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Ok so a little while back I explained how I was going to do some experimentation on the neighbours cats, here are the results.

All items were tested on a lovely finely raked seed bed - pussy poo favourite.

Item: Used coffee grounds and left over strong black coffee from bottom of saucepan
Deployment: Sprinkled and sloshed all over bed. Not more than two inches between sloshings.
Results: Poo

Item: Dried roughly crushed egg shells
Deployment: Scattered all over bed
Results: Poo

Item: Cut up lemon skins (after having been juiced in the garden) and Lemon essential oil
Deployment: Scattered all over bed
Results: Poo

Item: Chilli powder
Deployment: Sprinkled so a fine dust covers the whole surface of the bed
Results: NO POO. However, had to be re applied after each watering or rain shower...

Item: Cat scarer (motion detector makes a high pitched sound that humans can't hear when cat is in vicinity and the cat hates it and runs away.
Deployment: Borrowed from sister and placed in the garden
Results: I worry that the other neighbour's bees wont like it, partner reckons he can hear it (which he can't because he continues to hear it even when I've sneakily turned it off) No real poo related results.

Item: Wooden kebab squewers in a grid formation all over bed, maximum gap size between sticks is 2 inches.
Deployment: Poked into the soil
Results: Poo - it's a mystery

Item: As above plus sewing thread criss-crossed through and round each stick making a net. Cotton is 4 inches above ground level.
Deployment: Takes ages but is quite satisfying as you're sure it'll work
Results: Poo and amazement - cat somehow manages to dump onto the soil without disturbing the sticks or the string. Maybe this is where the word catapult comes from...

Item: plastic coated wire bendy fencing found behind the back hedge.
Deployment: Bent to make a sort of low lying dome over whole bed.
Results: NO POO for 2 weeks now!!!! Yip yip yip!! woop woop woop.

Conclusion - Chilli powder and wire fencing are my clear winners. Tune in next time for more cat poo antics.

i find using old bits of bamboo canes and fine netting stretched over them works well. have had to do it on the new bed in the front garden that the cats kept digging up. and id only just planted bulbs and seeds there any how it has worked and theyve finally left my sunflowers alone aand they are growing quite happily.

i might try the chilli idea in the garden as a particularly vicious cat keeps trying to get in the house and leaving a lovely gift in the garden.

We can always rent out Troy he will see them off

Fantastic and well done.

My mum swears by shaved bars of soap sprinkled on her garden.

Love the scientific nature of your experiments. It's just a shame they mostly resulted in poo.

Perhaps a little too much time on your hands? But seriously, does the chillie not have any detrimental impact on flowers/veg?

Hi Herbalholly
I am definetely going to try chili but,
one more suggestion which I am assured works: apparently if you urinate on the area it deters cats..like marking your territory!! Not a feasible option if your garden is overlooked though! Suppose you could collect and pour it from a jug!!
Look forward to hearing if this works!!!
Ruth

herbalholly - love the serious nature of the experiment - surprised the canes and string didn't work - that may be worth getting a video camera on just to see how they did it!

What an amazing amount of patience you have.

All cats are different, so if another cat moves into the neighbourhood, you may have to do the whole experiment again Eggshells work on my beds where a neighbour's cat likes to poo, and I used lemon to train my cat not to go on the kitchen worktops.

Well done for finding something that finally worked. What a fantastic neighbour you are. I wish my next-door neighbour was like you. According to her, all the cats in the neighbourhood use her garden as a toilet and it turns out I am to blame for it all! And all the rubbish! And all the weeds in her garden. And anything else that puts the old battleaxe in a bad mood. But I'm sure I've moaned about her enough on numerous other threads.

I laid branches and twigs of pyracantha all over the cats' (note the plural- we're talking about 8-12 local cats here) favourite patch - just outside the back door, which is lovely and there is poo all voer the place - do they just not care about the prickles?

I ve got a friend who lives somewhere where she is not allowed any pets...so her garden is full of all the neighbourhood cats,chilling out socialising..they are a law unto themselves...

..great thread!

And for when you're at home, a supersoaker filled with diluted jiff lemon juice works wonders up to 20m

herbalholly wrote:Item: plastic coated wire bendy fencing found behind the back hedge.
Deployment: Bent to make a sort of low lying dome over whole bed.
Results: NO POO for 2 weeks now!!!! Yip yip yip!! woop woop woop.

Yee haaaa that was my suggestion! Cheaper than chilli powder in the long run and what will chilli powder do to your veg, they could get an interesting flavour.

Thanks for posting your experiment and conclusions on here for us HH.

PS. When I used sharpish sticks to keep cats off I always worried about them jumping on/over them and getting injured.

Yes MMM yours was the winning horse! it's great as it requires no up keep and just keeps on working brilliantly.

And easy enough to remove to weed, unlike a mass of sticks and string! I know, I've tried that one before I discovered the fence wire.