How do you get rid of cats?

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

We seem to live in an area with more cats than people. They are ruining our garden- how do we keep them out? All the sprays online have really rubbish reviews, so what has worked for you?

I would love to know ! My very elderly mother has the same problem. Other then get a dog or your own cat, it’s difficult to know what to do.

Katzecure fencing keeps cats out your garden as well as in.

It's sold to protect cats within a garden but neighbouring cats also cannot get in

You can spray them with a water pistol if you see them.
Lemon or orange peel scattered around deters them. Please dont put down poison or bleach.
In what way are they ruining your garden.

In my mums garden, four cats regularly poo and wee in it and scratch afterwards. It’s really up to their owners to put up the fencing but no one ever does unless they are very conscientious owners or have ultra expensive cats. Most people with moggies just let them roam.

Tiger poo

I think its lion poo

They’ve destroyed the lawn, digging at it, pooing everywhere which has led to flies. I don’t have any pets as I specifically don’t want to clean up poo.

I will try the citrus peel tonight as we have in the house.

Are you sure it's cats and not foxes?

Hmm
I hadn’t thought about foxes -
I see cats in our garden- it’s a quite small mid terrace garden and I’ve never seen a fox in it, I would assume I would hear a fox as my bedroom is at the back.

Cats dont usually dig up the grass. There are poo identifying websites which would tell you which animal it is

I was going to say that about the grass. Doesn’t sound like cats. Cats prefer nice soft predug earth.

They are a massive PITA, I agree. I have 3, they have litter trays indoors which they do use in the winter most of the time, but they still occasionally crap in my (few, small) flowerbeds.

You could try spiking with pointy sticks a couple of inches apart, to stop them crouching, but if it’s a big area that’s probably not a goer.

I’m sure I saw something recently about sprinkling chilli powder or something?

Olbas oil. They hate it. I have cats and I know that if I plant a new plant, i sprinkle this too so that they dont interfere with it.

I would assume I would hear a fox as my bedroom is at the back. Not necessarily. We have never heard or seen a fox in the garden, but when we put out a trail camera for a week we found we had not one but two visiting foxes.

Cats don't usually dig at grass. They prefer bare soil or bare gravel. It's the dog family (dogs and foxes) which use their claws for digging, cats seem to regard their claws as precision tools. Digging would be the cat equivalent of using a well sharpened chisel to prise open a paint tin.

We used the high pitched alarms for a while which did work but in the end we got a dog, problem solved!

It's pretty unlikely that cats would dig up grass. Sounds like moles....

Foxes eat earthworms, so they are the culprits I reckon.