..stop cats using my lawn for a toilet???

[kinkladze]

I have recently moved to a new house in the countryside - it is great!!! I'm loving it out in the fresh air and learning how to do things for myself. This website has been a great help.

There is just one downside - there are around 6-8 cats in the area and they (or at least 3-5 of them) have taken to using my lawn as their toilet. This is not nice and especially as i have a young son who i dont want to be picking it up.

Does anyone have any good ways of getting these cats off my garden / lawn and keep them away?/

Many thanks in advance!!

[Silver Ether]

get your own cat or a dog. I don't know why some of them do this ... dirty buggers. My cat always goes to the same spot and buries it it our own garden and wee's in a different spot... and some other cat comes and does it on our lawn. It used to happen a lot till Mischief moved in and now its not such a trouble.

[Millymollymandy]

I don't think that works as my mum has this problem and she used to have a cat. All she can do is try to protect her seedlings and young plants with fence wire on the soil to stop them scratching. She tried an electronic cat scarer thing which didn't work at all.

I have a large garden and neighbourhood cats come in and probably crap but I don't know what belongs to my cat or to others. The worst is when they are trying to be territorial and just do it in the open without covering it up (the middle of a festuca glauca used to be considered a great toilet in my last garden ).

My husband has had some success with both cat and dog poo (round here some dogs just roam wild and crap on our grass outside the gate) with a product that you sprinkle on the soil/grass but it's far too expensive to keep using.

Oh I see this is your first post so hello and welcome to the forum!

[Graye]

I know they hate lemons so perhaps some lemon juice squirted around might work? It will wash away but it may be that once they have discovered a new place they won't come back. Pepper will do something similar.

Or you could try what we discovered they do in Spain. This defies all logic but seems to work! Half fill a number of clear plastic bottles with water and leave them on thier side in the flowerbeds and on the lawn. It works for dogs too and I have NO idea why...

[wulf]

In my previous garden, I found that making friends with the cats seemed to work pretty well. Once in a while we would have an unwanted present or need to shoo a cat out of basking on a seed bed but a bit of time spent making them feel welcome seemed to inspire them to leave deposits elsewhere and keep their playground clean.

Don't really seem to have a cat problem in the new garden but, if we do, I'll try the same tactic.

Wulf

[Annpan]

Get a water pistol and have some target practice A bit cruel perhaps but then the little bu**ers really don't belong there do they.

[MuddyWitch]

I'm with Annpan on this one. Water doesn't hurt them, but it does discourage them.

We no longer have a cat problem, but adopting two ex-racing Greyhounds means that if a cat was stupid enough to come into our garden, it very probably wouldn't get out alive. We put up six ft fences, topped with wobbly trelliss with fine mesh attached, and regularly put orange & lemon peel around the boundaries.

There's a product called 'zoo-poo' or summat similar which is lion poo, pelleted. I've not tried it but try googling & see if it appeals to you.

MW

[Milims]

Pump action water pistol! Or perhaps one of those garden sprinkler things that comes on at erratic times.
I've also heard that if you fill a plastic pop bottle with some water and lay them on the lawn the cats think they are snakes and avoid the place.

BTW - Hello and welcome!

[Silver Ether]

I tried lemon juice on the stair carpet to stop her scratching it ... I think she likes it and she has just come in wet as she was playing chase while fella watered the plants ... this cat is mad. I think the water pistol is the best idea as the cat just gets a fright, no harm done but will eventually get fed up and bother someone elses lawn ... oh and I am convinced if we did the water in the bottle thing she would sit watching her reflection ...

[Carltonian Man]

I agree with the water pistol aproach if you're around or even a tennis ball thrown in their direction. It seems they become well aware that you can reach them without actually doing any running (which they can beat you at easily). If the cats are visiting at night, a length of fencing wire or very strong fishing line loosely stretched just below the top of a fence and about four inches away from the face of the fence will stop them. Cats jump up to a fence and the wire cramps their style without hurting them. The wire simply gets in their way, it's too unstable to allow a suitable grip and they won't go high to clear it. Most of the time they're too smart to even attempt it. For fixing, large nails knocked into the posts allow the wire to be wrapped round the head. Unfortunately it's not the best looking addition to a garden. I've even tried luminous eyes made from industrial tape. It's supposed to emulate a predator, not sure if it worked though. Certainly the foxes weren't bothered by it.
Bloke urine round the borders does seem to work but things can get a bit niffy in dry weather.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on

Regards
Martin

[lovelygreenleaves]

I agree with the water pistol aproach if you're around or even a tennis ball thrown in their direction. It seems they become well aware that you can reach them without actually doing any running (which they can beat you at easily). If the cats are visiting at night, a length of fencing wire or very strong fishing line loosely stretched just below the top of a fence and about four inches away from the face of the fence will stop them. Cats jump up to a fence and the wire cramps their style without hurting them.

Some of these sound like the cat might accidently get hurt Be careful of collars getting stuck on things! Orange peel dotted around the 'access sites' works for most cats. If they really really won't stop using your garden, a litter tray can work on some cats to keep most of it in one place. Most cats repeatedly use the same spots because some scent is left behind so if they use it once they'll use it again. I think it's just one of those things though, cats have their territory and that's not necessarily the same as their owners territory! I just keep having a look around and clean it up.

[Mal]

We had this - right old pain, especially as we have a 2.5 year old, who is just fascinated by poo. Anyway, I keep clearing it up (got plenty of nappy sacks around anyway). I find they're less likely to poo on the lawn if the grass is short. I want to try the water pistol, but I never actually see them anyway. might try the orange peel over winter - I reckon you could whizz it up in the blender and then scatter it everywhere, as long as it didn't kill the grass because it was too acidic.

[kinkladze]

many thanks for all of your advice - i will give all / most of these ideas a try and see what works the best. Will let you know what works best when i find out. Hopefully no more / less cat poo!!!

Cheers.

[Cloud]

We have two young cats and have had had problems with other cats. The most problems from cats tend to come if you are on a boundary between two cat's territories. These boundaries are rather fluid and move about as the power plays moves between various cats.

When we first had our young cats our neighbours complained they were digging in their garden, so we tried several tricks to keep our cat the right side of the fence. We tried the fishing line trick - its amazing to watch a cat walk down the top of fence, carefully avoiding the line - they learnt so quick. We tried repositioning the wire in several heights and angles, but they always treated it with as if it was not there.

As we tried introducing our cats to lemon juice as an experiment. I think one quite liked it. The other didn't even notice. You'd probably have to throw the lemon at our cats to get the desired reaction!

We had one Tom cat that would actually come in through our cat flap and eat our cats' food. We started squirting it with water and that worked for about a week. It learnt to sit just out of reach of my sprayer and crept back as soon as I had gone. I upped the ante with a jug of cold water. That seemed to work for a while longer, but again it just learnt what my range was. Garden hose came to the rescue. That helped for a while.

We then moved.

Now our tom is a little older and a little braver we think he's keeping other cats away. We've seen him chase of one other cat very effectively. Unfortunately he still digs in our garden and seed beds get destroyed sometimes, but they are creatures of habit so once they pick an area for their toilet the rest of the garden is mostly safe. Freshly dug soil seems to be irresistible though.

Making friends with one cat might be the solution. Try to get your garden clearly within its territory. Help it by chasing off the other cats. With luck it will then keep other cats away when you're not around. You might even be lucky enough to find it already has favoured toilet places that are not inside your garden. Accept the odd flattened plant as collateral damage. I probably would not go as far as feeding it though - you don't need it bringing you (ex-)wildlife as gifts.

[hyperion]

you need to get yourself the "LURCHER" surface to surface anti cat missile system!

cheers
hyperion