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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To NOT want the neighbours cats shitting in my garden?

162 replies

legolimb · 18/02/2019 08:47

Newish house - with a large garden.

Our neighbours seem to all have cats which wander where they like.

Just been out to shoo one away and caught it casually squeezing one out whilst staring me in the eye. It couldn't care less.

Obviously IANBU to not want this - so what suggestions does anyone have to keep the dirty little beggars out?

I can still smell it sick, not envy..

OP posts:

CluedoAddict · 18/02/2019 08:50

My neighbour used to put Orange peel around their garden. Or invest in a water pistol. It doesn't hurt them.

Original poster

legolimb · 18/02/2019 08:52

Thanks Cluedo

Orange peel sounds good. I'll have to start eating oranges..

I would happily sit there with a water pistol but there are a LOT of cats so I could turn into a crazy cat stalker lady.

This is why I don't have pets - I don't want to deal with faeces.

OP posts:

KM99 · 18/02/2019 08:55

We had massive problems with this right by our front door. Only think that worked was the electronic deterrents. Angled so they cover our drive and back garden. Cats now actively go around our via our walls to avoid the noise.

Cremeeggsareforever · 18/02/2019 08:56

I sympathise with this. Our neighbours cat used to shit all over our garden and also throw up in it. I really dislike the creature.
We tried loads of solutions but the only thing that made a difference was getting a dog....and it is taken it 18 months (it didn't care about the dog whilst he was a puppy).

I was advised to try vinegar on fences, orange peel, citrus juice, coffee, pepper....none of them worked for us. The stupid thing would also come in to our house via upstairs windows.

CluedoAddict · 18/02/2019 08:56

I think there are certain plants cats don't like too.

RiverTam · 18/02/2019 08:58

if you got cats then you wouldn't have this problem! (My cats dump in our garden, they clearly never got the memo that they're meant to do it next door. We've kind of designated a flowerbed for their use.)

FamilyOfAliens · 18/02/2019 09:00

OP, do an advanced search - there are literally dozens of these threads on here with good suggestions.

Though they all seem to attract at least one person suggesting putting Jeyes fluid down to poison the cats.

Pawtrayt · 18/02/2019 09:00

It's difficult to stop cats from using what they see as their territory but a few sprays with a water bottle may help.
You'll also have birds, squirrels, foxes and hedgehogs pooing in your garden. Are you going to stand guard and spray them with a water bottle too or is it just the cats that bother you?

Princesspeachy0 · 18/02/2019 09:02

I would recommend a cat alarm, u can get them from places like B&Q.

ShatnersWig · 18/02/2019 09:04

Electronic cat alarm worked for me.

drspouse · 18/02/2019 09:04

We found that garlic gel worked well, and mulch also helps (they like bare earth).
Cats by definition wander where they want. Not sure you can blame the owners or even the cats.

Ragnarthe · 18/02/2019 09:07

You can buy some stuff at the garden centre that puts them off. It's a smell they don't like

AnyFarrahFowler · 18/02/2019 09:10

KM99 has it - we had 2 cats shitting on our drive and it was vile. The highlights include getting it on my pram wheels, DH getting it on his shoes and then in the car, and encountering it whilst pregnant.
We used those sensors that emit a high pitched noise barely audible to people when the approached our drive and honestly, they don’t come near now. They must really really hate the noise

Seline · 18/02/2019 09:11

I love cats but I do sympathise. I think you can buy a plug in that lets out a noise that we can't hear but pisses off cats and they don't come near it.

thebabysmellsofpooagain · 18/02/2019 09:12

A few years ago we rented a property that had been vacant for a while. While it was vacant, the local cats decided they would use the gardens as their own personal toilet.

We bought cat scarers from Amazon and they did they trick on a few of them but there was one cat that was more determined than the others and carried on despite the scarers. I used the throw a pint of water out of the door or window if I caught him! Deterred him slightly but I don't think you can ever put a complete stop to their behaviour!

Sorry, not much use but I really do feel your pain xx

JasperKarat · 18/02/2019 09:13

Garlic gel works, anything citrussy, but the most effective alongside these would be a motion sensor sprinkler. You don't have to sit out like a crazed cat hunter but the effect is the same. I say this as a cat owner, you can't tell them where not to go, you just need to make it unpleasant for them and they'll go elsewhere

JE17 · 18/02/2019 09:17

Our next door neighbour bought a water squirter which works on a sensor. Frightens the life out of me every time I walk near their fence so I assume it works on cats too. The cats give our garden a wide berth thanks to Ddog.

LakieLady · 18/02/2019 09:20

This topic crops up almost as often on Gardeners' Question Time as it does on here.

Bob Flowerdew always recommends a Jack Russell terrier, but Lakeland terriers seem to work just as well.

PearlandRubies194 · 18/02/2019 09:22

My neighbours have two cats, both of them come over to mine each morning to eat the grass and then foul. Their owners have cement or pebbles all over their garden, no grass. So they come to ours, ruined the flower beds, walked all over wet cement when we had a new path.

I’ve lived here nearly four years and just kept picking the mess up and binning it (awful smell), quietly seething, but the neighbours are nice and friendly and I didn’t want to fall out over it. They really adore their cats. I’d open the back door to shoo them away and they go back over the fence immediately but I’m never quick enough to catch them before they foul.

I tried orange peel, pepper, garlic, expensive deterrents, a spiky mat from Amazon to put under the fence, water bottles - nothing works.

Then one morning last summer, I spotted both cats coming over and my neighbour was in the garden having a cigarette, so he could obviously see them coming over. I went out, bagged up the car poo and gave it to him without saying a word. Then went in and closed the door. For months afterwards they’d discourage their cats from coming over, and the garden was clean. But i went out to the garden last week when the weather was nice and there’s loads of cat poo again 😢 I have to pick it up before the children go out to play. I wish I had a solution.

Dodie66 · 18/02/2019 09:23

It’s not true that if you have a cat it will stop other cats. We had cats and other cats still poo in the garden. Get an electronic scarer. Worked well for my neighbour

EllieMentry · 18/02/2019 09:23

Another vote for a sprinkler activated by a motion sensor. It just connects to the garden hose and doesn't hurt the cats but definitely discourages them. Just remember to turn it off if you're going to be pottering around in the garden!

pictish · 18/02/2019 09:26

“Just been out to shoo one away and caught it casually squeezing one out whilst staring me in the eye. It couldn't care less.“

Oh I laughed at that.

Super soaker OP...we have three cats and I have given my neighbours (we only have one set to worry about) full permission to shoo, squirt, rattle and scare off if they’re unhappy about them being in their garden. Fortunately they’ve never complained and say they don’t have an issue.

PearlandRubies194 · 18/02/2019 09:26

*cat poo not car!

Also, just to add I’m actually seething at the neighbours - not the cats, who are just doing what’s natural to them. The neighbours however... I went away on holiday last year, before our fence went up. So there were no boundaries - I came home to seven poo piles in the garden but four members of the family smoke and sit in the garden - they would absolutely have seen it and I just thought a polite thug to do would be to pick it up before we came back.

I do like cats otherwise!

toomuchtooold · 18/02/2019 09:26

Try and make friends with the little sod. They really hate that.

charlestonchaplin · 18/02/2019 09:27

Water pistol? I'd go for a nerf blaster.

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