How do I stop cats using my back garden as a toilet?

Question

Preferably something inexpensive but its a real problem so any suggestions would be welcome.

To the person who suggested its better outside than in....the offending cats are nothing to do with me. Never catch em at it...havent a clue which ones are doing it...so pretty pointless answer...

and correct me if Im wrong but dont cat faeces carry all sort of nasty diseases...so surely its not good for the garden?

Answer 1

Hi Debbie...Common odours that are effective deterrents for cats are:

Citronella works best for cats as well as citrus scents such as orange or lemon (primarily towards cats), cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, pipe tobacco, lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and mustard oil.

"Havahart's Cat Repellent" uses capsaicin pepper and oil of mustard as its active ingredients. It repels by both taste and odor, has a lemon scent.

Every animal responds differently to each of these. Some will not be phased by them and others will be quite revolting.

For training purposes they are applied on items that are to encourage avoidance behaviours and not for use with a squirt bottle as they could harm the eyes or respiratory system. Test each substance and observe to see which works as a deterrent so that accidental injestion does not occur as some could then be fatal.

Coleus plants can be effective, but every cat responds differently so it is uncertain without experimenting.

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ope/enotes/showarticle.cfm?id=89
MOTHBALLS are toxic to cats which contains the ingredient Naphthalene. Mothballs are approximately twice as toxic as paradichlorobenzene, and cats are especially sensitive to naphthalene. Signs of ingestion of naphthalene mothballs include emesis, weakness, lethargy, brown-colored mucous membranes and collapses. Paradichlorobenzene mothballs may cause GI upset, ataxia, disorientation, and depression. Elevations in liver serum biochemical values may occur within 72 hours of indigestion.

Answer 2

Good news actually! animal excrement is excellent for the garden its only urine directly onto plants that does damage. The Faeces is only a danger if u get it on your skin and absorb it or eat it either is highly unlikely and a most unsavoury thought. More people get infections and diseases from dog excrement especially Toxoplasmosis which is nasty for children and can cause blindness and or damage internal organs in humans.

To answer your original question I think the best bet is to plant "jaggy" plants like berberus bushes and thistle where you do not wish the cats to "go" I had a lovely conifer bush which stray cats loved to "mark" for some reason so I ended up putting bark chips all around it and planting pansies which were the only plants resilient enough to withstand that environ.

I tried the usual pepper and rinds of lemon and orange peel but, to no avail. The cats even terrorised my own cat so I just planted mint and catnip (cats love it) at the far end of my garden and it endeed up being "well fertilised" which took the heat of the rest of the garden

If you cannot b bothered planting mint for them just leave a patch of bare earth and they will use that especially if it has been freshly raked smooth the furry felines cant resist!

Good luck! if you try any of these and I hope I have allayed some of your concerns regards the dangers of the little presents.

Answer 3

Yes, you can get a disease called toxoplasmosis from cat feces, amoung other things I'm sure. I have 3 indoor cats, but have problems with outdoor cats coming around my house. There is spray that you can buy at the pet store to keep them away. Also, I have heard that they don't like the scent of orange, so oranges cut up around the garden might help. I also have a problem with skunks, and they are scavengers, so that's why we have not tried the orange thing yet.

Answer 4

The best way to keep cats away is to put orange peels in your garden and spray cat citrus spray. Cats hate the smell and has kept them away from my gardens. There is also some products you can get from your Super Pet or local pet store if you are really determined on keeping them away

Answer 5

Answered this question several times - try a CO2 fire extinguisher. Takes a bit of patience, but works really well, and doesn't hurt the cats. Just scares them half to death and the NEVER come back. We had one that was constantly coming into our back garden and $hitting everywhere. It was have a doze on the fence one afternoon, and got a blast - fell off the fence, proving that cats don't always land on their feet!

Answer 6

Try putting some mesh down so that they cannot dig. I have seen some people do that. Then your plants can grow, but they cannot dig. It is not fun for them. I found some plastic mesh in the yard where I lived. You could also try putting other things under the soil so that they plants can grow up, but the cats cannot dig. That is what you want to block. So just design it, so that they cannot do that. You can try to make it pretty or conceal something under the ground.

Answer 7

That is a difficult problem to fix. outside cats use the soil as a litter box, its their natural instinct to do this. You may try asking your local pet store if they have anything you can spray, or spread around that will repel the cats & keep them out of your yard. Good luck !!

Answer 8

Bottles of water used to keep cats out of my garden for years, when we stopped putting the bottles out the cats came back into the garden and would regularly foul the garden. When we put the bottled water back out they didnt come back.

Answer 9

If There Are Cats In Your Neighbourhood You Can't Really Stop Them.

Answer 10

There is Citrus Spray at your local pet shop, buy some and spray it around the garden, cats and most other "pets" i.e. ferrets, dogs, hamsters and gerbals dislike the smell of it and will stay away from areas sprayed with it.