BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Penny S.
Date: 01 May 11 - 12:55 PM

Over here there are catalogues (?) with items such as wobbly meerkats (which look not much like the real thing), the back end of burrowing moles, flattened hedgehogs... so some gardens do not have to be just plants. Not mine, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 01 May 11 - 12:52 PM

How do you feel about foreign objects in the garden.

The was this theme park place cosing down near us and I put in a bid for four huge fibre glass cannons at the auction. I thought they'd look greatin the back garden.....Anyway sadly i was outbid. My sister said, there is a God then....!

recently I had the idea of gnomes. We could put them up trees, and peeping behind bushes. My thoughts were that we could place tin cans on their head, and I could shoot at them if I bought an air rifle. If friends came round I could do trick shots, fire the rifle backwards over my shoulder. And then all our friends could have a shot have a shot.

however there have been dark mutterings about this idea.

do gardens just have to be trees and plants?

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 May 11 - 12:02 PM

My Freddie used to think the entire neighborhood was his "territory". A nasty fight with a local Tom convinced him otherwise. Now he stays on our property or at least within sight of the house. I find cat droppings around. Not sure whose because my litter box is always full. I get a bit annoyed at the dog droppings I find. It's either a dog or a mountain lion sized cat.
When Seamus visits I keep plastic bags in my pockets to pick up after him. Not sure why any dog is allowed to run free. It isn't safe given the amount of traffic on Evans and the speed of cars on my street.
Don't know how to keep cats away. I am a magnet for them.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 May 11 - 10:48 AM

Our two are mainly indoor cats and they use our garden as a toilet. I hope they don't use anyone elses and the speed at which they go out and come back leads me to believe they stay in our perimiter.

However, for some reason, the two party girls seem to have attracted a following of all the local waifs and strays from all around the neigbourhood. They are both doctored so it ain't that. It is very difficult to put strays off while trying to keep ours in in the garden but water seems to be most effective - A hose pipe definitely does it!

If you don't have your own cats how about some sort of garden sprayer triggered by movement?

MP

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Janie
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 11:24 PM

How many citrus peels to protect 14,500 square feet?

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Neil D
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 11:08 PM

I don't know if this works for all cats or just my mom's cat. My mom puts orange peels down where she wants the cat to stay away from. If she gets too close to them she squints her little eyes up and starts gagging and immediately leaves the area. It's kind of comical to see, works like a charm.

                                          Christina

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: LadyJean
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 09:47 PM

I have three very fine cats, who stay indoors, because so many of my neighbors have pit bulls. I have visitors on my front porch betimes. When I put down cayenne pepper they go away. You have to replace it every time it rains. But it's cheap and it DOES work. Buy it in bulk. I get mine from a Greek grocery store.

P.S. I'll take cats over pit bulls any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 11:01 AM

A constant problem for us as every neighbor within shouting distance has cats that freely roam the neighborhood. Subtle hints don't work as cat owners, like most people who bring havoc in to the lives of others, are completely oblivious to the fact. Obviously one doesn't want to shoot a cat, cocoa shells (in the garden, not in a shotgun) work if you don't mind your garden smelling like chocolate. Scooping the mess with a shovel and tossing in to the offender's yard is very satisfying as well. Good luck!

David E.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Greg F.
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 09:37 AM

Here in the UK, shooting or poisoning a cat (or a dog) is illegal, and would result in a prosecution.

And why wouldn't someone's animal despoiling your private property "result in a prosecution" as well?

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 07:56 AM

Here in the UK, shooting or poisoning a cat (or a dog) is illegal, and would result in a prosecution. I have three cats, but they are kept in at night with a litter tray, so they don't 'do' anything in people's gardens. They also keep other cats away during the day, as they're very teritorial. However, I sympathise with your problem. I put out loads of food for the birds and other wildlife, and at dawn, other cats hunt in my garden and have recently caught a female blackbird who no doubt had young to feed. My veggie patch has also been scratched about by other cats using it as a toilet. I don't know of any solution really. I've heard of electronic devices which emit a supersonic noise when a cat crosses the beam, which frightens it away, but cats are quick to learn and would probably ignore it eventually!

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Morticia
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 06:37 AM

I use lemon and lime quarters......works beautifully but you need quite a few so you may have to drink a lot of gin and tonics for a while, this of course is also a plus.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 06:12 AM

Sore point with me. I'm dead against shooting cats, which I'd have thought was illegal anyway. But I put seed out for the birds, which encourages cats, who think the birds represent a free meal.

That was ok in the days when I had an arthritic labrador/greyhound. He was so slow he couldn't have caught a dose of kennel cough. But his presence did at least dissuade the moggies. The trouble is, now I've got me a greased lightning greyhound, I have to lead him by his collar into the garden and stand there hanging onto him while the cat hightails it out of garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Goose Gander
Date: 30 Apr 11 - 01:36 AM

I'm turning my sad turf lawn into a native garden . . . if I can find it in the hills 30 minutes from my house, then I'll try to plant it and grow it in my yard. The cats are taking advantage of the transitional stage. I suppose if I wanted to go really authentic I could turn some coyotes loose in the yard . . . which would solve the cat problem, but open up a whole new range of problems.

Such is life, friends.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 10:16 PM

Not sorry for the rant, but sorry for that last line - remnant that got missed from poor editing and proof-reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 10:03 PM

It ain't the cat's "fault" pur se, but if the cat owner refuses to be responsible...or if the dog owner refuses to be responsible....

A dog, or a cat running loose in a neighborhood in town can be a tolerable annoyance. When every one on the street owns a dog or cat they allow to run loose, or turn loose at night when they don't realize insomniac gardeners like me are out looking at the stars and can witness the indignities being perpetuated -they all seem to think they are the only person letting the animal out to roam at will in the wee hours - plus, as I have ranted about many times before, I have an irresponsible neighbor with 4 dogs and an indeterminant number of cats (4 when I moved in - then they disappeared, presumably dead of neglect and disease, and now are building population again -plus a growing feral cat population...well.)

I do not suffer in silence. Offending neighbors are always apologetic but "helpless." God forbid they limit the number of animals they own or allow those animals in the house, or build a fence, etc., etc. Or horror of horrors, recognize that even if they own only one cat and/or dog, so does every other family in the neighborhood, and most of them have the same attitude, so it is really busy in my yard at night and....I'm pissed.

I have trapped cats in box traps and taken them to the pound, after warning the neighbors I would do so if they did not confine their pets. I have allowed my son to shoot dogs and cats in the butt with plastic airsoft bb's, and told the neighbors if they don't like it they need to keep their animals out of my garden beds and away from my bird feeders.

I'm the neighborhood bitch. I am also the only neighborhood gardener and birdwatcher.

Working class neighborhood in a small southern town, surrounded by farmland and people one generation removed from living on 2-4 hundred acres of farm where the dogs helped control the groundhogs and chased the deer away from substantial gardens that could tolerate a little trammeling, and where nearly feral cats kept the mice and rats in the barn under manageable control. Same problem, however, when I lived in places where people were 2-3 generations removed from that reality.

I've lived in the country. On a 140 acre farm, surrounded by other 140-400 acre farms, low population density, etc., our three dogs ran loose. In town, never. Took responsibility for giving the dogs long and vigorous walks on leash twice a day, and when we went up into the mountains on rough camping trips, let them run there. didn't "scoop poop" originally, when we moved to town, but as town got more crowded, and more crowded with people with dogs also walking them on leads, we recognized, without anyone having to say something, that we needed to do that due to the increased population of pet owners. Sadly, when I divorced a few years ago, all the pets went with my ex who was self-employed in a home-based business. He wasn't much concerned about the neighbors, but was very mindful of the needs of the animals, which boiled down to responsible urban pet ownership where the dogs were concerned - less so in terms of the cat.

Simply boils down to two things. Common sense and common courtesy.

I would never poison an animal. I don't think I would ever shoot a pet with something that might kill it, or would be likely to cause bonafide injury. You better believe I will attempt to trap cats, after warning to the owner, and turn them over to the pound, and will also call animal control about dogs - although it isn't effective since they are not going to come out at midnight to pick up the neighbor's dogs after the "invisible fence" is turned off. You had better believe that if I have talked with you about the damage your pet is doing in my yard and had you blow me off, that I will shoot the dog or cat with plastic bb's or rock salt, doing my best to not actually injure the animal, but if it happens, I'm sorry, but that is your issue, not mine - is the life and well-being of your cat, a non- native species and not at risk as a species due to habitat destruction, worth more than the lives of the native birds at my feeders, simply because those threatened birds are not pets?

I've shot groundhogs who menaced my gardens in the country. Then skinned them and used the hides for drumheads and the meat for a stew. I've shot deer or trapped rabbits in box traps and done the same. I will say, from those necessary experiences, that I would be a vegetarian if it meant that eating meat routinely meant having a personal acquaintanceship with what is involved with the steaks or chicken breasts I buy at the grocery store. Either that, or I would become inured from repeated experience.

I don't think I could eat a human being if my very life depended on it, but only the dire experience of that being necessary could really assure me of that. Ditto cats and dogs, because of the close socio-psychological way in which I experience them.

Rationally, however, why should the taking of the life of a dog or a cat, or even a human, be more precious than the life of a fish, lobster, or song bird?

I identify strongly with cats and dogs

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: maeve
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 08:25 PM

There are many possibilities and a wide range of opinions on the matter. When I plant a new garden area I scatter fresh orange rinds and usually have no trouble from the neighbors' cats.

We have a small working farm, and must not have cats messing in our vegetable beds planted for the farm stand. Chicken wire works well laid flat on the ground until the newly dug ground has settled. I have also used non-toxic commercial cat repellents, but they are too costly to use except on a limited basis.

Here are a variety of ideas:

http://www.cat-repellant.info/

Several possibilities are mentioned here; 4th post down on Tue, Apr 11, 06 at 18:50. "* ammonia soaked (corncobs, etc) * aluminum foil..."

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/problems/cat-repellent.htm

http://www.safepetproducts.com/cat-stop-cat-repellent-1-cat-repellent-on-the-market.html

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: gnu
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 06:54 PM

"something I can plant they don't like "

Marigolds piss them off severely.

I am curious... do they dig up your plants or just shit in your garden? What is planted in your garden? Do the cats go there during the night?

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 05:05 PM

In the end, my neighbour and I, removed the lawn where they crapped and put gravel in it's place with potted plants. problem solved at our cost. Bloody cat owners.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 05:02 PM

OK. Just wondered. And on a lawn the lion poo would not work well. I know that Jeyes Fluid - applied in solution - worked at stopping a dog which was instructed by its owner to use the lawn at the flats. The smell is so strong that all the clues they use to trigger the bowels disappear.

(The dog owner sent her son out to get the dog to "go" in front of the windows of the neighbour she did not like, and kept signalling to the boy to get the dog to do its "business". Both the boy and the dog were very put out. It was very funny to watch - but not what I had in mind when I treated the lawn, which I did to disinfect it.)

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:55 PM

I have seen cats crapping on our lawn and they do not bother to bury it.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Greg F.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:53 PM

The trouble is this doesn't stop them coming back even though the splurge with the product said that after several times they would stop. Well they don't.

Like I said- Shoot 'em. Only workable solution.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:53 PM

Are you sure its cats on the lawn? I thought they usually went for burying their droppings. We used to get foxes' on the lawn.

I saw some work on what the cats brought in, related to the reproduction rate of mice, which suggested that without cats, we would be at least ankle deep in the rodents.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:33 PM

Innocent cats kill birds and mice and any other vermin they can handle. Hardly innocent. What's more they crap on anybody elses lawn than the owners.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:26 PM

Forgot to mention the essential act of removing deposits and masking the smell. I'm afraid I tip the dropping over the fence into a communal bush.

Jeyes fluid is a good scent destroyer.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:24 PM

I have a packet of a substance called "Silent Roar", derived from lion poo, which is supposed to suggest to neighbouring cats that I have a bigger one than them. I haven't seen the big ginger since using it, but curious dents appeared in the seed bed by the fence. Not, this time, a deposit, though. In case it was the result of the cat jumping down the fence, I stuck forsythia prunings along the top of the fence to deter the cat from jumping up there, and used further prunings to cover the seeds. Nothing since.

My garden is surrounded by 6 ft fences. after the cat first used a piece of the patio area from which I had lifted flags, uncovering a disused mouse toilet, I used plastic sticks impregnated with citrus, which was supposed to repel cats. The packet did say that an aggressive cat might "go" right by the stick - it did, which is why I went for the lion poo, rather than intensifying the density of plastic sticks, as advised.

I also have a spray containing alum, but have not tested it.

In the flats garden, I was able to deter cats from using my potato ridges by covering with stinging nettles, and, because it was a large space, digging and raking an alternative site for the cats. I have seen a variation of this in a gardening advice column, suggesting providing a sand tray for the neighbours' cats. Seems a bit steep in a small space.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Becca72
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 04:18 PM

Hurting an innocent animal is barbaric at best and those who condone it should be ashamed of themselves. The CAT doesn't know it's not allowed in your yard for crying out loud.

My answer to the original question: Don't. Learn to live with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 03:38 PM

Poison!

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Goose Gander
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 03:38 PM

I should have said "these things AREN'T going away anytime soon" . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Goose Gander
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 03:36 PM

I guess I'm wondering if there is any sort of 'cat-repellant' spray or even something I can plant they don't like . . . we have a Cat Lady sort of person in our neighborhood, so these things are going away anytime soon. I just want them out of my yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: MikeL2
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 03:33 PM

hi

I think shooting them is a bit drastic.

They are a nuisance to me too. I now a special laser gun that you train on the offending animal. It does really hurt them but they sure move away when hit.

The trouble is this doesn't stop them coming back even though the splurge with the product said that after several times they would stop. Well they don't.

Cheers

Mikel2

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Greg F.
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 03:18 PM

From long experience, I second "Shoot 'em".

.22 long rifle, subsonic load preferred, not to alarm the neighbors.

There is no other effective solution. Period.

(Or, you might shoot their irresponsible a$$hole owners, but then you'd still have to deal with the cats themselves eventually.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 02:22 PM

A big dog might work but not a Lab. He'll just encourage them.

Subject: RE: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 01:31 PM

Shoot em :-)

Subject: BS: Keeping Cats Out of My Garden
From: Goose Gander
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 01:16 PM

What can I do to keep cats out of my garden?