Anyone used muscle spray to deter cats?

Pont

Got to say I HAD the same problem - no more!

I invested in 'cactus spikes' - sharp but will not cause injury to cats - and tacked them into the top of my fence. Have not had a cat in the garden since.

sb44

Pont wrote: »

Got to say I HAD the same problem - no more!

I invested in 'cactus spikes' - sharp but will not cause injury to cats - and tacked them into the top of my fence. Have not had a cat in the garden since.

That is ok if they are messing in your back garden but they are in our front.

The fence is only about 3' tall so can't put anything on top of those plus they can just walk up the drive into the garden.

sb44

Ok, poo update , nothing for the past two days and the reason..........

I put down two sheets of garden netting on the 5' square area that they were messing in.

Pinned the edged down with tent pegs and a few small stones along the edges, so they can't dig a hole to poo in.

As the whole garden is covered in bark (except for about 10 smallish plants), I went and bought 3 more boxes of netting (haven't put those down yet) thinking the cat/s would just move around the garden and do it in another patch which they haven't.

The netting isn't the thin stretchy one but thicker, a bit like large onion sack material. I know you can buy similar in poundland etc but we don't have a local one so bought mine from Home Bargains, two sheets in a box for 99p.

I was adamant that I wasn't going to put anything like it in the front garden as it would look messy, however, I was at the end of my tether so decided to try it.

Fingers crossed that they have gone elsewhere to do their business. I have been told it is all about breaking the habit of them coming back, they will go elsewhere and give your garden a miss, heres hoping.

sb44

Noooooooooooooo!

The little sh*t came back and did some at the edge of the garden, away from the area it has been visiting each time before.

Ok, so now I have used another 3 boxes of netting to cover most of the garden.

Still room at the edges for it to come back so I have half filled 500ml water bottles and put those around the garden.

I am going to leave it down now until after we have been away on holiday, so they will have 3 weeks to get their act together!

The last thing I want is to come back to mounds of cat *!?$ in this weather (well, any weather really but you know what I mean).

Some people have had success with the bottles but I won't hold my breath.

cheeswright

if you drink fresh coffee chuck the used coffee grounds around your plants in the front garden - this has been very effective in our front garden
as soon as I forget though...or think ...oh they must be going somewhere else by now...back come next doors moggies..
previous to this i had tried
orange rind
scat cat
a heron scarer
a sonic repellant
bottles of water
cocoa nut mulch
lion dung
reflective eyes
chillies in many forms
and arming the children with waterpistols
none of these worked

oh and we have three cats of our own....who are only territorial about the back garden...
good luck

sb44

cheeswright wrote: »

if you drink fresh coffee chuck the used coffee grounds around your plants in the front garden - this has been very effective in our front garden
as soon as I forget though...or think ...oh they must be going somewhere else by now...back come next doors moggies..
previous to this i had tried
orange rind
scat cat
a heron scarer
a sonic repellant
bottles of water
cocoa nut mulch
lion dung
reflective eyes
chillies in many forms
and arming the children with waterpistols
none of these worked

oh and we have three cats of our own....who are only territorial about the back garden...
good luck

Blimey! I don't hold out much hope of getting rid of the little swines then.

It's just a pity they are coming into the front garden and not the back, at least I could see them doing it then as I spend most of my time in the kitchen!

Davesnave

Have you actually tried putting plants in your garden?

I'm sure there are lots of evergreens, like hebes, that would leave no room for moggies. Think of it as an opportunity for intelligent design. after all, we are smarter than cats, aren't we?

At the moment, it sounds like an installation at Tate Modern. :eek:

madjackslam

Have you actually tried putting plants in your garden?

I was just going to say the same thing. I had one or more cats "visiting" our veg beds last year, but this year I've made more of an effort not to leave bare patches of soil - either stuff is growing, or newly sown stuff is covered with wire netting. This seems to have lowered the overall level of "infection". Last year I tried covering large areas in fleece, but this only led to me having large areas of fleece covered with disappointment.

I would go for some nice twiggy/spiky bushes, eg, spiraea and berberis, or smellier stuff like lavender and rosemary. Things that you would not want to back into if you were just getting comfortable.

sb44

Davesnave wrote: »

Have you actually tried putting plants in your garden?

I'm sure there are lots of evergreens, like hebes, that would leave no room for moggies. Think of it as an opportunity for intelligent design. after all, we are smarter than cats, aren't we?

At the moment, it sounds like an installation at Tate Modern. :eek:

I have plants all around the garden, holly, 3 x fuschia, lavender, 3 x pieris, eucalyptus tree, hebe, box, and about three others!

I am just hoping that this warm weather and rainy spell that we are having is going to give them a huge growth spurt.

Bl**dy bottles didn't work!

We are going to stay with my MIL for a few days and she has saved me a lot of prickly cuttings to put down, can't remember what she said they were from, but she says she cuts her arms to shreds whenever she trims them.

GwylimT

We used to use lion dung (can buy it from garden centres) to stop our cats pooing on our vegetable plot when we had one and it worked.