Cats in the garden

I guess this topic has been discussed ad nauseam before, but this is a subject which changes me from a kindly, if somewhat eccentric being to a raving maniac. I have tried every deterrent known to man to keep them from infesting my garden and leaving their disgusting evidence on every patch of earth. I have tried infra-red electronic screamers, powders of several kinds, Silent Roar, holly, mothballs, lemon peel, water guns and so on without visible effect. I have shot at them with a BB gun, thrown stones both large and small and even a catapault.

I have now come up with a solution which seems to be having some effect.

I have laid mousetraps all over the garden at strategic points. When the intruder sniffs at the mousetrap, the resultant snap scares the hell from them.

[ 14. February 2007, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: michaelmasdaisy ]

 

Somehow this seems to have evaded the notice of the cat-lovers amongst us, Trux!

I'll give it another chance....

I have to admit that I have a cat, and although he does use his litter tray, I am quite sure he uses other peoples' gardens as well as my own too.

What I have done in the past is a combination of things. The silent roar didn't turn out to be all that successful, unfortunately, but I did give my immediate neighbours a box each, if only to keep on relatvely ok terms with them.....

The other thing was to redesign the part of the garden that was being used as a giant litter-tray by all the cats in the neighbourhood, I'm sure.

I dug it all up, washed the gravel through, binbagged the yuck, and took it to the tip, took up the membrane that was under the gravel, dug up the entire area (the whole front garden)flattened it again, laid paving stones in a chess-board pattern, and planted in the gaps, putting the gravel back down round the plants. This left no space for the cats to do what they wanted.

This is what it looked like part way through - before the planting and gravel being put back down again - and no cats were injured - except in their pride! It also gave me a lot of satisfaction to be involved in Cat Chess! (Terry Pratchett reference there :D )

 

In our street of 16 houses, 6 have cats - most more than one. My garden is plagued - both by their business, and the birds and other wildlife. I trod in an unpleasant pile for the umpteenth time just this afternoon - whilst I do like the creatures - I hate their toilet habits!

My concern about the mousetraps - would be if a hapless hedgehog were to bumble into one - I could never forgive myself. I too have tried just about everything I can think of, including the silent roar, jaggy plants, inflatable and plastic snakes, olbas oil on teabags...

If anyone does know of a deterrent that works (without causing injury!), I for one would love to know!

 

I am suprised you havent had the animal lovers hit squad after you but its early days yet!
I have a putty cat but he is extremly well trained and wouldnt dare do his buisness in my veg patch and we are lucky enough to live on a farm so there are plenty of natural places to go but i do get problems with neighbours not so well trained cats so have got a huge Canecorso Mastiff pup and am sure he is gona help keep tabs on any unwanted visiting puttycats!! :D

 

I used to lob stones in their direction, not to hit them but to give them the general idea. I had one kitten that decided the lobbed stone was to be head butted. The stone whizzed through its ears and I was having thoughts that I would have to bury a cat - it was a close shave, almost literally. I have tried the electronic scarer but tried it on next doors cat when they had one and it rubbed its face on it.
The cats just waited until I was not in the garden.
The only thing that worked has been getting a dog. First we had a black lab that loved cats, but they are not to know that. Now we have a german shepherd who hates them. Not only does she chase them but she screams at them from the window and barks at them if she sees them across the stream. The result is that cats within 100 metres all seem somewhat cowed and on edge. The birds breed successfully. We have had very few bird kills since getting the dogs.

 

Dendy it is a bit extreme to have to redesign your garden to keep your neighbours cats out I wonder if they would fund it for me, next door has 3cats and they all use my garden as a toilet and hunting ground I have tried every trick in the book but can't be on watch 24hrs a day,I think it's very irresposible to just turn a cat out of the door without a thought of where it's going to do it's thing mind you people do that with their kids these days turn them out and don't give a fig where they go or what they do.

 

I think one of the worst offenders of leaving piles of poo everywhere are humans...We came back from holiday last year and while unloading our car and caravan had a human child do a POO next to my car,and the parents just walked off grinning from ear to ear :eek: :eek:not to mention the piles of dog poo that humans cannot be bothered to pick up after their dogs,or if they do then they just drop the coloured bags all round the village...

Cats bury their poo because they are clean animals not like us humans...

We have two cats which poo in our garden and the neighbours cats do it as well.All I do is make sure I am wearing gardening gloves,and while doing my weeding,If I find some,I just bag it up and bin it.Every living creature poos,it is just that cats like to bury it...

I don't think you will get much sympathy from cat lovers on here if you set traps.Try joing an anti cat forum.I am sure you will find plenty of help on there

PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE CATS MUST HAVE BEEN A MOUSE IN A PREVIOUS LIFE!!!

PS Even with two cats we have still managed to have Blue Tits raising a brood of chicks over the last two years and are just about to start on their third family...

 

If you enjoy a challenge, changing the garden isn't all that drastc, Walnut - but it does rather depend on the size of garden involved! :D As you san see my front garden wasn't all that big, and it lent itself to that sort of change, particularly as the only things I had to buy to do it were the echeverias I put in. Everything else was just rejigged a bit to reduce the similarity (from a cat's point of view!) to a giant litter tray......

As far as a more practical approach is concerned - looks like having a dog is it! We never had the same problem round the back where the dogs were able to roam around free with the doors open most of the time. We do of course have out own cat, but one cat is manageable - the entire neighbourhood's cat population is another matter!

I agree with Kandy - bag it!! I know it's not all that pleasant, but it's a lot nicer than dealing with injured or dead cats........

As for the comment about letting cats loose - well, cats are naturally outdoors animals. You would soon have the RSPCA on to you if you didn't let it out. :rolleyes:

 

In some countries, there is a legal requirement for cat operators to control their animals. This includes repairing any damage that is done. I find it totally incredible that some form of compulsion does not exist in this country.

If you like cats, keep them under control.

Hedgehogs don't get caught in the mousetraps. The very worst that will happen to any animal larger than a mouse is that it will get a fright.

I fail to see why I should have to either bag cat sh*t or bear the cost of replacing bulbs or anything else as a result of someone else's animal.

Exterminate the lot of them!!

 

:D

 

A few years ago, a laay down the road was always complaining about the dog poo in the alley way - to everyone around and the council. She picked it up and put it on the doorsteps of those she thought were responsible (not me )
A while later, said lady gets 2 lovely fluffy ginger cats who, when old enough, poo in everyones garden and ransac my binbags. When I mentioned this to her, her answer was, 'well, they are free spirits and I have no control over them'. To which I replied,'owning a cat as a pet is an opt-out then and you dont have to be responsible for them' We never spoke again

 

My cats have always been indoor cats, only go out on their lines and they are not unhappy with this arrangement. We have a large house and they have the run of it, plus the large Wintergarten which is their playroom. (We only have the one cat now but it has always been like this.) The neighbours on both sides have outdoor cats who roam through our garden and I have yet to find a poo anywhere. Kandy is right, cats are very clean and bury their poo. My only problem at the moment is that one of them sprays on our front door every now and then and it was for this that I asked in another thread yesterday if anyone knew of a household deterrant. I did have mothballs at the back of my mind.

Trux, I hope you go sleepwalking in your bare feet and step in the mousetraps.

 

I will do my best. I obviously deserve to be severely punished for daring to try to control the verminous, flea-infested animals. I congratulate you on at least taking some responsibility for your cat. Would that others did the same.

Mothballs don't work, by the way. Can I suggest mousetraps?

 

We were recommended to use biological washing powder to clear the area, which means the animals won't be likely to re-spray to mark the territory.

Neutered toms don't do this - so neutering would be wise. If it's not your cat doing it, though, you can't do much more about it. If you have a neutered tom, it appears to be doing it, but it's just going through the motions, as it were!


BTW, Trux, what's a cat operator???? If you mean someone who has a cat, say so!!

I appreciate what you're saying, K-G. You're obviously taking care of your cat, and undoubtedly if you deal that way with your cat from the start, you won't have a problem with him fouling and you not knowing about it and dealing with it.

I still think your best bet is to get a dog, Trux!

 

I found a stray cat in our garden a few years ago that had been shot with a BBgun, not very pleasant. The cat had probably been roaming around for a few days as it had a hole in its side that was very infected . I don't normally get involved in discusions like these but I feel very stongly about this. Anyway we took the cat to the vet but it was too late for the poor thing , the vet said that it was probably some A**E Hole that took pleasure in doing it, and I agree.! We got the police involved as its obviously illegal to shoot animals like this.