Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

How can I stop cats doing their business on my lawn?

29 replies

Linnet · 24/02/2007 23:37

I have a real problem with cats doing their business on my lawn.

I have nothing against cats, think they're quite nice, I wouldn't mind if they were digging in the flowerbeds and burying it but they don't they do it on the grass and it's driving me up the wall.

I have two children and I don't like letting them out into the garden because of this.
I never actually catch a cat at it, there are quite a few cats around my area, so I'm not sure if it's just one cat or a few.
There is also a bin area which is paved and they do it there as well, on the slabs. It's disgusting, unhygenic and I'm at my wits end.

So before summer arrives I need to get this sorted. What can I do, plant, spray etc that will discourage them from using my garden as a toilet?
I've tried, pepper, orange peel, special granule things, special sprays, nothing seems to work.

Please help me. Thanks

OP posts:

Rumpel · 24/02/2007 23:38

Buy a water pistol - spray them if they come into your garden. It is humane but will teach them not to enter your garden. I've got 3 cats and I do this with a neighbours' cat who terrorises mine.

Rumpel · 24/02/2007 23:39

Just fully read your post - are you sure it is cats? very unlike cats to do it on the lawn and not dig it over - that sounds like a dog to me. Cats are much more liable to go in your flower bed.

Original poster

Linnet · 24/02/2007 23:48

Tried the water pistol as well, but don't always see them in the garden so wasn't very effective.

I'm fairly sure that it is cats as in the past we have spotted one during the day in the garden about to do it but mananged to scare it off at that time.

Dh will go out and remove the mess but the next morning there is always more which makes me think it's cats as it quite often happens at night, another reason why we never seem to catch them.

Wonder if a security light would work? or would that not bother a cat?

There aren't many dogs around my area most people seem to be cat lovers.

OP posts:

redclover79 · 24/02/2007 23:54

Cats could be 'middening', ie having a disagreement over whose territory your garden is! So they'll be going in really prominent places instead of discretely in your herbaceous borders!
You can get cat scarer alarms which make a high pitch noise, think you can get them from the rspb. Don't know if they work or not... I also put orange peelings out as cats are supposed to hate them. But the downside is they've now taken to crapping in my seed trays...
I also tipped a bucket of water from an upstairs window over a spraying cat, not seen him since!

Original poster

Linnet · 25/02/2007 00:05

Have googled and found some cat scarers that work by sending out a high pitched sounds when they detect movement, so may get one of those to see if it works, I'm that desperate.

Anybody know if there are any plants I could plant that would also deter them? I have a vague memory of someone mentioning something once but can't remember what it was, anyone got any ideas, found any plants that they don't like?

OP posts:

Dalesgirl · 25/02/2007 00:13

I also have this problem, we have several cats in the neighborhood (including 2 myself) and I believe it is a territorial thing. It drives me crazy as I have a nice garden and small children..I bought some fruit netting and at night I spread it over the lawn. The cats can't walk on it and so they then go somewhere else. The more they stay off the lawn the less it seems they come back..All the other stuff didn't work. I am going to get a RSPB bird scarer though and try that.

alipiggie · 25/02/2007 04:04

Jeyes Fluid. Slightly diluted in a spray and spray it over the main areas they use. It works.

fourboys · 25/02/2007 07:46

I had this problem!! and i became obsessed with trying to get rid of the cats! I tried everything and only found one thing that worked. I bought it in homebase and it is a liquid in a orange tin (cant remeber what its called) it is for keeping foxes/cats off golfcourses etc.

SueW · 25/02/2007 11:06

Get some lion poo .

Budababe · 25/02/2007 11:09

I bought those high-pitched noise things - did seem to work but then they got wet and don't work any more!

marthamoo · 25/02/2007 11:15

I've had this problem for years - I have tried lion poo, orange peel, paprika, pepper, moth balls, bottles of water, Jeye's fluid, CDs on sticks (they blow in the breeze and are supposed to frighten the cats - kind of scarecrow effect), proprietary stuff from the garden centre, and teabags soaked with Olbas oil. I also chase off any cat I see in the garden whether it looks inclined to poo or not.

Tbh, I'm not sure that any of it works consistently - keeping the grass short seems to help a bit.

I like Dalesgirl's idea...that's one I haven't tried.

trixymalixy · 09/03/2007 13:25

Linnet,

It's probably more likely to be foxes than cats as cats like to go in secluded areas and cover it up afterwards.

Apparently sprinkling pepper keeps them away.

Original poster

Linnet · 03/04/2007 00:25

ok, update here on the cat soiling situation.

A few weeks ago I cut down all our roses at the front of the house and put all the nice spiky cuttings on the grass in the back garden over the areas where the cats were pooing.

Today dh went out to cut the grass for the first time this year. I went out and lifted all the rose cuttings off the grass and there was no poo in those areas, obviously put them off trying to in beside the thorns, but there was also no other areas of poo on any of the rest of the grass.

So has/have the cat/cats learnt their lesson I wonder?
I put the roses back again afterwards just incase but I was so happy to not find any poo on the grass.

On the other hand have found cat poo 3 times this week on the path round by the wheelie bins! Wonder if they're just doing it there instead of on the grass.

We don't have any foxes here Trixymalixy, definitely seems to be cats.

OP posts:

Incodnito · 03/04/2007 00:29

The cats round here dont bother burying it either, have cat shite all over my lawn as well. R cats getting lazier or what?

arfishy · 03/04/2007 01:28

We've just had to deal with the same problem. We have raised beds around the courtyard at the rear and the cats have been using them as a toilet. Can you imagine the smell in the height of Aussie summer? At nose height? Ewww.

We've put small tubs of mothballs in all of the beds and it seems to be keeping them off, along with eucalyptus oil spray.

Deux · 04/04/2007 14:13

Please don't laugh .... but my DH has successfully managed to keep the foxes out of their favourite parts of our garden by urinating! Just wondering if it would work for the cat poo around your bins.

sauce · 12/04/2007 12:33

Just saw this - cats are my biggest peeve atm. We are surrounded by cats but dogs can't get in & there are no foxes. We have tons of catshite all over the garden - poor dc. I think we'd have to get a cat of our own to keep the others out but not willing to do that. What is this about high-frequency scarers? I'm desperate, too!

theprecious · 13/04/2007 10:07

I have the RSPB recommended cat scarer (not cheap at £50). It seems to work, apart from now I have a black cat the size of a small dog which likes to sit / hide opposite my bird feeders. Maybe it's got used to the noise?

SO also going to try silent roar (thanks for the link) and look out for the mysterious stuff in the orange tin that Fourboys mentioned.

scatterbrain · 13/04/2007 10:12

My own two cats do this - I thi nk they have fiilled upo the flower beds and so have moved onto the lawn ! I just pick it all up on a trowel and take a deep breath !

fennel · 13/04/2007 10:16

I think the only answer is to get your own cat. They don't pooh on their own territory.

MamaG · 13/04/2007 10:17

shoot em

scatterbrain · 13/04/2007 10:22

fennel - They do I'm afraid !!! That's another of those urban myths !

I have two cats (10 yrs old) and they always do ! I'd prefer it really as I'd hate them to be messing in someone elses' garden !

MaeBee · 13/04/2007 10:29

ooh! my pet hate too (pardon the pun). i love cats, but not in my garden, not shitting where i want to let my baby explore nature, and not trying to get the birds we've been housing and feeding.
will try a number of those suggestions, lion poo appeals most cos its so weird, but the human piss is the cheapest and easiest option i guess. im not shy! (i wont be actually weeing outside, cos we live in an inner city area, but can always go in a bottle and then pour it on!

fennel · 13/04/2007 11:29

scatterbrain - my most beloved cat used to pooh ostentatiously in the middle of the neighbours' lawn, which really wound them up. He'd never do it on ours, which we'd have preferred, really, it would have been less embarrassing for us.

theprecious · 13/04/2007 12:08

am also going to try the pressure hose on the black cat, quick quick before the hose pipe ban starts up again!

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread