasture nets must not be death traps for wild animals” calls for a binding obligation to remove nets, inspections and, wherever possible, strand fences instead of nets. It can still be signed.
Comment: Order in the garden, misery in the undergrowth
For many people, a closely cropped lawn counts for more than a hedgehog's life. A ban on night-time operation will not remove every danger in the garden, since young hedgehogs are also out and about during the day in autumn. But it takes away the most dangerous period for the machines, and it costs garden owners nothing more than a timer. Anyone who considers that disproportionate has not seen the pictures from the hedgehog rescue stations. Bern and St. Gallen shirked their responsibility by pointing to questions of jurisdiction. Basel-Stadt now has the chance to do better.
If you find an injured hedgehog, take it to the nearest hedgehog rescue station or to a vet. Tips for a hedgehog-friendly garden can be found in our article Gardening Season: Tips for protecting wild animals.
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