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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To Think My DD Should Be Able To Play In Our Garden????

55 replies

Melscorp · 14/03/2009 12:42

Well, I am so cross!!! This morning we looked outside our sliding doors and found four huge piles of cat poo!!!! The thing is I don't have any cats. My neighbour does. Four to be exact!!!! This all started when I was pregnant. The cats decided to use mmy garden as their cat litter. I spent most of my latter pregnancy cleaning it up!!! I tried every thing. Sonic deterrents, liquid deterrents, gel deterrents!!! Towards the latter part of last year I gave up. I decided that I would deal with it this year. We opted to taking my daughter to the park. Well, this morning when DH opened the curtains he noticed FOUR HUGE PILES OF POO sitting right outside the sliding doors. The cats have now decided that they don't want to poo in the dirt anymore and have now decided to poo on the slabs of concrete!!! I know it is the cats, because we have seen them pooing. I even mentioned it to my neighbour and she said her cats are lazy for some reason and do not bother to cover their stuff up!! My DD is 26 months and I fear I am about to implode as I would love her to play in our garden. Any suggestions!!!!!!!!!

OP posts:

RedFraggle · 14/03/2009 17:43

Hose pipe! Water works a charm and it doesn't actually harm the cat. This is a PITA though...

belgo · 14/03/2009 17:44

You know cat poo and urine can harbour toxoplamosis which is potentially very dangerous to pregnant women and unborn babies. You really shouldn't be clearing it up.

mammapiggy · 14/03/2009 18:02

Buda - you say human urine works at putting them off?

maybe if you are potty training your dd you could empty her potty (only with urine in!) around the perameters of your garden - would this actually work at putting them off or am i being silly?

neighbours may think you are a bit odd, but hey if it works

You have my sympathy though i totally hate anything turd-like - i cannot deal with it!

Buda · 14/03/2009 18:07

Well I have read it somewhere mammapiggy! Not sure it works but worth a try as costs nothing!

mammapiggy · 14/03/2009 18:15

well we get a lot of cats in our garden so i may try this Buda!

snuffyp · 14/03/2009 18:19

Oh god i hate cats!! what i hate is the fact even tho i do not own a cat i have the pleasure of cleaning up there poo!! next door has 4 cats!.We have put gravel on the boarders out back and that has stopped them but round the side we have a patch of dirt which we did,nt have enough shingle for so thats now covered in poo!.I put my tubs round the side over the winter and now all my little daffys are coming up shame there surrounded by poo!!.So i will gag and clean it up and when next doors bin goes out i,ll put it in there!!

kittywise · 14/03/2009 18:28

I once lived in a house that had a couple of cats next door. They use to crap in our garden and i was heavily pg at the time. The worst of it was the cats were RIDDLED with worms, so not only did I have crap all over the garden but it moved along of its own accord [sick].

I was quite relieved to hear when one of then had got knocked down and I like cats.

TheRealMrsJohnSimm · 14/03/2009 18:35

We have two cats and I would be appalled if this was happening to our neighbour. IMO if she had a litter tray in her house/garden, they would be less likely to crap elsewhere. We created an outdoor litter tray in our garden for our cats and, afaik, they don't poop in the neighbours garden - I am sure they would tell me if they did!!

We had a prob with another cat from our street crapping in the flower beds of my front garden. I have chased her away, spraying her with a plant sprayer full of water and thankfully that seems to be working for now.

TheRealMrsJohnSimm · 14/03/2009 18:37

Just wanted to add - agree that perhaps you should contact environmental health - especially as its happening right outside your door and not even in a flower bed.

squirrel42 · 14/03/2009 18:48

Would EH actually do anything about cat poo? I'm genuinely curious. You can't insist that the cats stay shut inside, so discouraging them from your garden as already suggested is all I can think of. I grew up with cats and agree with the waterpistol idea too - we used to squirt aggresive neighbour cats that fought with ours!

wotulookinat · 14/03/2009 18:49

Sadly, it's what cats do. Bloody annoying for the neighbours. Getting a cat yourself would help!
Otherwise, hosepipe or a sqirt bottle of water aimed at them might help.

cilitbang · 14/03/2009 19:00

Fancy doing a bit of dogsitting? Look after someone's dog while its owners go on holiday, that should scare them off! And you'll be doing a favour for the dogowner too!

wotulookinat · 14/03/2009 19:00

You're welcome to look after my two dogs, if it'll help!!!

cilitbang · 14/03/2009 19:07

and mine!

mommyinthemiddle · 14/03/2009 19:16

crush up some garlic and sprinkle over garden/flower beds. My nan does this and it keeps the cats away!

handbagqueen · 14/03/2009 19:35

If you are not letting your DD in the garden at the moment one way to stop it is red chillie powder - get a big bag from the supermarket (or cheaper at your local asian grocery shop) and sprinkle it where they are pooing - if it rains you'll need to re-sprinkle. After a couple of days this will definately stop them coming back as once they get a sniff of chillie they won't be able to get away fast enough. One word of warning though - don't let you DD out and make sure the shoes you wear when re-sprinking are not brought into the house. Once the problem has stopped hose down and wash the patio to get rid of all traces.

We had a problem with dogs and cats using the concrete outside our kitchen window as a toilet and this worked a treat.

LesbianMummy1 · 14/03/2009 19:51

what about those sonic devices?

Pawslikepaddington · 14/03/2009 19:53

Bucket of cold water on the cat every time it comes into the garden!

2rebecca · 14/03/2009 20:00

I have a sonic cat deterrent that I bought when neighbouring cats were fouling our garden. Works brilliantly. I turn it off if we or the neighbours are in the garden though as the high pitched noise is triggered by people as well. Getting spiky plants like hawthorne and sloes for hedges works well as well.

ibbydibby · 14/03/2009 20:45

Someone once told me to sprinkle Olbas Oil all over the garden, when we were experiencing this. It worked for us...not sure what effect it has on the grass or plants though (ours were fine)! I think it is the same idea as urine/chilli powder/lion stuff - the cats think that the territory has been "marked" by another cat, and so leave it alone. So something strong smelling seems to be worth trying...Incidentally have also heard that "old" human urine is even more effective, heard a radio programme once that suggested storing it for 2-3 days before sprinkling on garden. Haven't tried that one though!

We could never do the water sprinkling thing, as the cat(s)only visited at night time, when we weren't looking.

I really sympathise, I used to hate clearing up the stuff from the garden day after day. Even worse is when you can't see it, but can smell it, and spend hours sniffing round the garden until you have located the steaming pile.....

TheRealMrsJohnSimm · 14/03/2009 23:23

ibbydibby is right about the Olbas Oil. Cats hate eucalyptus oil (can't remember if its in Olbas Oil but anything of those notes - ie pine type oils would poss have similar effect). One of my cats took to crapping on the front door mat but stopped abruptly as soon as I sprinkled the area with eucalyptus oil.

hannahlouhoo · 14/03/2009 23:26

I would flick the shit back over the fence/wall into neighbours garden, and water pistol the cats!!

used2bthin · 14/03/2009 23:30

That high pitched noise thing is what Xps mum uses in her garden, we couldn't work out why DD, then 18m wouldn't go in the garden, till her older cousin came out and said ow what is that horrible noise! So if you do get that, make sure you switch it off when you want to be in the garden!

lovechoc · 20/08/2010 13:49

glad I found this thread- having horrendous problenms with cats in the neighbourhood but suspect only one of them is pooing in our garden every night when we are all asleep (so water pistol is not a solution sadly).

Tried cutting up lemons but it doesn't work. Have tried the gel crystals.

Noticed further up the thread someone mentioned the peppercorns so I think I'll try that just now...Fed up of cleaning up other people's cat crap.

FindingMyMojo · 20/08/2010 13:52

show your neighbour this article and tell her you'll kill her fucking cats (whisper that bit) if she doesn't sort it out PDQ. It's been going on too long. She needs a dirt box I guess. Def start throwing the crap over her fence. Enough is enough.

Have you tried pepper all around the edges of your garden?

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