Robotic Mower Service for Landscapers: Hedgehogs and Storage

It started with a motion by the BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN parliamentary group dated 19 May 2026 under the title “Protecting hedgehogs effectively from robotic mowers” (BT-Drs. 21/6011). BT-Drs. stands for Bundestag printed paper. The motion called on the federal government to limit the operating times of robotic mowers to daylight hours nationwide. From 2027, manufacturers were to rule out night operation technically on new devices, defined as the period from one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise, regardless of user settings (BT-Drs. 21/6011). For devices already in use that have brightness sensors together with an internet or mobile connection, or that are controlled via an app, the motion demanded a free software update by March 2027 (BT-Drs. 21/6011). By 2030, certification for hedgehog-safe devices was to become a condition of market access (BT-Drs. 21/6011).

The lead committee was the Committee on the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. It concluded its deliberations on the motion on 24 June 2026 (BT-Drs. 21/6736), and the printed paper with recommendation and report is dated 26 June 2026. The recommendation itself is a single sentence:

It was adopted with the votes of CDU/CSU and SPD against the votes of AfD, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN and Die Linke (BT-Drs. 21/6736). For businesses, the reasons recorded in the report say more than the result. The CDU/CSU found the concern understandable but considered near-natural garden design more sensible than a night ban and pointed to the bureaucratic burden. The SPD called the injuries to the animals avoidable and serious, but saw no federal responsibility. The group that tabled the motion said municipalities wanted one nationwide rule instead of each making their own; as an example, it stated that the city of Cottbus had recently issued a corresponding ordinance (BT-Drs. 21/6736).

One point matters most for putting this in context: a committee recommendation is advice to the plenary, not a law and not a permission. It changes nothing about what a municipality can regulate locally, and nothing about the reasons why clients ask for a robotic mower that stays at its dock at night. Anyone writing the service page for a robotic mower service therefore states where things stand without forecasting: motion, recommendation, reference. The rest of the page is about what the business does.

Much of the data behind the debate comes from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. Its researchers analysed 370 documented cases in Germany of cut injuries to hedgehogs caused by electric garden tools, found between June 2022 and September 2023 (Leibniz-IZW). 47 percent of the animals found and reported did not survive their injuries (Leibniz-IZW). At least 60 percent of the hedgehogs with cut injuries were found only days, in some cases weeks, after the accident (Leibniz-IZW). The analysis covers electric garden tools as a whole, not robotic mowers alone.

In a further study the team tested how 19 commercially available robotic mowers reacted to hedgehog carcasses (Leibniz-IZW). Apart from a single incident, all devices had to touch the carcasses physically to detect them, and smaller hedgehogs proved considerably more at risk than larger ones (Leibniz-IZW). From this the researchers developed a test protocol that they want to see made mandatory at European level. A standardised test procedure that gives buyers of hedgehog-safe devices guidance does not yet exist in Germany, the motion notes (BT-Drs. 21/6011).

For season planning, the calendar is what counts. August and September are the main birth months for hedgehogs (NABU), and the animals forage until mid-November before they hibernate (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung). In October, the last mowing rounds therefore meet hedgehogs that need to build up fat reserves before winter. Hibernation lasts from November to March (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung), which reaches into the weeks when the first devices go back into operation. A business that handles the spring start therefore plans the mowing times from day one so that the robot docks at night.

Legally, the hedgehog is no side issue. The Leibniz-IZW describes the animals as specially protected (Leibniz-IZW), and for specially protected species it is prohibited to injure or kill wild animals (Section 44(1) no. 1 BNatSchG). Since 2020 the hedgehog has also been on the early warning list of the German Red List (Leibniz-IZW). A business that installs and services robotic mowers does not need to build its own legal interpretation on this. But it can show that it knows the subject and does not leave the obvious precaution, the night pause, to chance.

Technically, the night pause is rarely the problem. The motion assumes that an operating setting which rules out night operation is already available today on most devices with brightness detection or app control (BT-Drs. 21/6011). The difference lies in who sets it and whether it lasts. A setting that the client changes in June for an evening in the garden is forgotten by July. If the night pause is part of the contract, it is checked at every visit and every change is documented.

What the contract needs to say about it fits into a few lines. The overview separates what belongs in the contract, what belongs on the service page and what the business records internally:

The wording “pause from sunset to sunrise” is deliberately simple. The motion defined night operation as the period from one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise (BT-Drs. 21/6011); adopting that buffer noticeably shortens mowing time in autumn. Whether the business offers it is a question of the offer, not of obligation. The page then needs one sentence on why: hedgehogs are mainly nocturnal (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung), and the device should already be at its dock by dusk.

A robotic mower service is aimed mainly at private clients, so consumer rules apply. Anyone stating prices must state total prices (Section 3 PAngV), meaning prices including VAT and other price components (Section 2 no. 3 PAngV). For the packages this means: installation, annual service and winter storage each with a total price and the unit it refers to, such as per device or per season. If an annual price appears on the page, the initial term sits right next to it, not in a footnote. More on this in the article Prices and advertising: the rules for landscaping websites.

If the service is set up as a contract over several years, the law on standard business terms sets limits. A term that binds the client for more than two years is invalid in pre-formulated terms (Section 309 no. 9 BGB). Tacit renewal is only permitted if the contract then continues for an indefinite period and the client can terminate it at any time with notice of no more than one month (Section 309 no. 9 BGB). For a robotic mower service, an initial term of one season that then continues indefinitely and can be ended with one month's notice is usually a good fit; private clients understand it straight away.

If the client can conclude the contract directly on the website, they must also be able to terminate it there via a cancellation button (Section 312k BGB). If, on the other hand, the contract is signed in the client's garden, it is usually an off-premises contract (Section 312b BGB), and the withdrawal period is 14 days (Section 355 BGB). How the cancellation notice and a start before the period ends fit together is described in the article Right of withdrawal with consumers: a contract at the garden table.

Finally, tax is an argument for the client. For tradesmen's services, income tax is reduced on application by 20 percent of the expenses, by no more than 1,200 euros (Section 35a EStG); for household-related services the reduction is 20 percent, up to 4,000 euros (Section 35a EStG). Only labour costs qualify, and the client needs an invoice and must pay into the business's account (Section 35a EStG). The service must also be performed in the client's household (Section 35a EStG): work in the garden, such as installation and servicing, can qualify; cleaning and storage at the business's premises cannot. Which item falls under which reduction is decided by the tax office; the business lists labour and material costs separately on the invoice. Details are in the article Section 35a tax relief: what belongs on the invoice.

In mid-October it is not too late for the autumn campaign, but it is tight. A timetable that works for many businesses:

The website only shifts its emphasis; the page stays the same. How enquiries can be spread across the year so that spring does not overflow is described in the article Steering seasonal enquiries across the year. And anyone who does not want to hand the entire lawn over to the robot can turn the corner it leaves out into a service of its own: a near-natural area with long grass, leaves and brushwood that is tended once a year.

We build this page as part of a website for private garden firms: season band, service cards, a form with the questions above and an address that works again every year. Ongoing upkeep, meaning dates, price status and notes on the debate, can be handled by our website maintenance on request.