Fed up of cats pooing in my garden. What can I do to deter them?

[Rosemaryandlavender1]

As the title says I am so tired of picking up cat poo from my garden. I don't have a cat but one of the neighbours a few doors down has quite a few and they have increasingly taken to using my garden and new flower bed as their litter tray. I purchased one of those green solar powered machines that is supposed to scare away cats with their noise and while it was effective for a short while it isn't anymore. Does anyone have tried and tested methods that worked? Thank you

I will add some more holly then thank you. I think one of them was also so bold as to knock it over too! Really showing who is boss around here 🙃

If the orange peel and prickly holly leaves don't work then I will try that. Thank you

I use a combination of
ultrasonic things which seem to still be partially working, they at least still seem to take an odd radius around my veg patch.
I have collected a huge pile of sticks/prunings and pin them down with pegs all over any bare soil
Over planting to fill space
chicken wire over pots - that was a bad moment to find them pooing in my pots

things that didn’t work
sprays/scents/orange peel
Mats of plastic cat deterrent spikes - they just pooed on top
water pistol - they run off just by me opening the back door/window. no chance to activate any spraying.

it got a lot worse over last winter when the beds got emptier. Will have to see what happens this year.

no ideas what to suggest for the grass. That’s not good.

I have just scooped up atleast 15 bits of poo from the lawn. This must have accumulated over the last month. I didn't realise how bad it was. I have sprayed some vinegar wherever I found some and will order the lions dropping.
I also found some small holes dug into the ground in various places. Would that also be the cats?
For context 15 sounds like alot but my garden is around 30 yards long and 20 yards wide. What a nightmare!

Just had a thought.. could some other animal apart from the cats also be using the garden as their toilet?

Like a pp I did cocktail sticks in my veg beds. I also tried water gun but it’s not practical as you basically have to sit watching them. I tried both citrus and pepper which didn’t make any difference.

Some of it looks like small mounds of soil with holes nearby.. could it also be earthworms? It looks quite different to the very identifiable cat poo and doesn't have the smell of it either.

It's these that I am unsure about. They look different to the very identifiable cat poo. There's also lots of holes nearby

Little holes could be squirrels, mice, rabbits. Could also get foxes but their poo is...distinctive in smell.

The mound does look like earth worm mound.

Voles perhaps?

Looks like I have a garden full of earthworms in that case. I grew up in the city with not much green space around me and not very familiar with these things.

I did once spot a hedgehog last year in the garden, it was huge the size of a small football.

spray with hosepipe?

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/how-identify/identify-poo

But first picture look like worm casts and holes could be anything that digs.

i have the little piles of stuff on my lawn too. They don’t smell so assume not poo. I do have foxes pooing on the lawn but not the cats (who just poo everywhere else).

When we had a major car poo issue, I got some cat treats and armed myself with a large saucepan of very cold water. Was kind and gentle and stroked the cat, scattered a few treats then as it ate them I screeched like a banshee as I dumped the water on it. Problem solved.

I used to give next door's cat treats. It started shitting in its own garden instead.

You need to be on it with picking the poo up, if it smells like cat poo they'll use it as a toilet. So pick up and put something strong smelling like coffee etc over it.

I have picked up all that I could see today and sprayed vinegar over it. Let's see if I find anymore fresh ones tomorrow.

I have cats, I also seem to have an awful lot of foxes. Most of the poo in my garden and all the holes in the lawn are thanks to the foxes. The cats do poo but it's generally somewhere fairly discreet. Without going into too much detail it's a different colour and consistency to fox poo.

I’ve given up gardening of any kind as the beds(including vegetables) are always covered in my neighbours’ cats crap! None of the scarer sound machines ever worked. One time I filled a flower bed with cocktail sticks to deter them but this was so time consuming, I wouldn’t want to repeat it.
How difficult is it for cat owners to get a litter tray and train their cats to use it? Oh no wait…why should they bother when cats only ever shit in other people’s gardens? Let the neighbours deal with it.

I have 3 litter trays all my cats are trained, but they go outside too

By ‘discreet’, do you mean in someone else’s garden? Because that’s what my neighbours’ cats do. Specifically mine.

You could try this...anti cat/fox spikes
(if it's not deemed to be cruel)

What a shame for your neighbours. Thanks for at least trying!

The neighbour's cat used to poo on our lawn. We bought a motion activated jet spray, which connects to the hosepipe and that has stopped it! In the past, I've also put crushed garlic or frozen garlic cubes down. I can't do that now though, as I sometimes look after my friends dog, but the jet spray has worked a treat and the dog loves it too!

@TheHeight that's such a shame for you. One of my neighbours has atleadst five cats and they are often roaming in other neighbours front and back gardens. Many of the neighbours are in a similar predicament to me.