Knocking down insects with compressed air.

I have seen hand removal and hosing down recommended as ways to control insect pests.
I am squeamish and lazy, so hand removal does not appeal to me.
Water is ok, but it has its own side effects and it's not abundant in all situations.
I was think about running compressed air into my back yard for other reasons, and it occurred to me that it might be a good solution.
Obviously it could be too much for some plants , and some insects would be inconvenienced at best.

Just an idea, thought I would share.

I think air could work. There's no guarantee that pests won't crawl back up on the plants, I guess.

I think volume is the big deal. High pressure / low volume is great for tires and air tools. Lower pressure and high volume actually accomplishes a lot more in my yard.

I always swore that I would never own a leaf blower. The epitome of idiocy I said! The symptom of all that is wrong! Except now I am on a different property, and a high volume electric blower was the only practical solution to some problems.

So I climbed down off the Mount. And lo and behold, I use the damn thing all the time. Just for a minute or two, to clean out the tractor rad, to clean out the vacuum cleaner reusable filter, to blow dust out of the soundhole of an acoustic guitar, to blow the crud out of the cooling paths of a scrounged laptop, etc. etc. Occasionally it blows leaves off the shale ground cover in fall, but that's rare.

Air is used to collect certain kinds of insects in organic fields.  One machine worked potato rows blowing the leaves with a violent high volume air flow from the top and dragging a vacuum collector below right at the base of the plants to gather everything blown off.  It was for gathering colorado potato beattles and larva.  It worked but was an expensive answer energy wise.

Yes! I vaguely recall that being done with strawberries as well, instead of spraying insecticide. As you say, lots of energy required. Tough call.

Between commercial pesticides and compressed air Iwould choose the air, if it works.
Solar panels can produce energy for compressed air, on a local level even.
Of course these are not the only choices!
I'm not even sure if I would chose air for myself.

Bringing up leafblowers makes me think of my own situation.
Bringing compressed air into my yard would ideally help with cleaning paths among other things.
I covet a leaf blower as part of a leaf collecting business.
Blown into a pile and shredded by a bagging mower, lots of leaves could fit in a small space.
I hated weedwackers until I got a battery powered one, so I definitely want a battery powered blower.

LOL! Now that I've gone over to the dark side, I'm bringing others with me. Mwahahahaha!

How about a Leaf blower?

I have never tried compressed air but did get a small dirt devil vacuum. It is rechargeable and has a long snout attachment, great for squash bugs and beetles.   I just empty it into the chicken run after slurping up a few dozen pests.