My garden is frequently visited by my neighbour’s cats. (I like cats. My sister has 4 cats and my cousins like putting hers in cute fancy dresses!) Last year, one of them started to poo in my garden. I embarked on a battle to stop him from doing so. I have tried many techniques; some based on the principles of sound, smell, novelty and contact and failed most of the time. It was a bit like the movie Catch Me If You Can, except that I was no Leonardo DiCaprio (Frank). I was more like ‘Carl’, the FBI bank fraud agent (Tom Hanks), who kept trying to catch Frank, the Conman, but was always a step behind. Every morning, the first thing I did was to roll up the blind and check if the set up has worked. Sometimes, I was amused by how clever the little cat was! A year on, I am happy to declare that I have won the battle! Here is how I found the ultimate solution against cats fouling in my garden.
General notes:
1. Always remove the cat faeces from the soil. It is not a good fertiliser.
2. Cats like going back to the same spot to make a poo. Clean the area with soapy water helps reducing the smell they are familiar with and makes it less ‘inviting’.
SOUND
The concept of this is to generate sound that is annoying for cats but not for humans.
I have used battery-powered ultrasonic cat repeller and solar-powered ultrasonic cat repeller. These devices can be used for other pests like foxes and rats, but when I used it I made sure the frequency was set up to target cats. Humans would not be disturbed, in theory. All I needed to do was to place the device at the right place in the garden (and at the right height). The Infra-red sensor is triggered by motion. Sound would then be generated to annoy the cat and this makes my garden a less comfortable toilet.
I was not sure about the concept of the ultrasonic devices before I tried them as I thought they would deter the good cats and bad cats from going to the garden.
1. Battery-powered cat repeller (£21.50, photo from Procter Bros Ltd)
Verdict:
If I forgot to turn it off while I did gardening, I could hear a ‘click’ and see a red light turned on whenever I walked past the sensor. There was a low-frequency (but not annoying) sound. I never could tell if this device had actually worked as I saw the cat wandered pass it many times, without looking disturbed. I did not see much evidence of faeces.
The most annoying impact was, surprisingly, on human. The device had no battery life indicator. Once I was away from home, my neighbour called me to tell me that it was making a lot of high pitch noise. It turned out that it was running out of battery!
2. Solar- powered ultrasonic cat repeller (£29.95, supplied and photo by Primrose)
In response to the battery problem of the first ultrasonic cat repeller. I decided to be environmental friendly and tried a solar-powered one. (photo by Primrose). It said on their website:
‘Your money back if it doesn’t solve your cat problem! We are so convinced that the Solar Cat Repeller will clear your garden of cats, we’ll give you your money back if you’re not 100% satisfied. Simply return it to us any time within 60 days for a full refund of the cost of the product.’
Verdict:
I was very excited when I opened the box – it looked all high-tech. At the time, I was also designing a house with photovoltaics on the rooflight. I was happy that I could carry on the ‘theme’ at home. Unfortunately, in the 2 months of me owning the solar-powered cat repeller, the weather was gloomy most of the time. There was just not enough sun to charge the device up. In other words, it did not work most of the time. An adaptor could have been purchased with the device to charge it up when there is no sun. But this was not made clear on the website and I only found out after I read the instructions which came with the box. It did not sound that practical anyway as the device had to be put in the garden but you had to charge the device inside. There would be time when the garden was un-guarded.
I decided to take advantage of the money back return instead. At least the return service was good. I got refunded the postage to return the device as I was mis-informed but I did lose the original £4.95 of delivery charge though.
SMELL
Cats have a very sensitive sense of smell. In theory, they will stay away from the zone with a smell they do not like. I have tried orange peel, cayenne pepper, cat repellent spray, cat plant and cat repeller pods.
1. Orange peels (£0.15, bought from market)
Cats do not like citric smells. The natural and organic way is to leave orange peels there.
Verdict:
FAILED! The citric smell was quite weak in open air. It can only cover a small area and it disappeared fast. It made no impact at all.
2. Cat repellent spray (£5.99 by Bayer Garden)
It has Aluminium ammonium sulphate, apparently hated by cats, dogs, birds and rabbits. It says on the bottle that it can be used all year around. (photo by Bayer Garden)
Verdict:
It smelled awful. I think I can use it to deter humans too! Unfortunately, my neighbour’s cat did not seem to be bothered by it. He is a young cat so he should be quite sensitive to smell. I was quite disappointed. Perhaps he had a blocked nose or he was being very tolerant.
3. Cayenne pepper (£0.99, local shop)
Apparently cats do not like cayenne pepper because of its heat. Just scattered the power around the area the cat has done its business. (Caution: do not rub your eye after touching cayenne pepper!)
Verdict:
FAILED!
It had no effect on the cat! I used the rest of the cayenne pepper for cooking instead.
4. Cat plant- Coleus canina (£7.95, supplied and photo by Dobies of Devon)
It says on their website: ‘This attractive half-hardy perennial has silver-green foliage and light blue flowers, but it’s the fragrance that’s the secret weapon – indiscernable to humans, it’s highly repellant to cats (but doesn’t harm them). Ideal for pots or borders. Height 60cm (2′)’
For these plants to work, it is best to grow them in pots as they can be moved to ‘target’ areas.
Verdict:
The little plants grew fast which was satisfying from a garden’s point of view. They left an unpleasant smell on your hand when you brushed against them. That was the problem!! The cat would not make a poo right next to the pot. But it did its business a short distance away from it. Hence, for this to work, I really need a lot of them to fill the whole plot up with plants, which means I could not grow any other plants.
And, these plants are not frost resistant- I learnt my lesson as they all died after one cold night!
5. Cat repeller pods (£3.99, supplied by Primose)
Apparently, ‘The sharp citrus smell (artificial citronella) is impregnated within the plastic during manufacture, which means no matter what the weather, the Cat Repeller Sticks keep working for up to 10 weeks. Each rod should protect about 1 metre square of area and it conntains no harmful chemicals or pesticides. It is discreet colour and design.’ Sounds ideal, right?
Verdict:
The cats made a poo right next to them. I took that as a sign of protest!
NOVELTY
Failing to get any result from the products widely available in the market, I tried to think out of the box. Here is what I have tried:
1. “Don’t sh*t where you eat”
I thought I would try putting food at the cat’s favourite spot to poo. I heard that cats love cleanliness. I thought it would not want to do its business at where it eats. My friends did warn me that the food might attract foxes or other unwanted animals instead.
Verdict:
The cat did not eat any food I left (I wonder if that was because I bought it from Poundland?) Perhaps it already decided that my garden was a toilet, not a canteen.
2. ” Negotiation”
I tried talking to the cat in English and Chinese. He looked at me, blank. (!)
CONTACT
1. Water pistol – super soaker
Out of desperation, we considered shooting the cat with a water pistol.
Verdict:
The cat was super alert. Whenever it sensed any movement, it looked up and ran away. So unless we were there 24/7 or the water pistol was triggered by movement detection sensor, this method does not work. Plus, we might get in trouble with RSPCA!
2. Crushed aluminium foil
I heard that cats do not like walking on crushed aluminium foil. So we gave it a go.
Verdict:
It fouled right next to it. This method only works if I cover the whole area with aluminium foil. This would it impossible for me to grow anything! However, it gave me an idea which ultimately led to the breakthrough!
3. Netting/ chicken wires (supplied and photo by Barnitts Home and Garden)
This was based on the concept that cats did not like walking on chicken wires, which I did not try as I already have plants growing in my garden. I used the netting to create a 3D cage.
Verdict:
It worked! I discovered that it also worked when I covered the soil or planter with net.
If you have a big garden and it was not possible to use net, you can lay the soil with chicken wire before planting. You can cut holes to allow plants to grow through. I have tried this one as I am happy with the netting option. I believe this would work in concept as from experience, I know that cats really do not like walking on this kind of surface!
Winkypedia 
I bought a ‘The Big Cheese – Cat Repeller’ for £14.99 from Amazon UK last year, it didn’t work. The cats still comes into the garden. I put chicken wire along the garden walls and the cats hates them but started walking on the garden fence instead. So, during the summer and autumn whenever I saw them in my garden or walking on the garden fence I’d ran out and chase them away. Then, they got used to me chasing them and not run away when I go into the garden. A couple of time they ignored me and so I managed to turn on my water host and spray them. That stops them coming into my garden. 😉
I think motion sensor water pistol or sprinkler is the way.
Try putting the chicken wires on the soil, instead of around. Cats don’t like walking on that type of surface.
We have covered our front garden in chicken wire and the cats are still pooing there
Oh dear! That is very unfortunate. The cat is so stubborn!
Contech CRO101 Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler-
this is for all my fellow gardeners. lol-this wasn’t around when i got my yard guard-too funny!i sold my home in MI and moved to santa fe. i rent now and i don’t have access to the h20 here, or i would get this instead of the yard guard. it runs around $50
Hello, I am a researcher at Landmark Films, a documentary company based in Oxford who make films for BBC, ITV1, Channel 4 and Sky1. We are known for making access-led, intelligent, well crafted, warm and funny documentaries about human stories, different places and institutions. Our latest documentary series was Brain Doctors for BBC2, a three part series on the neurology department at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
In the new year we are due to start making a film about cats for the BBC. I hope to speak to people who are having issues with cats – causing a nuisance in an area, cats killing increasing number of birds and also ruining gardens. Please feel free to get in touch via:
jessica@landmarkfilms.com
01865297220
If the comment is still relevant now (March 2014) :
we are Oxford people too, now living abroad, and feel the program had better focus on the basic attitude of the human crowd surrounding the animals, whether in Britain or elsewhere…
A little general education in the field might help… Is worth trying, even in UK.
This is a touchy suejcbt. Your pet cannot communicate to you to tell you what is happening. You should have your cat checked out by someone else to get a second opinion. Keep a close eye on her. Plus you can contact your local ASPCA to see if they have more information regarding this vet or what to do.
balls? yes balls . i bought a pack of moth balls and spread them around the garden.believe me they work.
yes moth balls does work I buy them crush them and sprinkle them around the garden and they work ,I was so desperate that I even used urine that worked brilliantly but the smell omg so now I only use moth balls.
The best method I heard was a slightly sadistic grandparent who blew up balloons and buried them just under the surface where the cats were fouling. Result – the cats claws burst the balloon, the cat jumps about 6 foot in the air and runs for cover – and importantly doesnt return! Def the most fun solution!
OMG! That is the most brilliant solution ever!!
If the cats are not home and wander around they are feral. Just leave some poisoned bait. Problem resolved.
My neighbour sticks cocktail sticks in the soil, the cats therefore can’t walk on the grass without hurting their paws.
Fantastic, we have tried everything could give this a go
haha brilliant idea!! haha
This I would like to see, a cat jumping 6 feet into the air, (sending the crap every where), would be good for a laugh, and it wont hurt the cat
I hope someone tries on you, in your own loo, one day!
Typical attitude of a cat owner as they think everyone must put up with the revolting evil things including having to let them do what they want. About time there’s legislation restricting them and classifying them as vermin if not in the owner’s property.
My cat stays indoors and she uses a covered litter as a loo. Not really great that when we step outside, we step on everybody else’s cats poo. Sorry but I’m going for the chicken net next time because tired of screaming out at neighbours cats using my garden as a toilet every day!!
I used liquid red chili. A few drops on de cats path and over the plants. It’s not toxic. They never came back, eventually I repeat the process.
Hector
I had a problem with cats knocking the lid of my waste bin during the night making an awfuk clatter. Finally I put about 6″ of water in the bottom of the bin and then some balloons on top of it…. Never had a problem with cats thereafter, I just wish I had been outside to witness the event!!!
Whoops!!! Sorry about the typo… it should of course read ‘awful’.
i just want them to leave my poor dogs alone they come sit at my front door walk along the window sill and my poor we one gets into such a state its a shame do you think a can of tuna and some poison would stop them or if i chase them maybe they would become road kill (Only kidding?)
Dogs and cats do not usually get on; and dogs are seldom the ‘underdog’ when meeting cats …How come yours are?
because they are inside the house and the cats are outside winding them up, read the post properly dumbass
Great info thanks! I have been trying to stop cats pooping in my garden too and am always on the lookout for new tips. What has worked best for me so far is wooden skewers at various exit/entrance points. They can be pushed far down enough so they are not visable and ruin the look for your garden (they dont hurt the cat either)
By the way just noticed a typo in your article:
And, these plants are frost resistant- I learnt my lesson as they all died after one cold night! (I think you meant are not?)
You are welcome! And thanks for sharing your tips!
Thanks for pointing out the typo too! Well spotted!
cats cats and more cats i live were every house has at least two cats and i am sure every one has my front garden for there toilet.i have never hated any animal so much as the cat .garlic,lots and lots of dryed garlic.as much as you can stand to smell.it works but dont miss a inch of you rockery thats where it will sh–, i have thought of getting a giant mouse trap made,and catching every one of them ,they would prob eat the fish as bait then sh– on it good luck
i just shoot the little twats myself love!!!!!
my sentiments entirely
Cats are not supposed to know you rockery is precious to you; maybe try looking up ways to stop them liking it too on Google (HOW TO PREVENT CATS FROM FOULING IN YOUR GARDEN IN 10 STEPS)… Good luck!
Learn to live with the cats , and BTW such like as Chicken wire on the ground or glass ect ,placed deliberately can harm the cat cause injury and you can be prosecuted many people such as yourselves cause injury to cats and a Fortune for Vets to correct.
It is pet owners’ responsibility to train their pets properly.
a good cat is a dead one. Cats should be kepted on leads and chipped. Owners should train their cats to shit in their own gardens.
Then they should keep their cats off our gardens!!
Learn to live with cats? Seriously? I’m sorry, I can’t accept a cat pooping where I grow my food. That is unhealthy not to mention just plain gross. I’ve tried citrus peels, cayanne and mouse traps. The best solution I’ve come up with is a motion activated sprinkler. It doesn’t harm the animal but does keep them out of the area in question. The only problem with that is unless you have three to four motion activated sprinklers, at about $75 each, there are unprotected zones. I’m at the point where I may use a live trap and relocate the little pest or pests.
Do we not have a legal right to have a cat-shit free property or do the cats own that too. Dog Laws restrict the movement of dogs and they are not allowed to roam free – so why should cats. I should have a legal right to protect my property from wandering defecating cats any way I see fit. And yes I have tried all the well known solutions – they don’t work. The only one that will work permanently is a 10 gram lead messenger – unfortunately I can’t use that in a city. If cat lovers love cats so much then why aren’t they prepared to collect the cat shit that is daily left on people’s lawns, gardens, pathways and even pebble beds – it is all uncovered ready to be picked up.
You must have very few truly interesting things to do to worry about pathways and pebblebeds! As to your 10 gr messenger: try using it in the fun-fair , illegal otherwise!
Well said Kevin.
SAM you say people must have few interesting things to do to worry about their pathways etc. yet you spent the WHOLE day spouting your drivel on a large number of posts that dare speak negatively about these vermin.Cat poo is dangerous and stinks and something we should not have to put up with. You are either a troll that feeds off peoples reactions or on another (vermin loving) planet.
Cats are classed as vermin.
For the biggest ‘vermin’ on this planet : maybe look to the Human Species!
Well then, folks like YOU should be more friggin well “responsible” for your cats in the first place!!!! You don’t seem to give a monkeys as to where your stinking cat does its c*******, do you!!! If someones dog kept fouling in YOUR garden it wouldn’t be long til YOU would be thinking of a “deterrent”…Say you wouldn’t and ill say you are a liar!!! YOU are responsible for your CAT, so DONT go moaning about decent folks trying to protect their own property!!!! Cats and their irresponsible owners are nothing but Dirty scumbags………..
Agreed. People are vermin, irresponsible and let their cats on their neighbors’ property.
get real, so I should let cats dig up my expensive rose beds so they can crap in my garden instead of their own??
I have tried a LOT of methods and still have a problem with them.
If it continues I will take drastic measures, my patience has well and truly run out.
I think the only solution is to shoot the fucking thing and throw its carcass over the fence to the neighbour that caused this problem in the first place.
I totally agree! I am sick and tired of cats i dont own fouling my front and back garden and inviting flies that thrive on them! But the big question is… How do you stop the fuc…s short of killing them?
Learn to live with a health hazard from something classed as vermin? After all only one letter different to rat! No thanks, I’m sorry but if you can’t keep the vermin out of other people’s gardens then the cat has to be dealt with as I for one don’t want to be gardening and get cat muck all over me. I also want to see wild birds in the garden and not cats. Also why should I but all those expensive gadgets that don’t work effectively? Is it any wonder people now resort to putting out some antifreeze for the cat to lap up or rat poison spread onto rolled up ham then the problem is solved?!
If there is environmental ‘vermin’ on this planet, it’s humans!! They have ruined the entire place for ages, leaving their own horrid ‘muck’ everywhere! As a species, cats have been around for very much longer; AND they have had to put up with you : maybe you could put up with them…?
WHY !! I have young children who cant go into our garden until ive de-pooped it from all the cat sh t that the cats leave everywhere. I come home to 7-10 piles of crap every day and as you know cat shit is highly toxic , can i sue the cat owners if my kids have to go to a & e !!!!!!!!!!!!
If you don’t like it, KEEP YOUR CATS IN YOUR OWN YARD!!!!!
Stop your cat shitting everywhere then
Well i dont know about ideas to stop the evil Siamese cat Sophie crapping in our garden, reading your ideas i have to say i nearly wet myself. Thank you for a bloody good giggle 🙂
Good luck!!! 🙂
Why not put up a camera where your having problems , catch y
The cat ! If you know its owner , or know where it lives . Go their and explain your problem to them , and susjest they have the cat stay in or better yet ! Try and get these cats people fine’s for their cats pooing on your property .
We all know about Dogs , if their caught , the owners are fined over $1,000, in Canada . But then it’s the people’s problem too! Not seeing if this law is referred to cats too! Their pets as dogs are . That these people should by bi the law of the land of your city’s laws. As long you get it on camera. , and show the people . And see if anything can and will be done about this problem.
Start asking , the Police , if their is a by – law against this filthy cat habit and problem .
As we all know it can be done !
Look at the people , how the law was enforced, to them . About smoking . Now today several places , you go to You Can’t Smoke ! All those who hate that smell have many places they can go to and really enjoy doing things together with their friends who don’t smoke . And don’t have to worry , that someone or somebody’s smoke blowing into your face in stores , restaurants and, even liquor stores , Dr. ‘s offices .
So a By L aw , has to be enforced !! And a certain price on the heads of the cat lovers . If you really hate this happening ! Action , Action Action , must be done . I read all the comments of every one ‘s email .
Why not get a list of prople who hate this , then try to get this enforced everywhere like us who were enforced of not smoking where we want to . Like those pesky cats going where they want to too!
Count me in on your list !
(I’m having a problem’s too with trying to stop these cats, pooing in my garden ). Looking for solutions . I fine this is the only solution I can agree will work . And , you ‘lol here maybe of these ones cats getting picked up put into the cat pound. This way , they have to pick there cats up ! If a cat doesn’t have a licence tag . Notify the SPCA. To pick this cat up . 😉 then that cat has been impounded! Text me let me know who, wants to start this campaign to st these cats owners , who can’t care to watch their pets!!! Work on it people this By- Law Enforce it ! As the governments enforced or who ever did enforce people not to smoke in areas where it’s public! Count me In!!!
to be honest take pics of the cat doing its buisness and when you do clean up someone elses cat mess from your garden put it on the offendings owners garden if they choose to complain show them the pic and say its not your job to clean up after there pet its theres so they can start doing it , i was doing this but they didnt complain beacause how could they ? too many ppl put up with this its a huge problem in the area where i now live luckily i dont have a problem only beacuse there isnt an area where they can it do there mess, but it annoys me that most ppl here seem to have multiple cats and other neighbours have got a problem the only reason they have multiple animals is beacause they dont take responsablity for the mess if they had to clean up after all of them they wouldnt have them all period
Good idea!!
its ok cat lovers saying its not a problem … well it is .. i speak for all oaps that tend there lawns , to be able to sit outside and enjoy watching grand kids roll on the grass , but now they get covered in cat shit . its no joke trying to clean up a 2 year olds face that has been covered in cat shit .. they dont have animals there selves now so shouldnt have to put up with other peoples crap .. right in the middle of the lawn …
I agree. It’s unfair that cat owners do not train their cats properly but complained about others making arrangements to protect their own garden
This is ridiculous, I’m sorry, saying that owners of cats can train their cats not to poo outside except in a designated place! Cat’s are not dogs, they cannot be ‘trained’ in this way. We too have a cat and we too have had other cats pooing in our lawn. Our cat has a litter tray INSIDE and she has never used anything else. She comes inside to use it. She is locked inside at night in a spacious garage so she doesn’t wander, fight with other cats or kill native birds. We deal with other cats by hose and water pistol and after 3 weeks in our new house we have no problems. Vegie gardens when built we lay down chicken wire of the large hole variety and the vegies are planted into gaps and voila! No cats.
Cats can NOT be trained, the problem IS NOT the cats, the problem is the irresponsible cat owners that allow their animals to roam around outside free and unattended!
We need the same regulations for cats that we have for dogs. Cats under the owners control at all times.
Cats not under their owners control or cats allowed to roam free are picked up by animal control and taken to the SPCA where the owner can pick them up after paying for the services of animal control.
Every city and town needs to have NO FEED regulations!! Feeding feral cats only causes litter after litter after litter of even more feral cats to be born.
Right now Australia has plans to cull (KILL) 2 MILLION feral cats by the year 2020 because they are overrunning towns and cities!!!
ONCE AGAIN, THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE CATS. THE PROBLEM IS IRRESPONSIBLE CAT OWNERS!!! You know the ones, the ones that move and leave the animal behind that they no longer want.Or the owner that leaves them by the roadside because they no longer want to care for them.
ADOPTING A CAT OR A DOG IS A LIFETIME COMMITMENT!!!!
IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED FOR THIS LEVEL OF COMMITMENT YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE A PET!!!!!!!!!
spot on mate, personally id shoot every cat in england if i had my way. the little vermin fuckers shitting on every square inch of lawn the twats can find. do what i do pal poision the cunts then they cant return.
Absolutely bullshit. I learned a lot of my cats, shiting right in the right place. We need only to that determination.
Maybe we can poison you (I would if you hurt my babies like that). ‘Eye for an eye’ in this case would be very just.. Death by poison is a slow, horrendous way to go and I would never wish that on anyone…. except someone like you . God keep my cats away from your evil clutches..
Any feline is LOADS cleaner than any humans! AND have the right to live same as you. Only : they are better adapted to their (natural) environment (have been for thousands of years…), clearly less spiteful, and hopefully politer…
exactly, tough shit to cat owners, train your cats or expect the worst, poison wins
fuji: “‘Eye for an eye’ in this case would be very just”
Fuji, how about this, when your cat craps in my yard I will put YOUR CATS crap in just as inconvenient spot on your property. How your steps or your doorknob??? Cleaning cat crap off my child when I do not own a cat is something that I should never have to do.
It is your irresponsible ownership that is the real problem.
It is your irresponsible ownership that is at the root of the problem.
Poisoning a living creature is cruel and is wrong, more wrong than irresponsible cat ownership!!!!
Maybe it was a large eagle or a lion or something, or… (there are quite a few possibilities, aren’t there?…).
Found this string very interesting. I used to have 4 cats and never once had sight of poo in my garden………. New cats moved in next door two weeks ago and whether or not the removal journey to West Yorks is the problem I don’t know, but the cat poo they leave me is diarrhoea trailed amongst my fairly recently planted flowers. Two days ago I was quite confident that the spray I bought from B & Q would deter any creature from revisiting, but with this weather the rain eradicates the odour I sprayed around in no time, So thats £5.99 , plus all the John innes top soil I’ve had to scoop up in 24 hours a write off ! Chicken wire isn’t an option as my plants are closely planted .
Interested in any other topical ingredients I could apply…… I just sacrificed a bag of Ikea ground coffee ( didn’t care for it anyway) to the cause, but its pouring down again, so that’s another costly no no…………..
Go to a coffee shop and ask if you can pick up their coffee ground regularly. I did this last year and it worked. But there is a draw back to it. When the coffee grounds dry, they get hard. In one way, it keeps the soil underneath moist but the grounds get mouldy so it that good or bad? 🙂
Moth balls – chopped or crushed – work fairly well but cost money and do tend to dissolve in rain (but slower than a lot of other things). Also garlic. However, I have large gardens and am sick of cats leaving sloppy shit everywhere….and it being hidden in the grass on the lawn sometimes and ending up spread all over the mower. I can see why people want to poison them or shoot them, I really can. I don’t see why i should have to go to all the trouble and the expense of repellants. Cats should be kept under control. Why do we have to be subjected to cat shit on our property? There are no little children living here but when any come like our younger grandchildren they cannot play on the lawn in case of cat shit. Cat owners are so damn selfish if they don’t care that their cat is fouling other people’s properties. They wouldn’t like to find cat shit in their garden – no-one would. I once heard of someone who trapped the cats, drove off with them 20 miles and left them there. I don’t advocate that either since it’s more trouble and more expense ie trap and petrol!
The cat crap is ‘sloppy’ because the cat owner that claims to love their cat feeds it the cheapest crap they can buy.
CATS ARE NOT DESIGNED BY GOD AND MOTHER NATURE TO EAT COMMERCIAL CAT FOOD.
CATS ARE DESIGNED TO EAT ONLY RAW MEAT!
Cat crap that is sloppy, is sloppy because there are so many ingredients in this cheap food that the cats digestive tract can not process and so many chemicals the end result is runny, sloppy cat crap!!
That’s about the best thing you can do with Ikea ground coffee… no sane person would drink it!
Does anyone know if cat poo amongst vegetables growing in the kitchen garden can be ingested by humans, causing health problems.
I know dog poo is dangerous to humans but can’t find anything on cat’s.
Dumping the offending muck back on the owners garden is the only thing I’ve found to work but make sure it is the owner of the cat and that they don’t see you doing it!
I like some others would rather shoot the bloody pests, but some idiot has inexplicably made this illegal.
My grandma said cat poo is poisonous. That is what she learnt from the farm when she was young! Though I’m not sure if it is proven scientifically. 😛
I suspect your gran was absolutely right! What concerns me is that the poison could be taken up by the vegetables’ roots and subsequently ingested by the family, with potentially harmful results.
What ever comes out of my garden gets washed anyway. Birds poo on my spinach and lettuce. Slugs are supposed to transmit liver disease … hence – I wash EVERYTHING before I eat it or cook it, whether it comes from the shop or my garden. I mean, it isn’t as though one can’t see or smell cat faeces and what about cats pee? I could imagine that that is just as poisonous.
Christel
Yes, but the cat crap, like fertilizer, is taken in to the soil and absorbed through the roots in to the plant. That is why you NEVER use a carnivores feces to fertilize your garden, it is toxic because of all of the pathogens in the feces of a carnivore!!!
Who would ingest cats faeces??? You can smell it and you can see it, so why would a human eat it? 🙂
oh yah, everyday we all just eat cat shit….yum.
you can breathe the eggs in their feces and get their worms. thats why its dangerous if they shit in your garden!
idiot….the toxin is internal to the plant
Only idiots call other people idiot
if they have worms n you ingest the eggs, guess what? yep-tag your it. u get ’em:( it is actually quite serious if you think about it. i think in overpopulations of cats there should be a leash law just like dogs! and i’m a cat lover-but more of an avid gardener also!
HERE-HERE…. this is the most intelligent post in this topic!!!
Cat poo can force pregant women to abort and cause blindness in children, just like dog poo.
All Felines have been on this planet for much longer than us, ‘Straw-Dog’ Humans! I bet they’d also rather shoot us, ‘bloody pests’ if given a chance…And I cannot say I blame them!
I think you need a few true facts Sam. The domestic cat isn’t indigenous to this country and originate from the Middle East. Therefore they can upset the ecological balance of out indigenous wildlife including interbreeding with the true feral cat. They should therefore be treated like grey squirrels as vermin if wondering around unchecked.
Toxoplasmosis is transmitted through Cat faeces.
And what isn’t being transmitted through human faeces?…
Are you saying that you go defecating in other people’s gardens like your cats Sam? The rest of us being civilised use toilets where the waste is taken away to be processed harmlessly!
Seriously Sam? When did you last time find pound of human faeces in your garden next to your salad leaves?
The common ultrasonic devices to deter dogs and cats are lacking enough power to be effectives, but more power must be used carefully, like this:
http://www.myskunkworks.net/servlet/the-82/Powerful-Ultrasonic-Dog-Bark/Detail.
May be a very interesting aproach to the worlwide problem of neigbors cats faeces and dongs barking. I’m planning to try.
¿Opinions?
What’s a barking dong” and why should this be a “worlwide problem”??
I wonder when the UK law will change and classify Cats as vermin. If a owner doesn’t pick up dog mess they can get prosecuted. But a cat owner doesn’t. I’m afraid it’s disgusting. Those whom say ‘you might hurt my cat’ should come and clean up after them but they won’t
If I was prime minister I would change the law, so that Cats can be shot if causing a nuisance to others.
get a CATapult and practice. Use peas to practice with so while you are practising, you plant your peas at the same time and you’re not a cat murderer.
If you really are an RSPCA worker (which I doubt) you’d better change your tune, mate! Or the RSPCA should sack you!!! (In for the money or something?….)..
I wish we had a law in Britain the same as in Alberta, Canada. Cats are not allowed to roam. If they are in the garden they must be kept on a lead.
I am so sick of the cats in my neighbourhood fouling on my lawn and scraping up the grass and digging and fouling in the soil. I can’t let my great grandsons play outside. I’m quite a gentle person really but I find myself dreaming up nasty ways of getting back at the cats.
I didn’t know there is such a law in Canada. Amazing!
The cats are not allowed to roam in Australia too, though I have seen one or two do so, cat owners are antisocial so will always allow their “pets” to do as they please’
thats the way the US needs to be!
Compared to human waste, cat droppings are minimal. A hundred of them could not even cover half the average lawn! As to being a gentle person: if you say so…
Personally I and everyone else uses a toilet unlike the disgusting cats. It seems like Sam needs toilet training so not to copy his cats defecating on the lawn!
Well strawberry wire doesn’t deter them. So I’m afraid this blog must be made by someone whom sells Strawberry/other fruit mesh (as illustrated). I wonder if electric fencing would work?
That’s just what my husband did yesterday. It has worked for our friends. Thing is though, cats learn and they might learn to just jump over it. We’ll see. I will report what we experience.
Recently we can’t suffer the strong smell in the morning, even inside the house and cars, then we do this:
1. To spread rests of ground coffee over the soil or grass, where necessary, cats d’nt like the smell.
2. I cut the bottom of plastic bottles, fill with water and distribute.
3. Program watering by night to mantain the soil moisted.
4. Maintain water pistol ready to use when necessary, to teach cats my garden is’nt theirs.
5. Trying to close the points where they enter.
This worked, and after years with problems. now eventually we have any.
Héctor
I don’t like cat’s using my garden as their toilet either. My husband just put up an electric fence. I doubt it will work – we’ll see. What did work with me, i covert my vegie patch with coffee grounds from the coffee shop. They were pleased to get rid of their coffee grounds, the cats didn’t like walking on it so didn’t use that patch as their toilet and it fertilised my garden.
What I don’t agree with is using language that is fouler than cats faeces in this blog. There just isn’t any need for it. I really feel offended by language like that and think the blog owner should not publish replies like that.
Christel
Christelw,
I agree tasteless language is not necessary in a blog but neither is it necessary in media advertising, movies, music, life in general etc etc… who are we to claim whats acceptable that some people do not blink twice at. get used to it or don’t read this blog. People like you who find some words offensive need a reality check. Times have changed. You have to just get used to it & dont bury yourself in yesteryear philosophy. Incase you didnt know…. This world new order is… speak your mind & don’t give a flying fuck who doesn’t like it. Not one of these people who have sworn in this blog have personally attacked you. Infact i fid it quite entertaining & tats why im happier than you! So don’t make it about you! Get a life & you probably need a good screw so you loosen up – you’re just tense!
I admit you do have the right to swear as you wish, but it does demean you and make your point look less valid.
Correct no more foul language please!
You want something with very ltltie fillers in them such as corn (harsh on their digestive system) and ash (especially not good for male cats as it can give them stones) I feed my cats science diet. It’s vet recommended and they really enjoy it. They go nuts at meal times. (I have 4 cats) They also carry science diet treats for cats that my cats also love. They know them as cookies’ and I swear they would go through the wall like that cat on the TV if it got in their way.
The entire planet used to be the cats’ and other animals’ garden until Homosapiens (sapiens?) turned up… It isn’t them fouling our garden; more like us fouling theirs!!! – No foul language or offense intended..
Incorrect! The domestic cat did NOT occupy the whole planet as they originate from the Middle East. Get your facts correct!
Hi I have stopped cats shiiiiiii on my garden by placing my rose cuttings in their way.Any spiked cutting will do. It worked for me
Good idea! Reuse garden waste
easy way to solve any problem with cats enclosed the garden completely with chicken wire created a giant green house and make it lovely garden. now the beautiful cats wont use the garden as litter box.. i feel relieved…they have deter and also make a rock garden they hate it i have one section of the house made it a rock garden and the other part a green house and front yard is cement so they dont go poop there lol at all and the beautiful pottery flower you can take some nice pointed stakes and place them in the dirt near the pot plants and problem solved hope other would of gave me these pointers but some dude lol from homedepot help me resolved the issue fast.. now im cat free …
Ok guys. First happy new year. Second good point from “christelw” we should keep a good language on the blog 🙂 Pleasant and civilised even when discussing “pestilential matters”. So I have a new one. My cat is 17, really fit and enjoyed for a long time (5 years) a big garden with plenty of corners, fresh mud, bushes etc until August this year where we moved to a new terraced house with a smaller garden. The cat got used to urinate and defecate in an old “butler” sink filled with soil/earth, we did not really notice it for weeks as the garden was a mess. The garden got cleaned up, the butler sink removed and we planted beautiful eatable herbs (sage, rosemary, etc) on the side of the garden by the fence. Now this little old cat come and do “his jobs” right where the sink was placed before 😦 (I guess he likes the smell of the area) … My left neighbour has a cat and my right neighbour has a dog so all those mammals do their job in their own garden which is great. There is no easy access to the passage way behind the house he could jump easily but he prefers our garden.
So how can I force him to do his jobs at the back of the garden in the area I have created for him ?
This butler sink was 1. located really close to the table where we are planning to eat this coming summer 2. I cannot use my herbs 😦 (or can I if I wash them really well ??) and 3. I am worried for the kids (5 and 3 yo) as my uncle had Toxoplasmosis and suffered from liver and mild fever itis said that (quoting NHS) “once you have had the infection you become immune to it and T. gondii will live harmlessly in your body for life.”
Any recommendation welcome ? Thanks
There have been felines on this here planet for as long as there have been humans (longer…). If their faeces had been all that dangerous, there would hardly be any humans left by now. So why all the fuss…? – If people really cannot face living with other creatures, let them take off to another planet, I say. And allow the earth to recover!
oh bore off SAM, im reading everybodys suggestions down this thread and Im getting sick of your drivel butting in with horse shit comments that are laughable at best, if I lived next door to you, your cats would be drinking antifreeze mate, and you could never prove it, deal with it.
ihave 3 bloody cats!!!!! pain in ther bum!! im goin gto try the netting as sounds good and in my back garden getting a cat squirter hooked up to my mains so if they walk on grass they get wet!! hahahaah
Best of luck!
great idea hooking up the water to the mains, why not hook up the wire netting to the electricity supply also for a double whammy that`ll sort the dirty little lawn wrecking twats right out Tracey, lol, let me me know how BBQ turns out.
Try it on yourself first, and let’s know how the barbecue turned out, won’t you?
My neighbour has 3 rag doll cats…which insist on using our raised bed as a toilet, have put chicken wire on this about 6 inches above the soil….the bloomin cats just poo ontop of this and try to scrap the soil over it….They have knocked over flower pots emptied the soil pooed in this and covered up again, they even just poo ontop of the longer grass……
I am considering putting up camera’s and confronting the owner wih the evidence…but as someone else mentioned you have to clean up after dogs, so cat owners should do the same…on occasion i have thrown the offending poo back into the neighbours garden…just returning what is rightfully theirs….
The cats either sneak through the fence or simply scale the 6 foot fence, which i have considered putting some kind of prickly deterent ontop off the fence and electrify the chicken wire used to cover the raised bed…
Apart from some kind of automatic sentry airsoft gun or water pistol in the garden, not sure how to permanently deter the wee gets……
I am sorry to hear this. That is really annoying and totally unfear for you to have to put up with it.
The only thing which stops cats from going where they please and doing what they please is something unpleasant happening to them at some point. I had one which thought my back yard was a toilet; it seemed to be some sort of scent-based competition with other local cats.
A device called the ssscat did the trick; this is a compressed gas bottle linked to a PIR detector. A couple of close encounters with this in the dark convinced this moggy that the yard was inhabited by an invisible hissing monster; it has not dared to enter since.
For a garden, either go with an electric fence or a PIR-triggered water spray device. Either will work; what will not work is any scent-based system. Neat Jeyes Fluid made my yard reek, but didn’t deter cats. Nor did garlic essence, though it certainly deterred me.
Ragdolls are a really gentle species. Even loud voices dissuade them (civilised creatures, you might say…). Try that.
We tried a new product called U Scram. The stuff actually worked. We bought 4 and put them around our garden, cats would not even come close to this stuff, and have not been seen since!! These are little tree shaped corks soaked with some sort of stinky oil. Hey they are rainproof too! uscram.com. Supposedly all natural no chemicals.
Try a gin trap and hang the cats on the fence like we used to with magpies and crows ha ha
Or put the disease infested cat poo in their letter boxes once you have located their owners or at leasted dump it on the door mat
Glad I don’t live anywhere near you… Maybe you are fond of your garden, but … Ever tried a gin trap for the likes of you, by the way?….
cats eyes are used in the road if cats arses were used we would need twice the amount of cats!!!
I have decided the only way to stop the cats fowling on my raised beds is to put fruit cage over the whole thing, I’ve also fitted cat deterrent spikes to the top of the fences only about 70p a strip online and they tend to find a less spikey fence to scale now!
I don’t know about all the people that says chicken wire works… We actually own two cats but we have almost a hundred it seems like that are strays. We tried the wire multiple times in multiple ways.. The result… They love to play in it.. Actually, we have tried almost every possible solution and nothing works.. Finally, we were ready to redo our yard, since the cats had killed all the grass and not one single flower would grow there… We hoed and raked as much cat dirt out of the area as we could and placed it in an unused part of the yard a few hundred feet away. (in hopes to lure them back there and away from the part we wanted to use)… We had to add in several bags of garden soil to replace what we took out… We spread lime all over it multiple times….planted our grass seeds and flowers… In the beginning they were pretty bad about wanting to resoil the area, however, after a couple of days of staying outside and spraying them with water hose everytime we saw one.. Now they pretty much do their business in the other part… However, we still have issues with them playing and running on the grass, laying on it… so it’s having a hard time growing… We keep spraying but I was looking for a way to get them to want to leave my yard altogether.. It’s not that I don’t like cats.. I love my two.. but we can’t even have a door open without 50 strays coming in all the time and we have to sit in the garden almost constantly just to keep them out of there! We have tried almost everything mentioned here and nothing is working. The animal shelter when called simply says that they don’t get paid enough to round up all the strays in our neighborhood (dogs and cats) but no one here has a strong enough heart to kill any of them. It seems that killing them would be more humane since the shelters won’t do anything, but we just don’t have the heart for that…. We just want them out of our yard! Nothing has worked… Like one person stated up there.. they learn and adapt or they either simply work around it altogether!
You might say cats are smart: that’s why they survived so long as a species, despite the odds and Homosapiens’ gardens!
A cat was coming regularly to one end of our very large garden and leaving great smelly poops – we hated working there. Last spring I bought a cheap package of garlic powder and sprinkled it all around the edges of the area. It went a long way. A week later I did it again with another full package (Can.$2.99). NO POOP the rest of the summer! Just in case, I am going to do the same this spring. Possibly it kept squirrels away too.
A very entertaining read. Thank you.
One (sort of) solution that has been missed out is the introduction of a dog.
Stops cats coming into the garden? Check!
No more poo in garden? Check!
No more poo cleaning required? Not exactly…
My dog has prevented any animal using my garden as a toilet and very rarely uses the garden itself as she likes to wait for her walks for some reason. Whilst the problem is mostly resolved, this does still involve me picking poo up but at least it is from my own pet and it is from the road instead of my garden.
Whilst it can be very annoying, I do think some of the suggestions are perhaps unnecessarily cruel as it is not really the cat’s fault (we all do it) so much as the inconsiderate owners.
One of my neighbours has some sort of plastic spiky stuff nailed to the top of his gardens surrounding fence which I assume is there to prevent anything climbing on or over the fence. I am unsure as to how successful this is but seems like a reasonably good product.
get a dog that hates cats
dog owners get prosecuted why not cat owners ?
There is no need to ‘prosecute’ anyone or anything; what is necessary is less ignorance, larger gardens (absorbing it all) as well as a little sympathy. Too much to ask?
Is it too much to ask a cat owner to have a little respect for others and keep their pet from causing a nuisance to others? The selfish cat owners only want the sympathy one way.
Really, you want me to get larger garden so you cat can shit in it?! How about you getting large garden & putting protection in so your cats can enjoy your garden & stay in it & people can enjoy their properties in peace, see some birds in their garden & grow things in it? How about sharing some of that overwhelming love for cats with you fellow human beings who don’t wish you or your cats any harm but just like to enjoy their property in peace. Is that too much to ask?
let me know your address and I will fetch my dog to poo in your garden. lets see how sympathetic you are then.
My cat poops in my own garden, and in a space under our window where there is bare soil. My garden grows like I planted mutant seeds, and I have no idea if the cat poop is the reason or not… but I would rather he poop in my garden than my neighbours’. The poop doesn’t really bother me except for the smell. Any suggestions as to how I can tone down the odour?
Yes, get a large (covered, on account of the flies) cat toilet, special litter (‘Catsan’ is a good make if available in your area) , place old newspaper at the botton, a covering of (sweet scented) hay on top of the litter, and you are in business! – Some catfood (particularly the dry kind) also reduces smells. – Good luck whatever!
I found this to be a very interesting read. I myself own 11 cats at present and are all now kept indoors as i believe cats just the same as dogs should not be allowed to roam freely where they can be injured by people, traffic or other animals. Back when i used to let the cats out i told all my neighbors that if they had any problems with cat poo to please tell me and i will clear it up and try and help cat proof their garden 🙂 So to everyone saying that you wish to shoot the buggers perhaps you could try politely talking to the owners. (i admit not all people are reasonable but its worth a try guys 🙂 .)
I did try speaking with my neighbor about the strays. He keeps “cat houses” under his pool deck (at our property line) & feeds the cats there as well. I’ve tried many of these home remedies to no avail. He doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem and neither does his wife, who incidentally NEVER goes into their yard. My last conversation with him was yesterday, when I asked him if he would move the cat houses to the opposite corner of his property & feed the cats there, too. There are no neighbors in that area. He had to get clearance from “the boss”, his crotchety wife. He let me know that she said it was ok, and would move everything. Let’s see how long it takes for it to actually be moved! If it were legal, the airsoft gun would come out…even if it was just for warning shots!
What do you do about human strays, peeing, pooing, and being sick everywhere? It’s not their fault? Neither is it the cats’ ‘fault’!
The problem with cats is that you can’t blame them. These animals just do what they think is normal. The real problem are the cat owners. They should keep these animals inside the house or line them. We all agree it’s disgusting to have the neighbors dog in a ‘sitting position’ in the garden. For some reasons cats have more ‘credits’ and are allowed to leave dropping in our gardens?? Here is my elegant solution:
– Dig a hole of 50 cm with a 45 degree elevation
– Get a sewer pipe 50 cm long with a diameter of 10 – 12 cm
– Smear a thick layer of grease inside the pipe
– Put the pipe in the hole and cover it with earth
– Drop a nice piece cat food on the bottom of the pipe
The result:
The cat tries to get the food out of the pipe. The cat just fits into the pipe and therefore pollute his own hairy skin. The cat returns to it’s owners place and makes a mess inside the house/ by climbing on the couch/beds/chairs leaving greasy spots from it’s skin.
My message…..get the owners, not the cats! This is a complete eco an animal friendly solution. The owners will definitely get the message and understand that there are people who don’t like cats.
Sorry for the faulty English grammar. Good luck chasing cats!
Good suggestion!
Where are we now – 2013? Only an ignorant twat would have a pet that spends it’s nights shitting in other peoples gardens.
The idea of sending the problem back to the owners is sound. Solid Leo, solid!
RE Leo april 30 post. Good idea, and you’re right it is the owners who are at fault. would still like to see the look on their face when a big dog takes a dump in their yard. or when they see the oily mess the cat makes after it gets back home. 🙂
With a name like Leo, it’s a little surprising you don’t like cats. Some people don’t? Do cats like them? Bad sign if not!
I have tried all those tricks and then some, also bought two of the ultra-sonic lights (they also failed). Worked for awhile till they got use to it. Any more ideas?
Motion activated sprinker. If that doesn’t work try a live catch trap and the kitty relocation method. I just put a trap out last night. After that, it’s the shotgun! I have had it with the rotten little bastard ruining my seedlings and leaving a giant pile of shit behind.
You’d better be sure that shotgun is legal, lady! Moreover, if the “rotten little bastards” leave huge piles of shit behind, they are well fed, and somebody’s cat! Maybe better find that out also?
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/40123 sign the petition to make cat owners responsible… they should provide litter trays for them
I have tried everything! Coffee grinds, chicken mesh, citronella, chilly powder, glass eyed fake cats, silver foil on stakes, skewers in the ground, ultrusonic scarers (3 different types), I even built a shocking device using a car’s ignition coil. They would simply move to another area. They really had it in for me. I don’t know what they ate, but it smelled and looked absolutely disgusting. I was tired of almost gagging every time I had to clean up. Enough is enough! My immediate neighbors do not have cats. These came from some way down the street. There were three cats that used to frequent my yard. Only one still remains. His days are numbered. Then my children can play in the garden again, as is supposed to be. The ultimate solution – sorry cat lovers – yes, I shot the little bastards. rgds,
Fred.
Well Fred, I’m not opposed to the shotgun method myself. Just about to that point. In the meantime I’ve got a live catch “humane” trap out. If I catch that rotten little shitter he’s getting a car ride to a new neighborhood. I used a motion activated sprinkler but unless you have three or four of them there are areas unprotected.
Another nasty piece of work (and I don’t mean the cats!). Sorry, cat hater!
Amazing how cat owners seem to think its perfectly fine to let their animals destroy other peoples property and shit or spray wherever they want. not to mention hunt birds and pond fish. They say things like “its an outdoor cat, I can’t control it” well I’d like to let a big dog loose in their yard to do its business, dig things up and hunt their cat… then tell them “its an outdoor dog” deal with it! Oil of Black pepper worked to keep them out of my yard, check online for how to make it its easy. or just liberally shake black pepper around the perimeter every couple of weeks.
the thing i hate most about cats is the death and destruction they cause in my garden, i love to feed the birds but cannot as the serial killer cat next door pounces on some feathered friend i am trying to feed in my own bloody garden, or it kills my fish and frogs just for fun and then trots home for dinner
Try a motion activated sprinkler. They work in small areas. Just remember to turn it off before you head out to the garden yourself.
Our cats catch mice, spiders, flying insects etc. leaving birds, fish, frogs, dogs, ponies, ducks, geese, fish… alone. Very little death and destruction if you regularly feed them!
And then there were none!
Yay, a clean garden at last.
Well I am sick to death of cats in coming in my garden, digging up all my newly planted shrubs etc. I think cat owners should be held responsible and fined for their cats causing damage and crapping all over peoples gardens…it is disgusting that at the moment the law says it is acceptable!! well not on my patch! i’m sick of it!
I pick the poo up and put it in the owners garden as it belongs to them
I personally think it is down to the owners – not the true cat lovers but the ones who think ‘Oh I’ll get a cat because I don’t have to take it for walks etc. they look after themselves’!! My daughter and I are fed up of clearing up the garden. Wondering if it’s new cats ‘cos didn’t have too much trouble up to about six weeks ago. Going to try the garlic powder – have cat repellent but think need to change it’s place. Also have garden hose and water gun but think they come at night or early morning!! We would take the poo back to the owners garden but not quite sure which cat it is!!
catch the cat cut a hot chilli in half and rub it on its arse works a treat
Hi everybody!
I find myself on the other side, being the owner of a cat that when we moved a couple of months ago from a flat that didn’t even have a balcony decided to use the communal garden as the new favourite spot where to do his business.
Now, as far as I understand your anger, would be more helpful talking the problem through with you neighbours.
Mine, politely pointed at me the problem, and I’m the one (and my boyfriend) checking the patch for faeces, cleaning my cat’s mess and worrying to find a solution for our cat not to destroy others garden.
I have to add that my cat is trained to use the litter (for you not to assume that it’s always the owner’s fault) and is still using it most of the times especially in rainy days (when I still find s*its in the garden, that means that some other cat is going there as well).
This make my first option to recreate an area in my paved garden with ground and grass and some plants of catnip, hoping that my cat find it attractive enough and doesn’t go around too much annoying the neighbours.
I got loads of ideas to experiment, and I thank you for that but I’d like to give you an idea as well: talk with the owners of the cat and find a solution together, will make your life easier and probably work better.
Hi, many thanks for this as I have been desperate.
I have found that cats don’t like prickly things so that if you can get hold of some gooseberry bush prunings with long sharp thorns and put them on the earth they don’t go there. Holly might work too.
My problem is they are leaving heaps all over my grass lawn which I canot net or protect !
Jane
There is some excellent tips on here and I shall be trying them, came home from work yesterday to two great piles of crap. I will be investing money and time to having a bash at these methods haha
Rubber mulch seems to keep cats from pooing in it. The wood mulch is their favorite to use as a toilet. My entire front yard is river rocks, rubber mulch, and wood mulch – so they avoid the river rocks (other than walking over them) and the rubber mulch – but go for the wood mulch – usually in one area so its ruined and you replace it with? RUBBER – the elect. cat stops are expensive and if the cats can’t hear no good – if they are shorter -no good i had bought 12 of them and scattered them around the front – side and back yards – the cats went over the wall to avoid the repellers – and dropped down in the yard to poo – they arent stoopid – usually – making my own spray works well : cayenne red pepper, soapy water, garlic,sycamore oil (also can spray this on plants to ward of bugs) but if it rains then you spray again – just have to spray the entire yard OMG
What a relief to find this site! We too have major cat problems – neighbor has more than 20 strays that she houses in an abandoned house next to our boutique hotel! We have piles of cat shit under our garden breakfast tables! I will start by saying i love animals but enoughs enough! We have contacted the local council, no luck not interested (did lend us some cages – 6 cats in 2 days! but then took the cages back. Coffee grounds seem to have a partial effect but not totally. We have used poison (it is after all OUR yard)- worked but she left the corpse rotting. I have tried pellet guns – fun but not effective. Got spotted by neighbour and HUGE fight erupted – neighbor was screaming (she is a mad, ugly woman) at me, I was shouting back at her and my wife was shouting at me to stop shouting at the neighbour!) all quite comical but not effective. Have “captured” and disposed of some of these pests but too gruesome. Have live captured cats and “rehomed them” but that is like moving the problem to someone else! Something needs to be done – a law passed or something. I am now of the attitude (screw the authorities) that if a cat is in MY yard is is fair game! Will keep you updated, but they breed faster than me!
After a month of ZERO cat mess in my yard (after shooting them – see earlier posts) last night a new ginger cat set my IR beam off on his way to the garden ‘cat toilet area’. I let it scratch around and waited till it was in a comfortable hunched position and BAM! Another one bites the dust. That makes four. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals, but I am not going to tolerate this awful mess anymore. Twice a day I get a troop of monkeys come by, and they steaI and eat anything they can find (Only food). This is not a problem as they were there before me, and are only looking for food. I would not harm any of them, but can tell you that a cat only has ONE life.
A troop of…monkeys? That’s a different kettle of fish altogether. They were there before you? So were cats, for thousands of years! – By the way: people pee and poo in the streets in certain places (even countries). Do you intend to BAM them too?
How can I put wire net on the lawn? So it looks there are no ways to make those monsters go away. I think government should allow dogs to do the same or…. even beter make cat’s owners clean up after cats.
Monsters indeed! – Aren’t you exaggerating a little bit?… What makes you so sure cats were responsible, anyway?
I personally have found that once I have cleared up the shite and mowed my lawn the little shitters came back with a vengeance… then a friend informed me tooth picks worked a treat…so after I mow I then go around with a pot of tooth picks snap one in half and pointy end upwards i place them around the lawn….very comical to watch them step on one and catapult 6′ in the air, and so far so good the little sods are giving up!!!
I’m really struggling to stop my neighbour’s cat using my herb and veggie patches as a toilet. I’m removing the poop each day, but am having real concerns about actually eating the stuff I’m growing, due to potential contamination. I’ve inserted skewers into both patches, but it hasn’t stopped, so I’m resorting to the Internet for more ideas. I don’t want to hurt the cat and I certainly don’t want to argue with my neighbour, but I’m really disgusted at having to clean up after this cat every single day. It’s not my cat and should not be my responsibility.
I agree with you Rachy. They seem to target newly mowed areas! Putting wire on the lawn is just not practical. I can’t use tooth picks due to the fact that my children play on the lawn – cost of bandaids could be high – also might get in trouble with the missus. I’d love to see the little bugger step on a toothpick though! (the cat, not my kid) Good luck.
No comment…And may your kids turn out a little less aggressive than you!!!
In Zululand, they use a spear!!!
But In Worthing, it’s a bag, 2 bricks and down the Pier
So, I have read every one of these responses and sadly am discouraged that I will never get rid of these cats. It is a shame because the neighbor thinks she is doing good by ‘feeding’ all these cats yet she doesn’t take them to the vet or put out litter boxes for them. They all are so sickly looking. I am highly allergic to cats and it is a shame I have to scoop out poop and now throw up from these darned animals. I have tried asking her to keep them inside but all I got was an accusation when one went missing that I did something to it. I am so frustrated.
I have tried the cayenne pepper, the cocoa shells, spray….oh, the money I have put into this plus the stress-yes, stress. I can’t sit outside because of the smell. The local shelters and animal control do not care…it is a sad shame.
Have you contacted the local RSPCA or shelters, for a start?
Great ideas but I think I’ll borrow a big dog for a while just worried about his landmines
ok the best solution is to have your house cat stay in the house. They will be less likely to get hit by a car, come home bloody from a fight, or oh yes crap in my garden. Problem solved.
I am finding that snapping bamboo sticks (previously used as supports for last year’s cherry tomatoes) into lengths of up to a foot and inserted into my raised beds closely spaced and poking out 2 or 3 inches seems o be working. No poo today but the rotten cat crushed my rocket and spinach where it decided to sunbathe instead. More twigs being snapped soon.
Maybe it was a ‘rotten dog’ or even a ‘rotten human’ with a liking for rocket and spinach, sunbathing…
I was having problems with cats in my garden too, extremely frustrating because I thought there was nothing i could do about it other than shake my fist at them through the window. I did try that cat powder stuff, but it was useless, eventually I found one of those noise things that scares cats off, ultrasonic I think it is. Ill try and put the link to the site I found them on in this post if I can figure it out…. solved my cat problem anyway! No more poo yippee.
The most effective solution of all is my grandfather’s.
He had a right miserable time with cats coming in to his garden and, being a bit of an inventor, put up an electric line all around the garden running at a very low voltage.
The result was a very slight shock which put off all the cats instantly.
My grandfather’s only mistake, however, was to write in to the local paper about this ingenious idea and he got bombarded with angry letters from cat-lovers!
Brilliant idea!
With all due respect for your grandfather: he tried his invention it on himself first, I hope? – Whether for cats, horses or cattle: electric fences are sadistic (and so is the electric chair!)
CAT stands for crapping allover the grass, really not happy….. Lovely hot day yet can’t even smell the barbecue cooking for the sickening smell of cat shit, tryed it all for it all to fail, resorted in flinging it bk over neighbours fence, might gohit in there gardenevery night c how they like it. Waited years for a garden only to have to check it every day so its safe for the kids. Cats think they own u not other way round I’d rather have rats in my garden that that fat ginger Tom grrrr rant over. God dam u cat lover’s.
I would never harm a fly but I must say, cats ,not all , are disgusting vermin, lazy owners allow them to wander day and night, I wanted to vomit when the new pebble feature I had laid was full of stinking cats shxx in this warm weather the smell made me wrech, Lazy so called animal lover, open their door and the so called pet wanders off and does what the hell it likes, where is the love and care in that, they sit back while others clear up the filthy mess when a dog does this people can be fined. This is why cats are disliked.
What do you know! Humans do not do what the hell they like, presumably? And results stink in more ways than one, on the planet EVERYWHERE!
you dare to compare a human being and a CAT, you are not even worth a good kick in your ass to wake you up. Exactly like Nazis, they very much loved animals and at the same time mercilessly killed fellow human beings.
I have tried everything over 13 years trying to stop neighbours 3 cats from fouling, to no avail. I have tried powders, sprays, alarms, water bottles, cd’s (for reflection), plants, sticks in ground, BB gun (but not a very good shot), water pistol. I have conquered the front of my garden as I have an iron fence to which I have put chicken wire around. The cats cannot climb up and over on this. Unfortunately I have high wooden fencing at the back of my garden and cannot put chicken wire up.
It all came to a head when I finally confronted my neighbour after 13 years (yes I am very patient) to which they replied if I don’t like it then I can move out!! Plus they think it’s ok for their cats to foul constantly everyday in my garden.
War is now on and i am not going to pay anymore money trying to stop these cats. I think it is the owners responsibility to make sure that their pets are not going to be a nuisance to others.
What I have planned now is to throw back their cat poo into their own garden. If the cat comes into my garden i am going to squirt them with oil so when they go home they can spread it all over their home. Perhaps then they may consider alternative ways to keeping their cats from fouling in my garden.
I will make sure they know constantly what their cat is up too as the neighbour says this argument is making her ill. Her ill?? Try spending hundred of pounds in 13 years and everyday having to pick up crap when I don’t have animals, Cheeky cow!!
If all else fails I will think of something that affects the neighbours not the cats. Might even get a Rottweiler for a while and train it to kill.
Try a cat trap with some type of animal lure then put rope round its neck tie it to owners fence with a note.
Great thinking I would scoop shit up and dump it on their front door step.
Cut brambles into 30cm lengths and let them dry so the prickles are nice and hard. same with gooseberry twigs. I semi-bury them so the cats don’t see them. Seems to work although it is annoying having to do this at all. I know that cats love antifreeze but it is toxic to them so I wouldn’t suggest for a minutr that you use it.
I like your not suggesting the antifreeze. Presumably there won’t be a rush at Halfords. (Are you sure cats love them and it is toxic to them? If that is the case, I will definitely not try it, I promise, honest)
We still have a lovely clean garden, and the children are really enjoying playing on the nice and clean lawn. We can sit outside in the warm sun and enjoy a barbeque without the digusting smell and flies. This is how it is supposed to be! Good luck to all of you people trying the ‘kind and caring’ methods – they don’t work. Do what I very reluctantly did after years of suffering (and a lot of wasted money). As per my previous posts, I shot them one by one until there were none! When I shot the 1st one, my wife almost walked out on me and gave me the whole whatfor! When she saw it worked – by the 3rd cat – she was the one that came running with the gun, telling me there was another cat to take out. Good luck to you all, Rgds, Cat Free Fred.
I’m with Fred, all the way! Unfortunately I may just end up in jail for using a gun in a suburban street. Do you think lasers might work?
Max
That’s one of the best solutions as eradicates the problem permanently. Only permanent works otherwise it always returns after a short time.
Cats are vermin and not indigenous to this country (the domestic cat originates in the Middle East) and cause havoc to the natural wildlife not to mention serious health hazards to humans in gardens.
Pick on someone your own size next time, mate! You, your wife, whatever.– And by the way : there isn’t anything in the law stopping cats wandering where they like. — As a species, they have been FAR LONGER on this planet than any humans, it’s theirs as much as yours (even more so). They have to put up with you: put up with them! – If you are ‘intellectually superior’, maybe call the RSPCA for them. And a ‘shrink’ for yourselves!
So maybe the answer is to get a species that has been on the planet far longer than a cat as a pet. As reptiles have this honour then how about getting a python?…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8191355.stm
We have just laid some nice artificial lawn and almost immediately got cat shit on it – in the same position each time. I laid the lawn fro my daughter to play on so chicken wire and chemicals are not an option. I am also worried about my pregnant wife as cat shit is very poisonous and very bad news to pregnant woman (don’t touch it).
After reading, laughing and deciding what I should do; I think I’m going Fred’s route although I never see them comitting the crime. I’m not at the stage of killing them yet but an air rifle and salt pelets (these pierce the skin an seep salt into the wound) might be my first atempt. Although if it comes to it I’ve go no problems with Fred’s effective approach.
Andy C
Andy, I installed an Infra red type detector on a stick near the cats favorite ‘garden toilet’ (the type used in burglar alarms) with a plastic packet over it for waterproofing. It still works through the packet. This I connected to a piezo beeper inside the house to alert me that the dirty deed was about to be done. However this was not enough and they would come at night. Ever looked through a rifles telescopic sight at night? You can see nothing. So I had to install another IR activated unit next to the first, which turns on a floodlight. This is how I got the 4th one. I must say that even now when the piezo sounds and the lights come on at night (a definate cat) I never see the cat – he must get a fright from the light and depart hastily? BUT my garden is lovely and clean.
Rgds, Chuffed Fred.
Think of that! Another ‘real’, strong and definitely manly solution . Ever heard of the diseases humans could (and do) transmit? It’s worth the read…
No disease ridden humans in my garden. The only poop in my garden is from those vile cats. That my child regularly comes inside with on her shoes. She should be free to play on her own garden without stepping in cat shit. We chose not to have pets so why should we have to put up with it? YOU chose to have cats so don’t expect everyone else to love your beloved animal being on their property. If I wanted a bloody cat lounging about in my garden I’d get one. As for your ‘cats were here before us’ speech, the cat you have is domesticated. Therefore, not wild. It belongs to you.
wise words pal, failing that i find a flame thrower does the same job, albeit a tad smelly when the fur starts to singe.
In New Zealand we can buy sheep pellets that keeps cats off the garden. Just spread them over the garden and as a by product, they are also a fertilizer and soil conditioner.
I hate cats. The smell, the shite…..Everything about them. They never shite in their own garden. Sending my kids out to shite in our neighbours garden. Lets see if they like it. HaHa. Cat owners are irresponsible. Us dog owners must pick up our dogs business, it’s about time cat owners were forced to do the same. That’s why they chuck their movies out at night, so no one sees where their cats shite. I will do whatever is possible to keep movies off our gardens. The best tip we got was to nail a nail into each fencing panel. Haven’t seen a cat shite for months now. The best and cheapest way to deal with the vermin 🙂
What a nice person you must be. – By the way, as the saying goes: NEVER TRUST ANYONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE CATS! Felines eye, behave and stink far less than any humans.
Moggies more like. HaHa
Damn and tarnation!! I see a new pile in my garden on a totally different part of the lawn, after a few wonderful months of clean environment. Now I have to move my whole infrared beeper/light detector system to another part of my garden! This is no joke. It seems like a curse sent by the devil himself. BUT – I will prevail. This is truly war and I just promoted myself to the rank of ‘General’ so I can make all the tactical decisions. My local co-op has never heard of sheep pellets, so not an option for me.
Keep up the fight.
You have my heartfelt sympathy,Fred but as I said way back somewhen the only way to stop this is to KILL the cat!
Sit back and wait for howls of protest from those misguided cat owners who think they are entitled to spread their filth all over other people’s property.
Get lost!
Thanks Derek, I have shot four already, but this is now a new one that has obviously found new territory – I will have to do the same to him.
I find it terribly disturbing to have to do this and do not enjoy it at all. I do it with a heavy heart, and wish there was another way, but as per my previous posts, I have tried everything else in vain. This decision was not taken lightly, and has even caused friction between my family members. A universal problem!!
All I can say is “keep up the good work”!
I think it pretty awful when one has to resort to such a solution and cannot understand the mentality of those owners who think they are above common decency …..
Common decency is it? Very few on this forum appear to know as much as the meaning of the word. A war on cats? I suggest you start a war on ignorance! — By the way: cats could teach humans a thing or two about manners and kindness, (not to mention looks…) for a start! Keep up the good work!
The ‘universal problem’ is people’s ignorance and selfishness, pardon me. Heavy heart indeed. If you had a heart at all you’d try to do something to help the ferals!
The only selfish people on here are the car owners who believe it’s ok for their animals to use someone else’s garden as a toilet. You are a definitley a crazy cat lady/man. Been spotting all your little posts about how great cats are. I imagine you are one of those people who keep a whole bunch of cats at home and they are your babies. Cats stink. they might clean themselves but they are not clean. They walk in their own crap then transfer it to your furniture and work surfaces in your kitchen. Not to mention the hair everywhere and fleas even if you do flea them regularly. Their feces are toxic to kids and pregnant women. I for one do not appreciate my 4 year old going out to play and sitting in cat crap or myself doing a bit of gardening and putting my hand in it. Cats are foul, filthy creatures. My 4 year olds health is more important than your stinking cat. You, are not normal. Go and dress your babies up, take them to shows, tell them all your problems but keep them out of my garden.
I’ve had a cat shitting on my garden for the best part of six months now. I don’t know whose cat it is – I can only assume it belongs to one of the fuckwit chav families holed up in the “affordable housing” nearby that is apparently a mandatory addition to any new housing development these days (why decent people are forced to live beside such scum – and have the value of their property lowered because of it – is beyond me, but I’m straying from the point). I’ve tried everything from shop-bought repellent, to cayenne pepper, to chicken wire all over the place, and not a damned thing has worked.
The cat uses my dustbins to facilitate its entry to my garden from the fence, so I’ve considered leaving the lids up and covering the opening with paper, so when the cat jumps down it goes straight through and gets stuck in the bin. I’ve been told, however, that the wily little bastard would be able to get out. I don’t particularly want to kill it if I don’t have to, so perhaps if I half-fill the bin with water, that will effectively trap it until I can come and deal with it. On the other hand, I wouldn’t know what to do with the fucking thing after catching it……
Looks like I may have to get hold of my dad’s old air rifle, and wait up one night so I can shoot the sodding thing and put an end to its desecration of my garden once and for all.
Maybe spray painting the cat with a bright colour (fluorescent?) will give the owner the hint to keep the cat in before anything further happens to it?
Maybe learn some less offensive language for a start. You do not seem to lack imagination anyway. And how about trying your remedies on yourself first?…
does cat repellent spray actually work the cats are still fouling 😦 it smells awfull
Ever smelt human droppings? …
A small saucer of anti freeze will soon sort them out, It will stop them Permanently
What a nice and sympathetic person you must be, Alex Smith! Blessed be the meek (not your cup of tea, presumably?).
Fred, I admire your courage to shoot the cats. Have the cats owners ever looked for their missing cats?
We have tried all sorts of cats deterrent devices, none seems working. We put some fence spikes on the top of the fence a couple of weeks ago and my neighbour (who has two cats) was so angry and accused me to injury her cats intentionally. The fence spikes are not working because I still have to regularly picking up cats poos. I am so stressed and I don’t know what to do?
Paul Stone you are serious? Learn to live with cats!!! Please explain to my dog ,he barks every time when neighbour’s cats visit our backyard and do poo. And I have to cleaned up after them.The funny thing is I have complaints from my neighbours about dog barking /they cats can frequently visited my garden,but my dog can’t bark/?!? Where is the justice?
I have 8 cats next door to me they seem to be interbreeding too, garden full of cat mess any ideas
Yes, call someone who is sympathetic, probably knows the telephone number of the Animal Protection Society!
Try Jays fluid. 1jays- 2water. The little blighters can’t stand the smell of Jays
Hi Jenny, I don’t know if the cat owners have ever looked for their missing cats. I don’t know where the cats came from. Not my direct neighbours, otherwise I would have spoken to them. I have had a wonderfully clean and unlittered garden for months now. What a pleasure. I only wish I could help you other poor people sitting with this problem. Believe me, I know what you are going through, and you have my heartfelt sympathy! None of the ‘humane’ methods work – I have tried them all.
its got to the point now where only drastic measures are going to work, as talking to the owner about it is as much use as nearly all of the methods I have already tried. I hate the fact that I will most likely have to get rid of the cat permanantly because the owner finds it easier to kick it out for the night than to train it to use a litter tray.
Excellent thread! really made me laugh, and has helped to relieve a bit of stress somewhat, although no closer to a solution. Ive never had cat mess in my garden until 3 months ago when my neighbour had the smart idea to get a cat. I told her I wasnt happy, it’ll mess in my garden and kill the birds, but she said no, it’ll be a house cat, and not allowed out. House cat then became garden cat on a string so I told her, one dot of poo and im flinging it over the fence. garden cat is now do what i like cat, out all night cat, shit where i like cat, In my garden!. So, I fling the shit back over. Everyday. She’s yet to notice as she has no interest in her garden. unlike me. Next step is flinging it on her doorstep so she can walk it into her house. My garden is my joy, and she knows it, so I am rightly furious and upset. It also kills the birds, so I no longer feed them. It digs up my new plants and breaks bushes. I also saw it yesterday coming out from under my window at the front, and guess what. a nice big fresh pile. so not only is it ruining my back garden, its decided to start on the front. I am going to try sharp thorns and chicken wire. Read somewhere that pine cones are effective? I’d love to catch the damn thing and fling it in the river.
Ever thought of trying to make friends with the little cat? No cat ever ‘ruins’ a garden, by the way! AND they belong on the planet same as you!
Yes they do ruin gardens. My grass is now bald after where it has fouled and urinated.
I have had cats and always kept them indoors as I didn’t want them fouling on people property but also I didn’t want them getting run over.
I have always used humane ways of dealing with others cats but even now my patience is running thin.
I have found some very interesting solutions and ideas on here. A lot of which do not work!!! I am no longer going to waste any further time, effort and money to sort out these vermin. As In yester year,these horrid little critters (thats the cats, that I am referring to, before there are any ‘smart’ remarks) were placed into a bag, with a couple of small rocks, and thrown into a local river, pond, lake or the sea. Seemed to work then, definitely never came back!!! Taking up fishing, helps, funnily enough!!
I also have 2 very young children that play in the garden where the cat is fouling, this also fills me with rage as the possibility of my children coming into contact with the cat shit is very high.and the thought of them possibly catching toxo from a cat that should NOT BE IN MY GARDEN really gets my back up.
Are you sure it’s cat shit you see? Ever heard of diseases you can catch from humans?…
Give it a rest please Sam! I like cats just not the poo from the 12 that live next door! I dont know who you mix with but I dont know any human that foul outside. All cat lovers need take responsibility for their cats!!!
Lets take a guess, the post thread is about cat shite, the post will be about cat shit.. reason for this is that the poster seams to be educated well enough towrite correctly, so I guess is educated enough to know his shit (as it were)
Great post! An excellent ideas to keep cats away from garden. Also we can plant the herbs, which cats hate. This is the easiest way to keep your garden cat free.
I have read the whole thread and some inavative ideas on here. I have a shared alley and was abhored by the smell the new neighbours cat has left with the dozen foetus remains. I have cleaned and disinfected the area twice and told the neighbour but still remains. How about (sewer type) plastic pipe about 50cm lined with a harmless sooty dye or grease with cat food in the middle. They would have to scrape the interior to get to the food but they would be unharmed and leave the stains in their house when they get back. The old neighbours had a yappy dof and thought all was well until I discovered the smell and the mess..
Oh dear, dear dear! Great minds think alike. Something that is SO obvious from most of the comments on this forum. – What you lot need is a nuclear war. Maybe then you’d learn to respect whatever living things have been left (and hopefully it won’t all be humans!!!).
You are very sad if your garden is more important to you than a living thing. Get over yourselves.I have a neighbour’s cat crapping in my front garden. I clear it up. You should try it. Oh and if anyone harmed my pets I would seriously hurt that person.
Well done!
no problem with cats and I would not harm them. However the issue I have is my 2 young sons and expensive front and back gardens for them to play in safely. Having them covered in poo is bad. Having them covered in the remains of the piles of poo is also bad. Having no poo in the garden is good. Nothing to do with harming cats, it is all to do with harming my boys with the pathogens contained in cat poo.
My gardenis not more important than a living thing, but my boys and family are more inportant than a cat
I’ve developed an ongoing issue with my kitty. He was a house cat for 2 years, as he is a pedigree BSH. He used his litter tray fine, he only occasionally urinated outside the tray and it was just around it, he didn’t go anywhere else in the house. This only happened when me and my hubby were at work and his tray didn’t get cleaned for that period of time.
Cleaning up cat crap became a real pain in the arse and since me and hubby are starting a family, it’s not wise for me to clean up the poop. So kitty went outside!
We have another outdoor cat and I don’t even know where he does his business! Probs terrorising someone else, but no one has said anything so far.
But now, my kitty new to outdoors has chosen OUR garden to crap in. He goes all over our pebbled area (Cotswold stones) which is a real pain to clean up and has now even using our patio as the toilet! I know it’s him, coz I caught him doing it!
I don’t want to scare him with anything, because he is already a nervous cat!
As he used his litter tray fine before, I am going to put a tray in an area he can go, then take it away after a week or so and sprinkle litter on the soil! I am going to have to replace the stones, just for quickness, so the smell will be gone from there completely! I’m just hoping I don’t find anymore crappy surprises as I’m going around the garden! I will update on my progress, so maybe someone else can use my tip!
Some sense at last…
Hmmm…I have a huge cat problem. It seems that everyone with a cat around my area leaves them outside at night. I’m sooooo sick of it and so is my dog who just wants to kill them! In fact, all of the dogs around here hates them. There’s been a few late night barking contests set off by a cat meowing. I’m not hopeful after reading the options here. Aren’t there anything that I can do to stop the cats from coming around other than getting the cat owners to take responsibility??!!
What a lot of blabla! Ever heard of cats and dogs did not always get on? The planet is there for all, humans, dogs AND cats!
Only solution is to TRAP them take them to Pound so owners cop a fine.
I get full results with (after trying others):
Coffee grounds on the soil, over the plants and access.
Liquid chili, deliver some drops where needed (soil, plants, access).
Both very effective (Repeat every three or four days until cats don’t come back)
Cut the bottom of plastic bottles, fill with water and distribute were needed.
Yes Sally Drainey. My garden IS more important to me than someone else’s cat and its S**T. I look after my garden. I spend money on plants to make it look nice. Its my thing I like to do. I do NOT like to see said plants dug up and replaced with stinking S**T. and it does stink.. So I do clear it up. And give it back to those whom it belongs to. I do not like to find dead birds in the garden either, chewed by the cat, so I dont encourage them in anymore.
I have stopped the cat for the time being by putting bricks all around my plants and bushes and pine cones inbetween. Looks like a building site, but at least the cat cant squat in my garden. Have no problem with cats, nor would anyone else….if only they would mess in their own garden. Would cat owners like the neighbours dog to jump over and crap in their garden? I dont think so.
Maybe that’s an idea…….!!!!!!
The problem, as Suz points out, is hard to solve and often only drastic action will solve it. Speak to the owners some say about it using your garden as a toilet but invariably they’ll deny it’s their cat at fault or making a point about dead birds they’ll say it’s only nature but no it isn’t as a sparrow hawk is nature but cats aren’t as domestic. One owner even threatened to call the RSPCA out to me when they discovered I’d directed a hose at their cat and soaked it. The problem has been solved for that cat as it appears to have “disappeared” and not been seen since.
Ever heard of the word ‘ecology’?
Only thing that works in my front garden is the green plant support sticks cut into 6inch lengths (sut at an angle to give it a spike) place them around the bare soil areas making sure they are deep enough to stop them digging them out and its a cat poo free area. Used this method for the last five years, Large cobble stones around 3″ also work alongside the sticks.
Just need to figure out the back garden, bit on the big side for sticks would need quite a few hundred of them.
In the meantime https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/54202
For the latest petition, don’t forget to spread the word on Facebook etc
I have a pebbled path leading to my garage and finish up walking through the shit from my neighbors 3 cats. Cute they may well be but I do not have any pets and if I am to prevent the shitting it will be by the easiest cheapest most effective method, I just need to pluck up the courage to do the deed. I wonder how the neighbors will react when I drop my trousers and take a dump on their doorstep.
Try it, you never know. And maybe compare shit (are you quite sure it all ‘cat shit’ on your pebbled path?)
What you do is collect about 6 fresh squishy cat poohs. Place in a bucket and pour on water. Whisk up nicely with a stick. Catch the cat. You can rig up a deadfall trap which is a box propped up with a stick. Place bait under the box. Tie string to stick prop and hide yourself behind a convenient wall. The cat creeps under the box to eat the bait and you pull the string thus knocking away the stick. The box falls and the cat is caught. However, I bought a cat trap cage on ebay that cost around 30 quid. Ok, you have your cat. Now slosh some of the cat pooh mixture on it with a disposable paint brush….then release! The cat goes home and, if all goes well, will be cuddled by its doting idiot owner. Job done!
Or, having caught the cat, drive it at least 10 miles away and release. If you can release it the other side of a busy motorway, so much the better.
Dear, dear! — Is there a doting idiot cuddling you, Lord Muck? Don’t think so. Or it must be very much and idiot indeed!
I have had trouble with four cats, I have a small slabbed courtyard garden with just three small flower beds each containing a pretty shrub.I tried all the cat repellents, no joy, sonic alarm, didn’t work. nailed spikes completely around the 6′ fencing, they walked along it. placed chicken wire around each shrub to deter them but they just messed on top. Because the garden is small, the stench was beyond belief. I couldn’t let my grandchildren into the garden. I was dreading this summer, so we have taken out the shrubs and are replacing the soil with slabs. I was heartbroken to throw away such lovely plants. we are now going to have a few pot plants and hope it does the trick. Not only did they ruin my small flower beds. they slept in my sun awning and ripped it to pieces. I replaced that with a very expensive canopy and when it is down and covered for the winter the even use it as a scratching pad. You will not win. None of these cats belong to me.
Maybe get a bigger garden, capable of accommodating your plants and the neighbours’ cats. Or leave a note for the cats, telling them to do elsewhere what they have been doing for billions of years, on a planet that is theirs too…
As reptiles have been on the planet even longer then people cloud consider getting a pet python…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8191355.stm
I think that the laws that dogs have should also include cats, I have a cat she is 14 and the most adorable and loving cat she loves to be cuddled. there is a lady over the road that has a young male cat it is the most awful cat I have ever come across, it poos in everyones lawn except its own, it is a total bully. The first encounter that my cat Charlie had with it they got in a terrible fight he got hold of charlie and they went rolling down the drive it had hold of charlie with its claws and its mouth it was the most horrible thing to see. Charlie had to go to the vet she had pain killing injections and had to be put on a drip she also had to stay in overnight it cost me £250.00, I asked the cats owner if she was willing to help toward the bill but she would not. I cant have any windows or doors open in the conservatory cus this cat comes in and eats charlies food and it fights with charlie and in my flippin house. The problem cat will come up to the conservatory windows stand on its hind legs leaning on the glass steadying itself with its front paws on the glass messing up my windows. My cat cannot go outside on its own any more cus it is too scarred it makes my life hell. I would love some help with this problem if anyone has any ideas I am willing to try anything, one thing I have thought of is putting vaseline on the wall where it comes in. The problem cat got hold of charlie again this week and they had a fight again we got them apart poor charlie is battered and bruised again she is getting over it again but I just want it to stop.
many thanks
Debbie
has anyone tried barb wire along the top of a four foot fence?
I say again – there is only one way to get rid of the cats. As per my previous posts, it took me two years and a lot of patience and money. Nothing works. And then a huge decision to start the eradication. But my garden is still cat and smell free. I have removed the sensors and lights, and still no cats. WONDERFUL!!!
Fred, as much as we might like to, we cant all go round shooting other peoples cats, no matter what they do in our gardens!!! We just have to think of a lawful and effective way to deter them instead. (Hard, I know)
I have read up that they dont like change to what they class as their teritory, so maybe thats why im winning the battle so far.
My earlier posts of bricks all around is still working. I am on the next stage of replacing bricks with thorn and rose cuttings, which is also working. So are the pine cones, believe it or not, and they dont look that bad! (even had a trip to the woods to collect a few bag loads).
There isnt an inch of free soil for them to squat over!!!!
Ive also bought a few cat unfriendly plants, which, I wont be upset about if they eat !!!! (Not my fault your cat decided to eat my posionious plant is it!!!)
Dare I say it????? I think I am s**t free. (I hope I havent spoken too soon !!!)
Suz, I am glad you are winning the battle. Yes pine cones wont look bad – as long as you have access to them. The cat unfriendly plants might also help a bit. I have found that coffee grinds definately deters them. I have a few bare patches without grass, and just sprinkle the grinds over them. Also, I cut my grass a lot higher than before, and find they dont like to stand too deep in grass either. I now have a couple which regularly pass through my property on their way to where ever they are going, but they don’t stop. That’s fine by me. Perhaps they got the message! BUT I bet someone else in the neighborhood has a dirty stinking problem!
More cobs wallop from dear Fred. — I’m glad I do not have to live anywhere in your area anyway…
P.S: ‘cob’ by the way, is a mud wall; easy to put when you sling so much mud around.You can even perch on top of it, vociferate from there (and have your rifle backfire against you). — You never pee and poo presumably? The difference being you probably have facilities besides the garden to do so! — (And is that rifle legal?).
One day, the world may even be ignorance free. WONDERFUL (and good news for the cats!).
Fred, your solution is one of the few that really works, and without going to all that trouble and expense!! Perhaps the authorities will allow an official period of culling these pesky creatures as has been allowed for other vermin!!!
I also like the idea of the use of a python or similar, at least they eat anything they catch
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/catdeterrents.aspx
Try this.
I don’t hate cat’s but like many I wish there was a simple solution to stop them pooing on my lawn,and ruining my enjoyment for gardening. Pity they could not be electronically tagged and the owner’s fined if they pooed in someone garden ect and then sent instructions to come and clean up the mess their pet had left.
i too am fed up of cats pooing in my garden, they only ever use 1 spot, the front garden flower border, never in the back garden thank god, but with me having 2 small kids who play in the front garden i do not want them coming across cat poo in case they touch it. god knows how ill they might get, i am going to find some granules or spray to put all over the soil in the front & also around the back just in case they start using the back to poo in instead, i will see if it works!
for all you moaning cat hating morons, the best cat deterent in the world and it does work call me a liar if you want, Go get your own Cat and all this crp about chitting on gardens will stop.
Someone told me to try curry powder, i tryed this it did work but when the rain falls they foul again on my garden so i put some more down it has kept them off my garden so far…
here is an idea, how about every time a cat come in your garden don’t just shoo or squirt it a bit to make it run away, terrorize it with the hose for like five – ten minutes and see if that will stop it coming back.. And hey if it doesn’t work at least you can have a laugh and get to vent your frustration for a bit.
I have tried many so called ‘cat deterrents’ over the years. I like cats and don’t want to harm them but I like feeding birds and don’t like picking up dead ones. Cat watch the RSPB recommended cat deterrent in the link above has done me proud for many years. I also like the fact that it is made in the UK and the people who make it are nice and very helpful.
I have had many problems with cats coming into my garden, damaging my fences by constantly climbing them, damaging my lawn, herbs and plants. They have defecated everywhere so that i can no longer grow anything i might eat in my garden, i even found my potatoes dug up with cat crap on them.
I feed birds in my garden but find cats hunting and killing the birds and hunting in my pond, they have already killed a few frogs also. It is sickening.
I find that cat owners do not give a damn about the misery their pets cause to the wildlife and their neighbours. (The Sam person ranting at everyone is a typical attitude) They are utterly defensive about the fact their pet should be able to do whatever the hell they like. They have no feelings for all the animals who suffer at the claws of their pet.
I urge all of you who are utterly fed up with this over bred animal causing mayhem to write to DEFRA, RSBP the Government and anyone else you can think of to try and change the law on roaming cats and give us our gardens back, while also trying to protect our wild birds and other animals.
Sam, you sound a complete and utter pillock, please leave your address so that we can all send the cat muck we keep finding in our gardens. You appear to appreciate cats more than humans, which is fine that’s your viewpoint, however most people do not enjoy the prospect of finding cat muck every other morning, no matter how much they love animals. One more point I would like to raise, is what kind of an abhorrent neighbourhood to you live in where humans urinate and deficate everywhere? Seems very unpleasant to me?
This is the most ridiculous post I have ever read. Obviously, very few posters have taken the time to read “Cats for Dummies” which seriously clears up a lot about our feline population. Rule Number One: Domestic cats should be “totally indoor pets” with litter boxes. Rule Number Two: feral cats…it’s your own call. You can feed them and ignore them afterwards…you “can” legally use a water hose on “shower” so as not to hurt the animals to keep them out of your yard and garden areas. You can also get involved in trap and release to help keep the populations down. If a person has a domestic cat that they deem a “pet” and they are letting that “pet” roam the neighborhood freely, they are being an irresponsible pet owner, as that cat should be a “totally indoor cat”. Ferals roam freely because that is what they are…”free agents”. It is any neighborhood’s “call” as to how they want to handle the ferals. But may I say this. Before you cock that trigger, or call Animal Control…consider that ferals do provide a necessary service to the community. They kill snakes, rat, other vermin. Nice, huh. We live in a forest in the city so the feral population live in the forest as well and take their chances with all of God’s Creatures. If you will notice also, cats themselves have their own “ways” of populations control. Not nice, but nature’s trials of life usually aren’t. Usually lazy people are allowing their domestic “pet” cats to roam freely because they do not want to clean litter boxes. Those same lazy people are too lazy to feed a feral. Those same lazy people are too lazy to train the ferals to stay out of their gardens. Lazy begats lazy. We have birds, squirrels, cats, and nobody gets in anybody else’s outside territory, as they have been “trained” by “human water shower hose” methods. Get the idea? They all get along. And we get along with them. Does it take a bit of work…yes, but that’s why our situation works and most people’s don’t.
OMG, I’m so thankful that I’m not alone. I may be a bit late to this party but I need to vent.
We’ve finally managed to get our dream bungalow with a garden, only to be plagued with cats. Being a bungalow, we’ve found we can’t have any of the windows open as the cats jump in. I found one in our bedroom one day and went ballistic! In my bedroom!!! I don’t know how long it had been in there and had to strip the bed and clean everything. I don’t know whose cat it was or what it might have been carrying. It shot out of the window when I walked in. My husband is now in the throes of trying to make some kind of screen for the windows so that we can have them open.
New neighbours arrived a few weeks ago and brought two cats with them. Now THEY have started spraying and fouling the front and the back. The neighbour has asked all of us to check our sheds, outhouses etc. before we lock them as HER cats tend to go in places like that and she doesn’t want them to be locked in.
I mentioned that since her cats have arrived we have lost several pots of plants (which were expensive) that took a lot of time and care to grow, because they are spraying. I’ve moved the pots more than once but to no avail. Now they’ve died altogether. Also, some cat has taken to using a spot immediately outside our patio doors in the lounge and we can’t have them open in hot weather for the smell. It just permeates the whole house. That’s only started happening since they moved in. But her response was to start laughing and say that ” yes……cat’s tend to do that unfortunately. If you just wash it down with some hot soapy water, it should help with the smell”……….
She says she’s had them neutered but they’re spraying because they’re in a new area. Why should that have to be my problem? I don’t own a cat. They haven’t sprayed her house though, funnily enough. She also said that that they are ‘country cats’ (we’re quite rural)…..so she doesn’t let them in her house, just feeds them and sees them during the day when they decide to ‘visit’. How nice for her.
My garden, and the immediate neighbours gardens, are covered in cat dirt. None of us own a cat. It’s the new neighbours and people from further afield who just let their cats live outdoors that are causing our misery. I’m an animal lover, but why should I have to put up with this? They kill the birds, which I have tried hard to attract to my garden, so they spoil that pleasure for me. They’re all fed well by the looks of them, so they kill for sport and leave the dead birds around the garden. The baby birds have no chance at this time of year so I have stopped putting bird food out and taken the nesting boxes down.
They’re killing my plants and making my garden smell awful. I can’t leave a window or door open as they come into my house. My husband needed to go out to get something from the shed one evening and walked cat dirt back into the house as he hadn’t seen a pile left on the lawn in the dark. We have a garden swing in the garden which we have a cover for, and one beautiful morning went out to take the cover off to have breakfast in the sunshine, to find cat dirt and hairs all over the seat. I’m not kidding, I was close to crying I’m so sick of it.
I’ve been trying all sorts to deter them, but it’s getting expensive and I’m really, really, starting to hate cats. I’m sorry, but why, WHY, should none cat owners have to put up with this? I have friends who have cats and they readily admit that they rarely see them except for meal times and when the weather is really bad. In fact, their main reason for having one is that they need so little ‘looking after’. Many started as ‘ oh it’s going to be a house cat’…….until it messed in their house or did damage……….then it was thrown outside to wander and foul other people’s property.
I’ve had many dogs, made sure I was a responsible owner and would never allow any pet I owned to be a nuisance to others. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m coming to fully understand why so many cats go missing. There are so many laws applied to owning a dog or any other animal. It’s about time the same was brought in with regard to cats.
I am also late to this thread, but I wouldn’t check the shed or garage when Iclose it up – too much stuff to search out for a cat that probably isn’t there
Did you ever consider phoning the neighbour each time there is mess in your garden to ask her to come over to clean it up? Wonder if that change her “country cat ” attitude
ive read all through this and i can relate to the upset …we spent alot of time energy and money getting our garden how we wanted and new neighbours moved in .. they re not approachable and the cat exhibits alot of their anger and confrontation…. aparently the house hold has 16 corn snakes in the house a dog that today apparently was reported to the rspca and a ginger cat whos very confrontational and thinks he owns our garden as his toilet and now his retreat and toilet… we love animals and its been heartbreaking knowing how to show compassion and clear boundaries to this cat as we have very small children who we designed our garden for and its not safe now on the ground as that cat keeps messing everywhere… so.. we tried orange peel and lemons … he goes to the toilet next to them ! …. i have been trimming the herb plants and leaving all the bits of ettles etc laid down on the ground and the cat wont go to the toilet there now… but hes moved to a new area of the garden and hes making a real mes of it … sooo after readong evyrething here i dnt want to shot an animal i couldnt live wiht myself if i did that… and well after looking on the interenet for a long time tonight i found this about rosemary and whats intersteing is the cat has never ever gone to the toilet near the rosemary plant… sooooo… im going to try this … and i will let you all know if it works… as i understand that we are all living here together .. and boundaries are a test however .. when you have small children who you want to be able to play safely and freely in the garden i feel you do have to do something… cats are intelligent so.. i feel to approach it with a little bit of love and alot of intelignence too.. theres no need for violence.. mother nature has al the answers…. ok here what i found .. will try tomorow and let oyu all know if it works xx
basically you can make a rosemary spray by boiling fresh herbs or using rosemary essential oil 8 drops is enough…or boiling rosemary tea bags and letting it infuse over night .. into water and spray a boundary … The rosemary spray also works very effectively in outdoor areas where stray cats may linger. Just remember to spray after each rainfall because the solution will be washed away. The leftover tea bags can also be buried in flower beds or other landscaped areas. Once the cats dig them up, chances are they won’t come back. Fresh rosemary herbs and essential oils also work effectively as natural cat repellents. Sprinkling some of the essential oils along the threshold of a room will create a barrier that your cat will very likely not cross once he gets a whiff. Rosemary is also effective in repelling fleas. Spray your lawn and other common areas with the rosemary spray instead of using a dangerous insecticide.
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_4777686_make-own-natural-cat-repellant.html
TBBC is my chosen solution.
trap
bag
Brick
Canal.
That or poison.
A farmer has the legal right to shoot a dog who distresses livestock.
Next door’s cat has taken to dumping on our lawn. Today I have found a dead bird in our back garden. I have a 18 month old who like most boys his age picks up things and puts them in his mouth, so I can’t use a garden in the house I just bought because of neighbours irresponsible pet ownership. He doesn’t seem to crap anywhere else. So their beloved little pet is going to disappear if I get hold of him. I’m not going to waste my hard earned on correcting a problem caused by irresponsible humans. The best part will be when they ask if I have seen him, how will I keep a straight face when I say no?
Happy to inform you all that it seems my cat problem is solved. I determined that it was in fact two cats that have been fouling my property; one out the front and one in my back garden.
The problem with the front garden was solved when one of my neighbours accidentally ran over one culprit (it wasn’t me, honest); frankly he had been abandoned by one of the said irresponsible owners from a property down the road and if you leave your cat unattended long enough something bad will happen to them.
The second was solved when I introduced my mother’s two large dogs to our garden, it only took a couple of occasions in which he was dispatched back over the garden fence closely followed by two sets of sharp teeth that he got the message. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of the little b*stard since. Apparently a couple of weeks later he went missing, we had posters posted through our door asking if we had seen him, I assume he’s returned and he just needed a holiday from dicing with death whenever he showed his ugly little head in my back garden.
I have to clear up after the dogs now but as a responsible pet owner I am prepared to do it and I know when and where it has been done. I am free to let my little boy play in the garden again now!
I am going to try putting netting around the garden on top[ of the fence and angled in towards my own garden…I`m told cats don`t like not being able to get out and would otherwise get caught up in the netting…when if they`re caught up in the netting,Ill grab them by the scruff of the neck and drop kick the damn things over the rooftops…and NO…I don`t like dogs either…where I live we have idiot owners allowing their dogs to bark the whole day and night..or did,as I made a complaint and in the end the owners were told to stop the dogs or they would be forced to get rid of them…all this os really the fault of owners and a lack of concern over the behaviour of their pets…their children are often arseholes too.
Obviously I am readuing this because of cat poo in the garden (as opopsed to just browsing the internet)
Couple of comments:
Cats poo everywhere, Some bury their poo, some don’t
They poo on my lawn in in my neighbours flower bed, no preference
Cats poo in the garden more than foxes and badgers
Every cat is different as to what is likes / doesn’t like
Cat poo is not pleasent
Cat barriers are also human barriers
Water pistols require you to be on the look out 24 hours every day. Cats are vindictive and will poo in the garden later as revenge.
Buying a dog / cat / lion is shifting the problem from a neighbours animal poo to your own animal poo in the garden
Things I have learnt
Pound shop cat repellent powder works for my neighbouirs cat occasionally (a citrus smell). DIY shop repellent works occasionally
Coffee grounds work occaionally
They don’t go in my herb patch – but I have chicken wire cages over that
Other herbs – no poo in the lavender or in the sage but no idea on the radius of effectivness of 1 plant
Gravel on top of the borders helps – they can’t dig it up but you have to take the gravel away when working the garden
I built a fence of thin pine tree branches along the edge of the front garden – no cat poo. Taking the fence away bit by bit it appeared that they had a regular route into the garden blocked by the branches. Based on this fence idea I am growing a hedge of gooseberry bushes, training them to be low lying (fruit and barrier). The strings to train them are loose. Pine branches gone to grow the hedge, poo is bacl
Anecdotal evidence is to keep the grass short. The cat poo has recently appeared again after I stopped cutting the grass for the winter. Experiment time to cut half the front garden, leave half
Not shown this yet but baby urine works – throwing the potty out onto the grass has shifted the problem from near the door to the other end of the garden/ Next step is my pee, perhaps last one of the night (after the family are in bed, don’t want to appear to be too weird)
Put liquid hot pepper in a bottle, deliver only some drops where needed (over soil, plants, access).
It’s Very effective (Repeat every three or four days until cats don’t come back)
See recipes for homemade hot pepper here: sprayhttp://homeguides.sfgate.com/homemade-liquid-hot-pepper-spray-fruit-trees-32596.html
Thank you for this overview, I will consider your opinion, for sure. In addition, I would like to tell to all owners of cats: please, be polite to your neighbors, make fences or boarders that your beloved cats wouldn’t be abele to overpass. Keep your cats in your own garden, please. That is the best solution of this “cat’s” problems. Why your neighbors have to suffer from your cats? is there any good reason? Why your neighbors have to spend their time and their money to be protected from your cats?? Consider this , please.
personally it seems I am singled out by the local cats, every one in this blog finds cat shit on the surface the little twats around here bury it like anti personnel mines. There is nothing quite so revolting, nauseating, and fucking infuriating as finding your fingers laced with that.
Hubby dug up a spot, about 4×3 along the fence. Took some of the cat manure he’d raked out of the garden and put it there. It worked, cats started using that spot instead of the garden.
Cat feces carries a parasite, TOXPLASMOSIS GONDII. It can be very dangerous to babies whose immune system is not developed or any one whose health or immune system is vulnerable.The biggest risk is to pregnant women. T GONDII causes miscarriage, foetal blindness/deafness and or hydrocephalus / water on the brain. The consumption of vegetables grown in soil contaminated with T GONDII will also carry the parasite so purely removing the cat poo might not be enough. If cat owners are not responsible enough to have a cat litter tray on their property they sure as hell aren’t going to pay a vet to de-bug their cat.
A few foxglove seeds in cat food & say nothing = Cat RIP
Hi there try using the very lazy garlic that you can buy in supermarkets.
I’ve been using it months now and I’ve only had one accident from a cat as I’d not put it down a few weeks before.
They hate it!!
I used to own cats but they lived indoors I hate cat owners who just let their cats roam and to Poo on people’s grass and plants like a dog.
I have children who have ended up with it all over them from the selfish owners.
Also do as I have done in the last and throw it back into the owners garden
Thank you so much some of these tips were really helpful thank you again
Sheila
Hmmm …. I love cats generally but I’ve just had a fairly small raised (4′ high ) frontage to a rented property gravelled to improve the look of the property and the area. NOW it’s the largest dirt tray in the area!!!! This morning I removed 13 piles of poo. Across the rd is a natural, untamed wilderness for cats to poo in!!!!! Tonite there were 8 more piles!!!
My new tenant has already complained and I really don’t blame her.
Here’s hoping the netting works!!!!
What an emotive and difficult subject this is. It’s taken me quite a while to read the replies but it was important to read both sides opinions.
And apologies for this lengthy posting.
I’ve been “battling” the neighbours cats for many years now. I consider myself an animal lover so this has been so difficult. The list of things i’ve tried is very long and am currently awaiting the delivery of a sonic cat scarer as the next thing to try. For those having a go at people who want cat free gardens, just consider for a moment what we go through. It really isn’t that much to ask for. We make the decision to remain pet free for many reasons. This should be respected. And it is perfectly possible to train cats to use cat litter trays.
I’m basically surrounded by irresponsible pet owners. 12 cats, 8 dogs and a dozen massive parrots. Summer evenings are not pleasant in my back garden. There is one owner who has cat proofed her garden and her cat no longer roams. The cat had been badly attacked by something so this extreme case has forced her to keep the cat in. It can be done.
I have spent over £3000 in the years i’ve been struggling with this issue. I replaced the entire fencing and raised it by 2 extra feet, put chicken wire and security spikes everywhere and blocked every possible entrance/exit. I removed anything the cats could use to help them climb and planted spiked shrubs around the perimeter. I have used bean netting, canes, fruit cages, various sprays, pine cones, disinfectants, coffee grounds, lavender, citrus peels etc. Two cats were still getting in. I bought a trail camera to find out which 2 were managing it and where they were getting in. I have spoken with my neighbours all of whom gave me the usual rubbish and lazy excuses and one even got another cat. They leave these animals out in all weathers but yet i’m the bad guy in all this. We used to have so much wildlife around here but not anymore. These cats have decimated the population around this area. We hardly ever see any garden birds.
Out of desperation i bought a large, high powered water pistol but you have to patrol regularly and it appears as though these two hardcore cats turn up mainly at night. My next step if these two still get in will be a spray machine on a sensor. I have put up with so much which really is not fair. Why do i have to be penalised in this way? All i want to do is grow my own food. I’m a quiet neighbour and i cause no one else any issues. But according to some people on here, i’m asking too much wanting a cat s*** free garden.
If any of you have any new ideas that i haven’t tried, then please let me know.
Happy New Year
The very lazy garlic is a good deterrent but it can leave your grass with a patchy yellow colouring.
I have now told the woman whose cat fouls all over that I will just throw it on her windows and leave it on her doorstep if it carries on.
They need to take some responsibility for having these pets
I understand your frustrations completely. I’ve been doing the same thing. I scoop up all the cat waste and put it into the owners garden. I now know which cats are the culprits now.
To illustrate how bad my neighbours are, i overheard them discussing the recent rise in the amount of cat poo they have to now deal with. The mother actually blamed me for getting bigger fencing???!!! This is how stupid and irresponsible a lot of pet owners are.
I will give the garlic a try once the rain eases. Thank you for your suggestion. I really hope the cat issues improve for you.
The cats have me so overly poo sensitive that even walking down the street I can smell which garden has cat poo.when I get home from work in the morning .before going to bed I walk through my garden smelling for cat poo once I smell it I will search my whole garden until I have found it to remove it,since I have been using moth balls I can come home take a shower and go to bed while preparing my garden for the winter my friend told me to put holly bush down in the rose beds a few days later I saw a cat jumped over the fence landed on the holly and screamed like a baby one nil to me hurray.
Brilliant. Spiked shrubs are very good. They hate them. I’ve planted such things around the outer boundary of my fence. But i can’t plant them on my neighbours side. So i’ve raised the fence even higher on that side. But my neighbours have placed a large old rabbit hutch on it’s end against the fence so their cats have something to jump up onto.
I installed the sonic repellants and placed lazy garlic in strategic areas plus found a couple of holes in next doors fencing that hadn’t been covered by my new fencing properly. It seems as though the two stubborn cats had been creeping in through these little gaps which are next to my old shed and getting on to the roof and then jumping down into the garden. I’ve put the lazy garlic on roof of my shed and sonic scarer on the roof apex. I’ve checked the trail camera and no visits as yet. But i doubt this will last these two are a determined couple. There are a lot of hassles they have to go through to get into my garden when there are ample places in the area for them. I don’t understand why they have to do this. I always thought cats were lazy s*** and will always take the easy option. Maybe these two are unusual and like a challenge. Next week i’m demolishing my shed and replacing all the fencing behind it so they’ll have nothing to jump onto anymore. And they won’t be able to get through the fence. There’s also a tree at the bottom of the garden on the other side of my fence so that’s coming down too.
Because the rain has been so bad here recently I’ve not been able to use the garlic, however I caught the little git doing his business.
I chased him off and then knocked on his owners house to clean it up as I have had it!!
I stood there while she did it and her face said it all with how revolting the smell was.
She is now going round everyone’s gardens where he fouls as I’ve told her we have had enough of it.
Soon enough she will get sick of this and he will become a house cat.
The rain has been bad here too. Wish it would stop. I always wondered if for some cat owners that they genuinely don’t realise what impact their pet ownership has on their neighbourhood. I know there are good people out there (although definitely not near me) and they must be genuinely decent pet owners. I just think they don’t realise what is happening around them. Maybe your neighbour is one of these people. I really hope she does start taking more responsibility for her pet. It’s better for everyone concerned. To be free of cat poo would be such an amazing thing. I can only hope this will happen for me one day. My neighbours are all idiots. I’ve told them so many times. We live very near a busy road and surely keeping the pets inside is safer for them. There have been many accidents involving cats and dogs on this road yet my neighbours keep getting them and keep letting them roam. I firmly believe that if you make the decision to get a pet then keep that pet to yourself. Your neighbours do not want to either see, hear or smell your pet. They don’t want their waste in their gardens. This has to be a consideration unless you are someone who lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere. If you can’t consider this then don’t get a pet.
I’d love to hear how you get on with this issue Rachel but am keeping my fingers crossed that your issues are finally over.
It’s wonderful you finally found a solution. I’ve had similar experiences and ended up finding that laying down the garden tomato stakes crossed over each other deterred cats in the garden beds but they then turned to the lawn. Turning on the hose on the lawn in the morning did help some, but still it’s been a never ending battle. The expense of the pellets is also rediculous. I might consider moving to an area where cats are only allowed in a caged area or cattery and subjected to trapping if let out. A $300 fine deters owners from letting them out the next time.
It’s an never ending battle for so many people. There are millions of keen gardeners and just as many families wanting poo free gardens. And so many of us being harassed by other peoples animals. I doubt most of these pet owners give a t*** about where their pets go when they boot them out of the door.
I’ve been seeing quite a lot since i put trail cameras in my garden. My neighbours chuck their cats out about 10.30 pm and these things wander around all night till about 9.00am when one of the lazy owners bothers to get out of bed to let it in. The temperature outside recently has been -5 most nights. If that’s not cruel, then i don’t know what is.
The camera has shown me were the cats were trying to get in. The older one has given up now as i’ve made it way to difficult but the younger one is so nimble and determined that he even got through several chicken wire fences. But it seems as though the solar sonic scarer triggered and he legged it.
Just waiting for he weather to improve so we can build the new shed, remove the old one, cut the tree down which the cats are using to climb up and then replace the fencing in that area. That will put a stop to the bloody things getting in.
Really wish i could claim back all this money i’m spending from my neighbours. They make me sick. Lazy disgusting ar******.
Well I found 5 piles on my front garden and I caught a new cat ragging up my flower beds this morning. Seems like one car goes and another two come in its place.
Still can’t put garlic down as the weather here is horrendous at the moment.
So fed up with it all I know it sound stupid but it is setting my depression off as I am stressed out about it.
The other day my kids walked through what can only be described as the runs and walked it straight into my house.
At my wits end that I am so tempted to do something awful to them.
It absolutely doesn’t sound stupid Rachel. I completely understand where you are coming from. I’m an animal lover and yet i have had thoughts of harming the damn cats who keep using my property as their private toilet. I hate their owners of course. My whole life has been ruined at times by my neighbours attitudes. My neighbourhood now is a combination of a dogs home, an aviary at a zoo, a cat rescue centre and a night club. It is awful. I can’t move as no one would willingly move here. I’ve tried everything. No one will help me. I used to sit in my cat crap filled stinking garden, having my peace and quiet ruined with 87 decibel screaching and barking and think of the horrible things i’d like to do.
You are not alone. Your feelings are normal when faced with this. The fact you have kids as well must make things worse. I’m sorry you are going through this. I wish i could help you.
All the measures i’ve put in place have been quite costly but have helped a bit. I’m now only bothered by two stubborn cats which is a huge improvement. The sonic scarers seem to be doing the trick at the moment. But no doubt these two s*** machines will figure out a way round it. Chicken wire has been amazing in blocking ways in and out of my garden and by protecting the raised beds. It’s reasonably cheap and easy to work with.
Maybe one day the UK government will make it law to force cat owners to take more responsibility with their pets in the same way they have to with dogs. There are millions of cats wandering the planet decimating the local wildlife for fun and then s******* in the neighbours flower beds and putting everyone’s health at risk. It’s sickening.
Is it Safe to eat the veggies that Comes form Veggie garden that cat uses for the toilet And thank you for some ideas to keep my cats off the veggie garden.
Thank you for your article. I laughed my head off when I read it. Like everybody else here, I was looking for the remedy from cat’s poo. I will put a link to your blog in my post. You have a great website. I am a beginner myself.
I have a cat they are the biggest nuisance of all. I as cat owner lock mine up in cat enclosure for his own safety as I would rather him not be a major pest like other neighbours cats. Mine come out in day time for supervised human contact then locked up when we go out and before dark. What really pisses me off is neighbours who think they have the god damn rights to let their cats roam wherever they please, in rural areas roaming/stray/feral cats can be shot well I think its time they toughened up and let that be law in non-rural areas am sick to death of other peoples mongrel cats coming in my yard peeing and shitting everywhere, or cat fighting when you are asleep, or hunting wild life and killing it. How hard is it for cat owners to lock their darn cats up? Just goes to show how irresponsible they are at owning pets should be banned for repeat offenders that do not comply with cat laws.
It should be compulsory Microchiiping, Registration, Desexing and cat enclosures oh and hefty on the spot fines if cat owners disobey the cat laws. Dog owners get fined for letting their dogs roam freely. Time they got a lot tougher on cat owners.
Lock ya darn cats up.
My neighbour tried to tell me that female cats dont stink. What a load of bull crap that is I have been in her house OMG you can smell cat piss from her female cat guess she the owner is immuned to the smell probably why she tells me differently. Caught her cat in my yard so I sneaked my *boxer* who hates cats accept for her own lol in house let her out to chase my neighbours frail old cat dont care who’s cat they are keep them in your own joint maybe bit of rat poison will slow them down.
I have to keep my cat on my own property why cant they frigging lazy irresponsible cat owners because of your irresponsibility you are making me start to hate cats more.
so keep the dam cat on your property now when ever the cats mess in my garden I pick it up and throw it over the fence so the owner can see what it feels like to have cat shit all over her lawn.
Just a quick update. The chicken wire and new fencing has worked to a point and is keeping 99% of the cats out but i was still getting the new cat coming in. I did buy several sonic repellers which do appear to have made some difference. I have made it impossible for any cat to get in or out but as we know, they are determined things. I haven’t actually seen the new cat for a while anywhere in the street so i’m assuming this one has fallen victim to the busy road issues which so many of them do. It’s so sad. On the one hand, of course, i’m glad that one of the cats has gone but my animal lover side gets so upset at all this. Having an animal that wanders in an area like my street without any supervision is asking for trouble and it’s the animal that always suffer. I genuinely hope that the owners have grown a brain cell and realised that pet ownership is a massive responsibility and should be carefully considered BEFORE anything bad happens. Just because cats can go out on their own etc doesn’t mean they should be allowed to. Hope you are all having cat poo free gardens. I’ll continue updating.
There is probably like about 1% cat owners who do the right thing. Worse of all this is a major problem has been for many years and not one cat owner gives a rats arse whether their cat stays on their own property they all think they are above the law and that their cats can go wherever they please even if they are a major nuisance to their neighbours. I think that people should join forces and start handing in petitions going to their councils with written complaints to make it compulsory that all cats be confined in cat enclosures I reckon that would stop the cats straying into their neighbours properties, also being a threat to wildlife.
Ffs got woken up to the sound of pesky neighbours cat fighting at 2.28AM I see my neighbours cats out on the rd out comes my slingshot don’t care who’s cat it belongs to, rock missed the cats only because it couldve hit old guys car who doesnt even own cats he’s deaf as a door nail.So this time had enough grabbed my dog on her leash snuck out the gate with her flew across the road after bloody darn cats, going out to buy one of those really long horse leads put her on that tied to my front fence tonight and if she captures a cat so be it, it will be your fault for leaving ya mongrel cats out to roam where they please. If that fails then my dog wont be on a long rope ill let her chase the cats freely.
I can understand how you feel. There must be more responsibility on the part of a pet owner. Just because little kitty likes to wander the neighbourhood killing every small animal he/she can get their claws into, noisily fighting at 2.00am and then having a good dump in someone else’s veg beds doesn’t mean they should be allowed. I am a dog person but have had to adopt cats over the years and am no way an expert but ALL the cats that found their way into our house and hearts were trained eventually to stay put in our garden and never be out at nights. It was not easy…..but it can be done. It just takes time, patience, a sense of responsibility and a few quid on treats. Am sure there are some cats out there that can’t have their behaviour changed but i absolutely do not believe the favourite saying of some pet owners that cats can not be trained. And some of them think we should just “learn to live” with their cats c***. One of my lazy neighbours even asked me not to grow certain plants as they might harm HER cats?? Really?? She was serious when she said it. You can imagine my reply.
But this is the thought process of the lazy cat owner. They know there are no legal restrictions on them. So they genuinely think they can do what they like. And sod the rest of us. They need to think a bit more before getting a pet. Some people shouldn’t ever be allowed to be pet owners.
Please help I have tried everything its hopeless in trapping nuisamce cats that keep comin on my property doing its business and urinating ony house, cars and gardens my yard stinks. I have cat trap set put smelly fish, tuna, devon, cheese, chicken, sausages in the trap have it set in dark place also have put stick in trap smothered with stinky smell of Carmans Trail End Animal Lure none of it works why not?
I put some drops of Hot Chili pepper on the cats path. Repeat after some days. Only a few drops is enough, it’s infallible.