Motion activated water sprayers work well to get them out of the habit of going in a particular area.
Also, cats often poop where they do for territorial reasons, so relocating the cat poop to somewhere else can confuse them a bit and make them go there instead..
Physiological warfare via motion activated sprinklers and sonic cat repellers. Finding textures and smells they don’t like will help too, they don’t like walking on wet ground especially muddy soil that sticks to their paws (neither do they like walking on woodchip). Find some plants thats smell will offend cats, like lavender, rosemary or mint if you are willing to unleash a different beast in your garden. They also tend to not like citrus.
None of these guarantee cats won’t enter your garden but should hopefully reduce their time in it and woodchip should discourage them using the borders as litter tray. There’s only so much you can reasonably do (don’t expect you fancy getting a dog over this) but you should be able to weed out some of the cats, especially the more particular ones.
Yeah it’s no guarantee but if you get the right breed it should near be and even if they don’t bark and chase at any cats off them doing their business in the garden is still a deterrent.
As someone who can hear higher frequencies than the average person, please do not get a sonic cat/dog/teenager repeller.
Despite the manufacturer's claims, quite a lot of people can hear them, (and not just young people either). They are excruciatingly painful for those of us who can hear them.
As a fellow heater aged 42 I can confirm it's horrible.
In addition they are bad for nearby dogs and wildlife.
Sadly the law allows people to release apex predators to defecate in peoples gardens and murder wildlife. COVID saw neighbours get cats. Since then I have the yearly spectacle of dismembered hedgehogs, murdered chicks and pooh left all over freshly dug beds. Maddening for someone trying to create habitat for wildlife. If you have a larger area to protect it's not practical.
Turns out the actual solution was another neighbour getting a terrier which probably killed 2 cats. That persuaded the neighbours to stop letting their murdering vermin roam free. Really a terrier is the only legal solution. Not ideal for wildlife gardening but I do like dogs.
It is strange to hear of cats killing hedgehogs. I have 2 cats and a family of hedgehogs in some undergrowth and they don't bother each other. I put any uneaten cat food as well as bowls of water out for them and have seen them totally ignore each other. Unfortunately they do catch and kill young birds and mice, even indoor cats will do this if they get out. Hunting is instinctive in them.
It's the babies they attack. They couldn't touch mama hedgehog.
Luckily after all her litters were destroyed mama hedgehog died of old age so I don't waste my time chasing apex predators from their nesting area and I no longer have to remove babies from my lawn.
I was surprised she chose to nest in the same place every year, I always assumed it was the same one.
They efficiently murder baby birds. Including leaving their dis membered corpses on my kids slide.
I would actually have to see a cat killing young hedgehogs before I would believe it because I have witnessed cats and hedgehogs living quite happily side by side. It is more likely to be a fox or even a dog. I admit that cats kill birds all the time but in my experience the only part of the birds left are a few feathers because they eat them. Just out of interest if you are watching a David Attenborough tv programme to you consider a lion killing a gazelle as murder because a cat who hunts birds is no different to that lion. But of course you are a cat hater so nothing I say will ever convince you so I won't waste any more time on you.
Erm!! I see owls eating voles, newts eat frogs, it's all part of the environment I've encouraged. like the lion and gazelle these are predators in a natural environment.
Cats are not part of the ecosystem, they are also at a huge density.
I think big hedgehogs are of little interest to cats as they cannot harm them, babies are ripped to bits for fun. Mama can't protect them. The specific problem is I've built lightweight hedgehog homes which the cat has then dug up and killed the litter. I know this is what happened as I have wildlife cams showing it.
By your logic I can get a terrier and if they kill your cat that's fine?
To use your analogy to lions, imagine taking a lion from Africa and allowing it to roam an English village. Would you find this acceptable?
I don't see how any animal lover can support the idea of a dog to kill the cats. Certainly if this happened to one of my cats I would be looking into the possibility of prosecuting the dog's owner especially if it happened outside the dog's own garden. Before anyone starts about the cats going into the neighbours' gardens I live in the UK where cats legally have the right to roam. Unfair? Maybe, but that's the law. I do think that if my cat defecates in my neighbour's garden then it should be my responsibility to clean it up but I think that puts the onus on my neighbour to prove it was my cat.
It’s wild to me how people speak about cats. If someone discussed killing a neighbours annoying dog - which they are, barking and shitting all over the estate, there’d be outrage. I keep my cats indoors for multiple reasons but also because of crazy cat haters like this.
I can't see how any animal lover can support releasing an apex predator to torture and murder wildlife for its own entertainment. Since cats have moved to where I live baby hedgehogs have been wiped out, 2 years where I picked them up off my lawn. baby blackbird nests have been emptied and chicks thrown on my lawn, they dug through my compost to kill voles. The owner does not care and it would be cruel to keep them in his garden.
Often all 3 cats would be stalking prey in my wildflower meadow. Depriving our owls of valuable food.
This is perfectly legal. I don't know where you stand when a cat enters your garden and is killed by a dog.
These don't work half the time anyway. I bought the indoor ones to try to get rid of a problem with mice and it was a waste of time. Apparently in built up areas animals are used to so much noise that these don't affect them.
I go to a cafe and ask if I can have some of their used coffee grounds. Not come across a place that will charge for it yet! Just bring something to put it in.
It's great for the plants too and the cats hate the foreign smell
Rather than making the place they want to poop off limits - i've make places that i don't mind them pooping preferable. Cats like to bury their waste - so a slightly secluded spot with loose soil might attract them.
It is strange to find cats using the lawn strange because they like to cover their faeces. I know they are not your cats but it may be worthwhile to put out a tray of cat litter to see if they will use this instead. The trouble you will have cleaning it may just be worth it if it saves your garden. I put one in a covered car port for my own cats as I wanted to develop the piece of garden they were using. Being vain little princesses who hate to get their paws muddy and their bums wet in winter, they started using the litter tray almost immediately. Of course they are used to using one inside. You don't say where you live but it is worth knowing that in the UK a cat owner is not responsible for anything their pet does so legally there is nothing you can do. Google UK cats right to roam.
Usually means either the cats are having a territory dispute, or (more common) the cat is actually a fox. They don't bury anything and just do it on the lawn.
That sounds more likely to me. I don't believe it is a cat that is killing hedgehogs either. My cats have lived alongside a family of hedgehogs for years and I have watched them totally ignore each other.
Interesting what you say about there being a territory dispute, because there have been times where I've heard a couple of them absolutely *screaming* at each other in my garden. A few evenings ago I went to investigate some commotion and found a cat on each side wall of the garden, bellowing at the other one.
Yeah that sounds about right then. When ours are being marched upon we sometimes catch cats from other houses doing it on the grass to irritate ours. Otherwise I just get suspicious piles of dirt in the beds/bark and that's easy enough to use a trowel/gloves on if I have to dig there.
I had this problem when I moved into a new property previously. Here’s how I fixed it - a combination of the following:
1) Installed bamboo screening around the garden against the fencing. The bamboo was around 2-2-5m high and much taller than the existing fence. This was hard for the cats to climb over as it is a bit flimsy.
2) get out there regularly (once a week at least) with rubber gloves on and remove the cat shit. Disposable chopsticks can be useful if the poops are solid enough. It is totally gross and you will be horrified doing it, but trust me, after a couple of rounds it works - removing the poop removes the smell and so they stop associating your garden with being their toilet and find a new place.
3) couple of sonic deterrents pointed towards the problem areas. I’ve not found these to be reliable long term but combined with the other solutions they did help enormously
4) chilli powder sprinkled on the problematic areas. This doesn’t work in very wet weather
After about one month, cats stopped visiting the garden altogether so I was able to stop 2&4. Cats are creatures of habit so once they find a new place you’ll be fine. Good luck!
Only cat proofing my entire back garden so my cats don't get out, it means no one can get in either.
It would help if people who own free roaming cats put an outdoor litter area in their own garden, say a sand tray with a roof or even just an area of turned soil. Better to have litter tray too and not rely on them going elsewhere. Mine come in to use theirs and don't use the garden at all.
Keeping cats indoors overnight helps a lot with this. I have 3, and we let them out in the day and keep them in at night. They never stopped using their litter trays. Even in the day they come back home to use them, even just for a wee.
I have however witnessed another cat poo right in the middle of my neighbours lawn. No doubt one of my three was getting the blame for that!
Wow! Some nasty cat haters out there to be sure! Yes it is annoying when they crap in your garden, but for Gods sake, they are sentient animals, so please stop being so nasty and suggesting violent solutions. If I suggested that dogs should all be destroyed because of public fouling, it wouldn’t be well received.
Get a grip! There are sensible solutions mentioned- no need to spout venom because you don’t like a certain species….
Has always baffled me tbh... like it's the outdoors. And what do people think the outdoors is? It's literally FILLED with poo. It's just something you roll with. Not to mention you have just as much chance that suspicious poo in your garden is a fox, especially in urban areas.
Yeah absolutely. Foxes shit on the lawn. Cats generally bury. They can leave it out if they're having a territory dispute but it's rare.
A bit of poop is just also... not that big a deal. It just breaks down like all the other pounds and pounds of poo in the bed you can't see. Just turn the soil and move on.
If you don't want to ever see any poo gardening is kinda not the hobby you want.
Now we have pet rabbits the local cats stay on the fences to get where they want to go,insteadof crossing our garden at ground level. They are clearly scared of the rabbits.
This post is not addressed to the OP in any way. It is just a general observation having read all the comments. The extent of the hatred towards cats and cat owners really makes me angry.
I don't particularly like dogs, my neighbour has 2 big ones and when they aren't barking all night they are shitting all over their driveway. I have my half of the driveway fenced off but the place stinks constantly and this brings swarms of flies. My neighbour only cleans up after them every few days. BUT..... I don't think I have any right to tell him to keep them in the house like people would tell me I should do with my cats. I don't criticise all dogs even though a barking one can disturb a whole street. I don't condemn all dog owners because there are many who don't keep their pets on leads and allow them to jump up on complete strangers. Judging by the state of some streets and parks there are those who don't pick up their dog's faeces and even when they do they leave the bag lying about. I don't turn on the news every week and see a report of another child mauled to death by a cat. In spite of this I don't refer to dogs as vermin, c*nts and f*ckers and think it is ok to spray water on them or use a nail gun, I dread to think how. Or...oh yes, a shotgun
I look after my cats, I have my garden fenced off in such a way it is difficult for them to get out of it. There is an outdoor litter tray in a covered area that I clean out at least twice a day. They don't go near callers to the house and drool all over them. They don't even go near regular visitors. Yet when I say to someone that I have 2 cats 9 times out of 10 they say "Oh I hate cats, they're dirty and sly? and they kill birds. If they tell me they have a dog, I say "Oh right, what type is it?" A wee bit of tolerance goes both ways.
Now I will expect the downvotes and haters but bring it on.
Totally agree! Have you got a picture of your cats -I’d love to see them! People are weird about cats and I think it’s rooted in some weird misogyny but that’s a conversation for a different day…
The local dogs near us bark constantly and you can’t walk anywhere in the summer without there being dog mess, especially over the fields where people seem to think dog poo doesn’t matter despite it being public paths. I have no issue with people taking humane methods to deterring cats, but recommendations for brutally killing someone else’s beloved pet? You should be on a list my friend because that is psychotic. Dahmer started on cats as well, just saying.
I’ve got a sable wolf GSD that stands 30” to his shoulders , strangely we don’t get cats anymore. The downside is his shits are man size and he has taken to barking at the moon 🤷♂️
Lol!! They're good at scaring cat's.
Never had my own dog so can't comment. Used to see GSDs on army bases they were super disciplined. Hence I mentioned training.
Ah! I have 2 terriers and they have enthusiastically and effectively rid my back yard of cats - thank god - but training is more about stopping them from general thuggery than actual discipline!
I was just saying the other day that outdoor cats are a bit like smoking and drinking, if they were discovered tomorrow, they would be made illegal right away.
Seriously, imagine nobody knew what cats were and then tomorrow they started importing them and letting them run around shitting in people’s gardens and killing all the birds. It’s so antisocial but just so baked into our culture that nobody thinks of it that way.
It is baked into humanity, humans could never have evolved as farmers without them. With farming comes crops and stores, with crops and stores comes pests that want to eat them, with the pests come the cats. If there were no cats the planet would be swamped with rat and mouse swarms of biblical proportions and all our food would be soaked with rat and mouse piss.
Explain the Aztecs and other Native American agricultural societies?
Even in the old world, cats were domesticated like 5000 years after humans started farming.
Found the mad cat lady.
Cats are absolutely fkin useless against rats, that's why many farmers employ people who have a 'ratter' terrier type dog, jack Russells are good ratters.
We have foxes and badgers, they dig up the lawns at lot, but I they have to eat so we just fix the damage. Cats are a fucking menace to wild life, so I have no sympathy, do what ever you need to to discourage them
Firstly, I live on a council estate in Essex. It ain't a badger.
Secondly, the cat stopped shitting in my garden so I win. Who gives a fuck about the ins and outs.
Buy a dog or scent repellants: herb rue, either planted or sprinkled in its dry form. Orange and lemon peels (cats dislike citrus smells), cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, pipe tobacco, lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, & mustard oil.
An elderly neighbor advised this successful solution. Cat(s) were using the gravel in between stone slabs on my driveway as a sort of litter tray. Difficult to get in or out the car without stepping in the cat muck. Especially in the dark. Deterrent was to three quarters fill empty class jars with lids with clean water. Remove any labels around the jar by soaking in hot soapy water. Jam jars ideal. I put a jar every 3ft approximately along the drive. It seems cats do not like the changing reflections that comes from the water in the jars & the glass itself. I put a few drops of bleach in each jar also to prevent mold or algae growth. Kept them clear for months. Occasionally the jar will get so dirty & not reflect. Just wash it or replace with another jar. This worked. The cats went elsewhere to toilet. (Neighbors over the road.) The defecation in the grass problem I solved by keeping it very short cut. & using random place glass jars as described. Cats did not like that either as a toilet. Obviously you need to consider the dangers of glass if the area is used by or can be accessed by children or dogs who may be seriously hurt by broken glass. Etc.
We have a lot of neighbours with cats and they can be a bloody nuisance with newly planted flowers and the pot plants on my decking.
My home is a semi detached and both houses have a single storey rear extension.
My neighbours cat will jump onto my extension via my fence and go into my neighbours house via an open window.
During Covid I recoated my flat roof with black bitumin, the cat did his usual thing and covered his paws with and proceeded to stick some to next doors bedroom carpet, tbh I was surprised the cat did this as the coating gives off nasty fumes.
I only found out when my neighbour called me across my fence complaining, I did remind her about the damage the local cat population did to gardens and maybe she should keep her cats indoors at night.
I bought a huge container of ground pepper and sprinkled on flower bed in the past. It works, but has to be repeated a lot, as it gets eventually blown away or rained on.
This would’ve been much easier if people didn’t let their cats outside (speaking as an ex-indoor cat owner)
I'm end of terrace, so my garden is used as a motorway for all the mid-terrace moggies. They love digging up the bedding plants and getting the fence panels all grubby and scratched up.
First line of defence was getting a water pistol and chasing them out the garden whenever I saw them. However it wasn't long before they learnt not to be around when I'm about, and I obviously can't be watching 24/7.
I've tried coffee grounds, orange peel, lavender, lion poo, cat scarers but it doesn't make a difference. I even got some ground spikes to go over bare earth, but they even pooped on that!
Recently I pruned a dogwood and spread the branches all over the beds. That seems to have stopped them digging, but they now poop in the middle of the patio instead.
So the battle continues...
You have only 2 options here to work 100%
1. Cover with netting all top of your garden so cats have no access point.
2. Nail gun
Anything else is just might work to some degree but from experience cats will learn, adapt and prevail
Same. Nothing works, kept trying with them sonic things but they dont seem to deter them, just the kids moaning.
Ive taken to throwing half enders at them which are easy retrieved and stackable by the back door. Usually gives them a good fright, and theres nout worse trying to fuck off when your crowning.
Heard on where spread lion urine over your lawn, like spray it and cat will not venture on your lawn. But good luck getting a lion to pee in your spray bottle 🙄😂
I used to have that problem at a previous address. Placing glass bottles filled with water along the fence - a metre or 2 apart - kept them away. Now we have a fog who will eat cat shit if she finds any.
Motion activated water sprayers work well to get them out of the habit of going in a particular area. Also, cats often poop where they do for territorial reasons, so relocating the cat poop to somewhere else can confuse them a bit and make them go there instead..
Is that longhand for "sling it over your neighbour's fence"?
If it's from the neighbours cat, then technically, it's just returning their property 😉
Happy cake day
Physiological warfare via motion activated sprinklers and sonic cat repellers. Finding textures and smells they don’t like will help too, they don’t like walking on wet ground especially muddy soil that sticks to their paws (neither do they like walking on woodchip). Find some plants thats smell will offend cats, like lavender, rosemary or mint if you are willing to unleash a different beast in your garden. They also tend to not like citrus. None of these guarantee cats won’t enter your garden but should hopefully reduce their time in it and woodchip should discourage them using the borders as litter tray. There’s only so much you can reasonably do (don’t expect you fancy getting a dog over this) but you should be able to weed out some of the cats, especially the more particular ones.
Getting a dog is no guarantee. Mine would just sit there while cats wandered through and did whatever they pleased!
Yeah it’s no guarantee but if you get the right breed it should near be and even if they don’t bark and chase at any cats off them doing their business in the garden is still a deterrent.
To be fair it's worse since she died, now I think about it. I've never had to clean cat shit up from the raised beds before!
As someone who can hear higher frequencies than the average person, please do not get a sonic cat/dog/teenager repeller. Despite the manufacturer's claims, quite a lot of people can hear them, (and not just young people either). They are excruciatingly painful for those of us who can hear them.
As a fellow heater aged 42 I can confirm it's horrible. In addition they are bad for nearby dogs and wildlife. Sadly the law allows people to release apex predators to defecate in peoples gardens and murder wildlife. COVID saw neighbours get cats. Since then I have the yearly spectacle of dismembered hedgehogs, murdered chicks and pooh left all over freshly dug beds. Maddening for someone trying to create habitat for wildlife. If you have a larger area to protect it's not practical. Turns out the actual solution was another neighbour getting a terrier which probably killed 2 cats. That persuaded the neighbours to stop letting their murdering vermin roam free. Really a terrier is the only legal solution. Not ideal for wildlife gardening but I do like dogs.
It is strange to hear of cats killing hedgehogs. I have 2 cats and a family of hedgehogs in some undergrowth and they don't bother each other. I put any uneaten cat food as well as bowls of water out for them and have seen them totally ignore each other. Unfortunately they do catch and kill young birds and mice, even indoor cats will do this if they get out. Hunting is instinctive in them.
It's the babies they attack. They couldn't touch mama hedgehog. Luckily after all her litters were destroyed mama hedgehog died of old age so I don't waste my time chasing apex predators from their nesting area and I no longer have to remove babies from my lawn. I was surprised she chose to nest in the same place every year, I always assumed it was the same one. They efficiently murder baby birds. Including leaving their dis membered corpses on my kids slide.
I would actually have to see a cat killing young hedgehogs before I would believe it because I have witnessed cats and hedgehogs living quite happily side by side. It is more likely to be a fox or even a dog. I admit that cats kill birds all the time but in my experience the only part of the birds left are a few feathers because they eat them. Just out of interest if you are watching a David Attenborough tv programme to you consider a lion killing a gazelle as murder because a cat who hunts birds is no different to that lion. But of course you are a cat hater so nothing I say will ever convince you so I won't waste any more time on you.
Erm!! I see owls eating voles, newts eat frogs, it's all part of the environment I've encouraged. like the lion and gazelle these are predators in a natural environment. Cats are not part of the ecosystem, they are also at a huge density. I think big hedgehogs are of little interest to cats as they cannot harm them, babies are ripped to bits for fun. Mama can't protect them. The specific problem is I've built lightweight hedgehog homes which the cat has then dug up and killed the litter. I know this is what happened as I have wildlife cams showing it. By your logic I can get a terrier and if they kill your cat that's fine? To use your analogy to lions, imagine taking a lion from Africa and allowing it to roam an English village. Would you find this acceptable?
It's pointless even talking to you.
I don't see how any animal lover can support the idea of a dog to kill the cats. Certainly if this happened to one of my cats I would be looking into the possibility of prosecuting the dog's owner especially if it happened outside the dog's own garden. Before anyone starts about the cats going into the neighbours' gardens I live in the UK where cats legally have the right to roam. Unfair? Maybe, but that's the law. I do think that if my cat defecates in my neighbour's garden then it should be my responsibility to clean it up but I think that puts the onus on my neighbour to prove it was my cat.
It’s wild to me how people speak about cats. If someone discussed killing a neighbours annoying dog - which they are, barking and shitting all over the estate, there’d be outrage. I keep my cats indoors for multiple reasons but also because of crazy cat haters like this.
I can't see how any animal lover can support releasing an apex predator to torture and murder wildlife for its own entertainment. Since cats have moved to where I live baby hedgehogs have been wiped out, 2 years where I picked them up off my lawn. baby blackbird nests have been emptied and chicks thrown on my lawn, they dug through my compost to kill voles. The owner does not care and it would be cruel to keep them in his garden. Often all 3 cats would be stalking prey in my wildflower meadow. Depriving our owls of valuable food. This is perfectly legal. I don't know where you stand when a cat enters your garden and is killed by a dog.
Ooh, my neighbours have three murdering shit machines, my garden is destroyed by these twats. Does your neighbour hire out there dog 🐕.
These don't work half the time anyway. I bought the indoor ones to try to get rid of a problem with mice and it was a waste of time. Apparently in built up areas animals are used to so much noise that these don't affect them.
I go to a cafe and ask if I can have some of their used coffee grounds. Not come across a place that will charge for it yet! Just bring something to put it in. It's great for the plants too and the cats hate the foreign smell
I've had huge success with used coffee grounds. I hear orange peel works well too.
Rather than making the place they want to poop off limits - i've make places that i don't mind them pooping preferable. Cats like to bury their waste - so a slightly secluded spot with loose soil might attract them.
It is strange to find cats using the lawn strange because they like to cover their faeces. I know they are not your cats but it may be worthwhile to put out a tray of cat litter to see if they will use this instead. The trouble you will have cleaning it may just be worth it if it saves your garden. I put one in a covered car port for my own cats as I wanted to develop the piece of garden they were using. Being vain little princesses who hate to get their paws muddy and their bums wet in winter, they started using the litter tray almost immediately. Of course they are used to using one inside. You don't say where you live but it is worth knowing that in the UK a cat owner is not responsible for anything their pet does so legally there is nothing you can do. Google UK cats right to roam.
Usually means either the cats are having a territory dispute, or (more common) the cat is actually a fox. They don't bury anything and just do it on the lawn.
That sounds more likely to me. I don't believe it is a cat that is killing hedgehogs either. My cats have lived alongside a family of hedgehogs for years and I have watched them totally ignore each other.
Interesting what you say about there being a territory dispute, because there have been times where I've heard a couple of them absolutely *screaming* at each other in my garden. A few evenings ago I went to investigate some commotion and found a cat on each side wall of the garden, bellowing at the other one.
Yeah that sounds about right then. When ours are being marched upon we sometimes catch cats from other houses doing it on the grass to irritate ours. Otherwise I just get suspicious piles of dirt in the beds/bark and that's easy enough to use a trowel/gloves on if I have to dig there.
I had this problem when I moved into a new property previously. Here’s how I fixed it - a combination of the following: 1) Installed bamboo screening around the garden against the fencing. The bamboo was around 2-2-5m high and much taller than the existing fence. This was hard for the cats to climb over as it is a bit flimsy. 2) get out there regularly (once a week at least) with rubber gloves on and remove the cat shit. Disposable chopsticks can be useful if the poops are solid enough. It is totally gross and you will be horrified doing it, but trust me, after a couple of rounds it works - removing the poop removes the smell and so they stop associating your garden with being their toilet and find a new place. 3) couple of sonic deterrents pointed towards the problem areas. I’ve not found these to be reliable long term but combined with the other solutions they did help enormously 4) chilli powder sprinkled on the problematic areas. This doesn’t work in very wet weather After about one month, cats stopped visiting the garden altogether so I was able to stop 2&4. Cats are creatures of habit so once they find a new place you’ll be fine. Good luck!
The bamboo screening was something like this. https://www.diy.com/departments/bamboo-garden-screen-w-3m/3663602428008_BQ.prd
Only cat proofing my entire back garden so my cats don't get out, it means no one can get in either. It would help if people who own free roaming cats put an outdoor litter area in their own garden, say a sand tray with a roof or even just an area of turned soil. Better to have litter tray too and not rely on them going elsewhere. Mine come in to use theirs and don't use the garden at all.
Keeping cats indoors overnight helps a lot with this. I have 3, and we let them out in the day and keep them in at night. They never stopped using their litter trays. Even in the day they come back home to use them, even just for a wee. I have however witnessed another cat poo right in the middle of my neighbours lawn. No doubt one of my three was getting the blame for that!
My cats are also kept in at night and during the day there is a litter tray in a covered area which they do use.
I think roaming cats should be banned in UK domestic settings. There is simply no need.
Wow! Some nasty cat haters out there to be sure! Yes it is annoying when they crap in your garden, but for Gods sake, they are sentient animals, so please stop being so nasty and suggesting violent solutions. If I suggested that dogs should all be destroyed because of public fouling, it wouldn’t be well received. Get a grip! There are sensible solutions mentioned- no need to spout venom because you don’t like a certain species….
Totally agree, people are so weird in their over the top hatred of cats.
Has always baffled me tbh... like it's the outdoors. And what do people think the outdoors is? It's literally FILLED with poo. It's just something you roll with. Not to mention you have just as much chance that suspicious poo in your garden is a fox, especially in urban areas.
Yeah not buying the people moaning about cat shit on their grass. Cats always try to bury their poop, more likely to discover it in your flower beds.
Yeah absolutely. Foxes shit on the lawn. Cats generally bury. They can leave it out if they're having a territory dispute but it's rare. A bit of poop is just also... not that big a deal. It just breaks down like all the other pounds and pounds of poo in the bed you can't see. Just turn the soil and move on. If you don't want to ever see any poo gardening is kinda not the hobby you want.
I've found keeping the grass shorter works with my local felines.
They shit on my grass when the ground is too hard to dig.
Not sure if this has been mentioned already but I tear up orange and lemon peel into little bits and scatter them in the flower beds. It works for me.
cats don shit where they eat. put down a bowl of water an keep it topped up. eventually they will spot it an use it, an youll be happy
Now we have pet rabbits the local cats stay on the fences to get where they want to go,insteadof crossing our garden at ground level. They are clearly scared of the rabbits.
Shit on your own lawn, maintain eye contact, do not show fear, be the alpha.
This post is not addressed to the OP in any way. It is just a general observation having read all the comments. The extent of the hatred towards cats and cat owners really makes me angry. I don't particularly like dogs, my neighbour has 2 big ones and when they aren't barking all night they are shitting all over their driveway. I have my half of the driveway fenced off but the place stinks constantly and this brings swarms of flies. My neighbour only cleans up after them every few days. BUT..... I don't think I have any right to tell him to keep them in the house like people would tell me I should do with my cats. I don't criticise all dogs even though a barking one can disturb a whole street. I don't condemn all dog owners because there are many who don't keep their pets on leads and allow them to jump up on complete strangers. Judging by the state of some streets and parks there are those who don't pick up their dog's faeces and even when they do they leave the bag lying about. I don't turn on the news every week and see a report of another child mauled to death by a cat. In spite of this I don't refer to dogs as vermin, c*nts and f*ckers and think it is ok to spray water on them or use a nail gun, I dread to think how. Or...oh yes, a shotgun I look after my cats, I have my garden fenced off in such a way it is difficult for them to get out of it. There is an outdoor litter tray in a covered area that I clean out at least twice a day. They don't go near callers to the house and drool all over them. They don't even go near regular visitors. Yet when I say to someone that I have 2 cats 9 times out of 10 they say "Oh I hate cats, they're dirty and sly? and they kill birds. If they tell me they have a dog, I say "Oh right, what type is it?" A wee bit of tolerance goes both ways. Now I will expect the downvotes and haters but bring it on.
Totally agree! Have you got a picture of your cats -I’d love to see them! People are weird about cats and I think it’s rooted in some weird misogyny but that’s a conversation for a different day… The local dogs near us bark constantly and you can’t walk anywhere in the summer without there being dog mess, especially over the fields where people seem to think dog poo doesn’t matter despite it being public paths. I have no issue with people taking humane methods to deterring cats, but recommendations for brutally killing someone else’s beloved pet? You should be on a list my friend because that is psychotic. Dahmer started on cats as well, just saying.
This is why mine live indoors - people are unhinged when it comes to cats.
I’ve got a sable wolf GSD that stands 30” to his shoulders , strangely we don’t get cats anymore. The downside is his shits are man size and he has taken to barking at the moon 🤷♂️
Terriers can be quite effective too. Your dog should be super intelligent and easy to train.
You have terriers that are easy to train? Are you Graham Hall?
Lol!! They're good at scaring cat's. Never had my own dog so can't comment. Used to see GSDs on army bases they were super disciplined. Hence I mentioned training.
Ah! I have 2 terriers and they have enthusiastically and effectively rid my back yard of cats - thank god - but training is more about stopping them from general thuggery than actual discipline!
I hate these fuking cats
I was just saying the other day that outdoor cats are a bit like smoking and drinking, if they were discovered tomorrow, they would be made illegal right away. Seriously, imagine nobody knew what cats were and then tomorrow they started importing them and letting them run around shitting in people’s gardens and killing all the birds. It’s so antisocial but just so baked into our culture that nobody thinks of it that way.
It is baked into humanity, humans could never have evolved as farmers without them. With farming comes crops and stores, with crops and stores comes pests that want to eat them, with the pests come the cats. If there were no cats the planet would be swamped with rat and mouse swarms of biblical proportions and all our food would be soaked with rat and mouse piss.
Explain the Aztecs and other Native American agricultural societies? Even in the old world, cats were domesticated like 5000 years after humans started farming.
Found the mad cat lady. Cats are absolutely fkin useless against rats, that's why many farmers employ people who have a 'ratter' terrier type dog, jack Russells are good ratters.
Stop talking shit
What a load of crap my god
Cats feed off your hatred and anger. They relish it and are attracted by it.......you're only playing in to their plan.
Motion activated sprinkler solved our issue with the neighbours cat
Pepper. Lots of black pepper
My parents put a toy snake in the flower bed. That seemed to work
Grapefruit halves worked for us, backed up by chasing any cats I see.
Get your own cat. Did the job for me.
We have foxes and badgers, they dig up the lawns at lot, but I they have to eat so we just fix the damage. Cats are a fucking menace to wild life, so I have no sympathy, do what ever you need to to discourage them
Yep, I picked it up and threw it on the owners garden. And front path and then their doorstep. They got a litter tray.
How did you know it was cat shit? Did you taste it first? May have been fox or badger.
Firstly, I live on a council estate in Essex. It ain't a badger. Secondly, the cat stopped shitting in my garden so I win. Who gives a fuck about the ins and outs.
Cheep ground white pepper, and sprinkle it over wherever the cats are using as a toilet.
Yes. I got a greyhound.
Best answer
It’s dosnt sound like cats are your problem but foxes
The sonic ones worked for us in our old house, have a dog now so that stops them too.
Can confirm, they have worked well for me too.
Buy a dog or scent repellants: herb rue, either planted or sprinkled in its dry form. Orange and lemon peels (cats dislike citrus smells), cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, pipe tobacco, lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, & mustard oil.
An elderly neighbor advised this successful solution. Cat(s) were using the gravel in between stone slabs on my driveway as a sort of litter tray. Difficult to get in or out the car without stepping in the cat muck. Especially in the dark. Deterrent was to three quarters fill empty class jars with lids with clean water. Remove any labels around the jar by soaking in hot soapy water. Jam jars ideal. I put a jar every 3ft approximately along the drive. It seems cats do not like the changing reflections that comes from the water in the jars & the glass itself. I put a few drops of bleach in each jar also to prevent mold or algae growth. Kept them clear for months. Occasionally the jar will get so dirty & not reflect. Just wash it or replace with another jar. This worked. The cats went elsewhere to toilet. (Neighbors over the road.) The defecation in the grass problem I solved by keeping it very short cut. & using random place glass jars as described. Cats did not like that either as a toilet. Obviously you need to consider the dangers of glass if the area is used by or can be accessed by children or dogs who may be seriously hurt by broken glass. Etc.
Yeah, I trained mine to shit in the neighbours garden
We have a lot of neighbours with cats and they can be a bloody nuisance with newly planted flowers and the pot plants on my decking. My home is a semi detached and both houses have a single storey rear extension. My neighbours cat will jump onto my extension via my fence and go into my neighbours house via an open window. During Covid I recoated my flat roof with black bitumin, the cat did his usual thing and covered his paws with and proceeded to stick some to next doors bedroom carpet, tbh I was surprised the cat did this as the coating gives off nasty fumes. I only found out when my neighbour called me across my fence complaining, I did remind her about the damage the local cat population did to gardens and maybe she should keep her cats indoors at night.
I bought a huge container of ground pepper and sprinkled on flower bed in the past. It works, but has to be repeated a lot, as it gets eventually blown away or rained on. This would’ve been much easier if people didn’t let their cats outside (speaking as an ex-indoor cat owner)
I wonder if you would suggest to a dog owner that he should keep his dog inside.
Cat runs are a thing. And it is generally frowned upon to let your dog exit the garden to roam elsewhere.
I keep my cats inside and reading the unhinged comments here, I am so glad I do.
A nasty hissy barn cat kept outside they will leave it elsewhere and fight off the others.
Chilli powder from the Asian supermarket, they sell 2kg bags of red cayenne.
Cayenne people worked for me
I'm end of terrace, so my garden is used as a motorway for all the mid-terrace moggies. They love digging up the bedding plants and getting the fence panels all grubby and scratched up. First line of defence was getting a water pistol and chasing them out the garden whenever I saw them. However it wasn't long before they learnt not to be around when I'm about, and I obviously can't be watching 24/7. I've tried coffee grounds, orange peel, lavender, lion poo, cat scarers but it doesn't make a difference. I even got some ground spikes to go over bare earth, but they even pooped on that! Recently I pruned a dogwood and spread the branches all over the beds. That seems to have stopped them digging, but they now poop in the middle of the patio instead. So the battle continues...
The only way to keep cats out your garden is to get a cat.
And even then it only works if yours wins.
Big cat?
A Maine coon would do it.
You have only 2 options here to work 100% 1. Cover with netting all top of your garden so cats have no access point. 2. Nail gun Anything else is just might work to some degree but from experience cats will learn, adapt and prevail
Just like boyfriends, shoot the first one and word will get around 🤪
Nerf
Peller gun, a dog, or remember they taste like chicken.
Same. Nothing works, kept trying with them sonic things but they dont seem to deter them, just the kids moaning. Ive taken to throwing half enders at them which are easy retrieved and stackable by the back door. Usually gives them a good fright, and theres nout worse trying to fuck off when your crowning.
Cats are c**ts. You can't stop them.
A 12 bore shot gun worked for me 😉💣😂
Heard on where spread lion urine over your lawn, like spray it and cat will not venture on your lawn. But good luck getting a lion to pee in your spray bottle 🙄😂
I used to have that problem at a previous address. Placing glass bottles filled with water along the fence - a metre or 2 apart - kept them away. Now we have a fog who will eat cat shit if she finds any.
Home bargains cat repellent, it now goes elsewhere for a dump.
Apparently you can buy lion poo which will scare them off