Cat Repellant

dunroving

SSD92 wrote: »

I'm having the same issue, a cat seems to have claimed the pebbled front as it's own. It's got to the point where I'm now having to clear up as much cat mess as I do for my dog. So infuriating, especially when there'd be a kick off if my dog made a mess on someone's front and I just walked away without sorting it.

My last house was the cat toilet for about 20 local cats, being the only house with a proper garden rather than gravel or flagstones. I tried almost everything to deter them, but nothing worked.

I was constantly surprised at the outrage of the local cat owners at the temerity of dog owners who did not pick up after their pooch. Oh, the irony!

(For the record, I am in favour of picking up after a dog, and NOT throwing the bag into the nearest tree! It just seemed rich that I had to deal with cat mess during my weekly gardening, and the cat owners write this off as normal cat behaviour).

icyring81

I use a make of cat scarer called PestBye. I have them in several places in my garden to stop the neighbours' cats using it as a toilet. The cat scarers do work but it takes a long time for the cats to get the message, and I have to move the scarers arround from time to time as the cats find new places to poo. I saw some improvement after a month and after six months the problem had largely disappeared.

I used to find at least one cat poo in the garden every day, sometimes in the middle of the lawn and sometimes lighly buried in soil (which I often had to scrape off my hands after discovering them while gardening). I find it astonishing that cat owners, and increasingly dog owners too, think their neighbours should have to dispose of thier pets faeces every day.

Novice_investor101

I used to get cats in my garden, keeping the grass on the lawn short & covering any bare soil patches in chicken wire has largely got rid of the problem. Planting geraniums seems to keep them away in summer too.
I knew which neighbour's cats they were fouling in my garden so I used to pick it up with a trowel & throw it back over their wall for them to clean up themselves.....

couriervanman

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I used to get cats in my garden, keeping the grass on the lawn short & covering any bare soil patches in chicken wire has largely got rid of the problem. Planting geraniums seems to keep them away in summer too.
I knew which neighbour's cats they were fouling in my garden so I used to pick it up with a trowel & throw it back over their wall for them to clean up themselves.....

"I knew which neighbour's cats they were fouling in my garden so I used to pick it up with a trowel & throw it back over their wall for them to clean up themselves".......my type of thinking;):beer:

Silvertabby

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I used to get cats in my garden, keeping the grass on the lawn short & covering any bare soil patches in chicken wire has largely got rid of the problem. Planting geraniums seems to keep them away in summer too.
I knew which neighbour's cats they were fouling in my garden so I used to pick it up with a trowel & throw it back over their wall for them to clean up themselves.....

As a cat owner, I can certainly sympathise - and don't blame you for this course of action!

Ok, I'm a bit smug because furry madam is a house cat and only uses an indoor litter tray....

... and when next door's teen had a party when his parents were away we chucked all the empty beer tins and fag ends back into his garden the next morning. Detached houses, so we only caught the dregs of the 'conversation' when his parents returned. Somehow, I don't think his excuse of 'but they're not mine - my friends threw them away over the fence' washed.

EmmyLou30

No method will work on all cats so it's a bit trial and error. Mine was a daily problem, we're talking 3 poops a day in a front flower bed 2mx2m. Constantly killing off my bedding plants and making gardening a retching experience. One cat went when the owners moved house and it's been a lot better since thankfully.

I've found the only thing to work is fully covering soil in plants - and while you wait for the plants to fill out you pin down the spiked plastic strips that are designed for the tops of fences throughout the gaps. They're usually brown so don't look too obvious against bare soil and have holes at each end to push through little ground spikes to hold them in place. I still get the odd poo right on top the ornamental grass as one cat must have a kink for getting his bum tickled as he curls one out, but other than that it's mostly ok.

After a full year of this method.....the first night I forgot to put the strips back down after a days fresh planting of the bed and I woke to find multiple new 'presents'. So breaking their habit doesn't even seem to work. How after a solid year of using someone elses garden as a toilet they knew mine was spike free and open for business I don't know. But just shows you'll never fix the issue until owners are made to care for them like dogs and keep them indoors or on leads.