To ask for ideas to stop my neighbours cat from destroying my garden and attacking all the birds

[startrek90]

So I have a garden, a lovely big one with lots of trees and every year we get lots and lots of song birds nesting in the shrubs and trees. It's really lovely watching them and I love it. Last year however my neighbours got a cat. The cat has a very good hunting instinct, unfortunately that has meant that last year he attacked every single bird in the garden, ate the lizards and attacked the hedgehogs that were living here. It's has also now taken to digging up my strawberry plants and pooing and peeing-but just in my vegetable beds.😓😜
I tried covering the plant beds but the cat has just torn through them. As for the birds I have tried to place the birds nest up high and I got rid of the feeders as it was just staking it out. Tbh at this point I am at my wit's end so I was hoping I could lean on the collective wisdom of Mumsnet. I didn't want to go to the litter box board as I think they would just tell me to get over it. I don't want to hurt that cat but I am genuinely getting really upset and irritated at having to clean up dead animals and cat poo. I just need some suggestions as to dissuade it from coming here.

I did try asking about the cat to my neighbour
he told me that he has just got rid of his own garden beds. He seemed pretty annoyed that it's my garden his cat got the birds from. I don't want to start a row but it was pretty clear that they wouldn't consider putting a bell on the cat.

So please Mumsnet do you have any ideas?

Always love the psychos who suggest air rifles and Jeyes fluid. The irony of wanting to protect certain animals by potentially killing/harming others.

Super soaker works wonders and doesn't harm or inflict pain. Cats lose collars with bells all the time.

In my area one of the many foxes would have them. Cats aren’t the only predators around.

Supersoakers don't work - not only that, why the hell should anyone have to patrol their own garden 24hrs a day with a supersaver to deter cats?

I have successfully used Jeyes fluid for deterring cats and cleaning wheelie bins and garden equipment for years. It's safe and effective and the idea that we are somehow going around poisoning legions of kitties is just nonsense. The whole point is cats avoid the smell. It takes less than a minute for the solution to dry on hard surfaces, and funnily enough, cats aren't stupid enough to try to ingest it.

Wow - people like you, enjoying death of animals should be banned from having animals - disgraceful

Not death to animals in general, just cats and idiots 🙂

@CalistoNoSolo -
Idiots for sure, particularly those who have animals who cause harm.
Cats are allowed by law to be free to roam, idiots who have animals that kill get locked up and dogs destroyed

Cats kill wildlife, people are stupid and selfish to let them out, especially the ones who let them out all night this time of year, when they kill birds feeding in the early morning.

You did what! It's cruel and illegal.

I'm not keen on dogs but wouldn't be advocating Jeyes fluid, not caring if they got killed, and pouring 'wide jugs' of oil over them.

Some people relish a bit of cruelty, under cover of self-righteousness.

And to the original question - super soaker, as others have said. It doesn't take long for cats to get the message.

I repeat. The cat was fine when I next saw it a few days later in the street. Pouring oil over a cat does not kill it and is not illegal. It just didn’t want to come into my garden. I am not a cruel person this is why I took action after the birds nesting in my garden were killed.
Cat owners do not just understand that I love the wildlife in my garden just as much as they love their cats. Cat owners just don’t think about the lives their cats are taking out. It is just a matter of convenience to put their cats out.

Oh, and I just remembered my auntie's favourite tip. She swears this works: spray urine (human) around the perimeter of your garden a few times a week. You can get a cheap sprayer bottle from Homebase if you need one. No need to buy lion's piss for this purpose!

We have a neighbourhood Bengal cat that hangs out in the car park next to Homebase, according to his owner this is because he discovered there are rats hiding in all the hedges for him to play with! He crosses two main roads to get to Homebase. H's a real sweety and will come right up to people for a cuddle. I just wish he liked catching seagulls also.

I really feel for you. It is so disheartening when someone’s cat is ruining all the lovely joys of nature in your garden. It made me so angry as well having to deal with one neighbours three hunters constantly stalking my garden, night and day, climbing trees. I don’t get the point of having a cat so that it can spend all day harassing your neighbours garden? I don’t want a cat, thanks. And if I did it would be indoors. I supersoaked them any chance I got but they always came back. The only thing that worked was getting another dog that keeps himself constantly on cat patrol. He’ll lie and let the birds wander over to him (lovely, non-destructive animal that he is) and if a cat comes he’s like a whip. I can’t put any nesting boxes up or it would be a massacre.

I'm a cat lover and I don't think squirting them with vegetable oil is mean or hurtful. It's just very unpleasant from the cat's POV and therefore he will remember it and avoid that place in future. (Job done!) Cats don't like being mucky, nor do they like being bathed (which kitty will inevitably be when he returns home covered in olive oil!)

I think it has to be all of these to work-

super soaker.
chasing the cat off if you see it
caynene pepper (big bag from eBay) left of where they pop.
sticks in the ground where they poo again.
cat sonic deterrent from Amazon.
citrus / urine ! Spray round the edges.

but seriously, if a visiting cat scratched me in my own garden I would boot it up the bum !

good luck OP. Sounds hideous that the cat is allowed to kill baby birds. Urgh

The problem here is the owners of the cat ..what will they say when they discover their beloved puss covered in oil?! I'm a cat hater so would like nothing more than to squirt them with oil but it would be bound to come back and bite me on the arse!!

I have the automatic sprinklers. Aimed at the top of the fences so that whichever fence the cats try to get in they get a good soaking and can drag their bedraggled arses back to their own garden. I don't dislike cats, but I will not have them shitting in my garden where my grandchildren play.

My granddad used to chuck all sorts on his garden to deter cats, things like egg shells and teabags and orange peels. He also had a couple of those cat-shaped thingies with glass eyes that he stuck on the lawn. I'm not too sure how well all of that actually worked but he did have a lovely garden and grew loads of veg!

We are very lucky where we live as we have empty fields at the back of our street so the cats are always in there hunting the rats and that seems to be where they go to do their business.

Years ago my aunt was plagued with cats in her garden and nothing worked. I bought her a product called Silent Roar made from pelleted lion dung which you scatter on the ground and it worked. The cats stopped visiting her garden.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Roar-Lion-Manure-Repellant/dp/B0002B7OT2