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

You too @Rosemaryandlavender1 hope you manage to sort it out

You mention hedgehogs. They do poo everywhere too. You may well have a variety of poo in that case. Cat, fox and hedgehog.

Keep the lawn short to deter cats, foxes and hogs will poo anywhere regardless.

Fill beds with plants and don't dig over soil and leave it bare. You are effectively making a huge litter tray. You shouldn't dig over soil anyway, it's not good for it generally..... Just an aside ..... Just plant into holes. The harder and more compact the soil, the cats won't like it.

Plant lavender, rosemary and lemon balm

I was going to mention that. I have cats, I know cat shit when I see it, but I also see badger poo and fox poo which is usually on the lawn.

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

Most of my neighbours have cats

The only thing that solved it for me was getting a dog and training it to chase the cats.

I mean, that also poos but at least i consented to that.

Can you borrow a dog for a week?

Have you spoken to the neighbour and asked them to keep their cats in their property by cat proofing their garden? I know it's a long shot, given the average cat owner, but you never know.

I mix holly leaves in with mulch, works pretty well.

Dogs. sorry to cat lovers, but having my Scottie’s coming in from the garden smelling of cat pee in their beards, and my spaniels in their ears. I have trained all my dogs to go out of the back door like an express,train at the words 'pussy cats', bark at the tops of their voices until the cats get the message. My neighbour thought it was great that her cats used other people’s gardens rather than her own til my terriers voiced their disapproval. What if my dogs pooped in their garden, can you imagine the hoohah.
fortunately the dogs never caught a cat, they just scare them off - no cats were harmed in the making of this post.

It isn't an immediate neighbour but rather a few doors down. I know this will sound like a clichè of a cat lady but there really does seem to be one elderly lady living there who doesn't venture out much.

It’s pointing into the air, so those cats won’t be triggering it. I have a few in my garden but the are level and pushed in near to ground. They do work. Children can also hear them though so not great if you have kids who want to play in the garden.

OP I feel your pain! We used to be plagued by fox poo in London, then cat poo when we moved out of London. When children were younger I would have to do a poo patrol in the garden each morning.

My understanding is that cats will mark out their territory by peeing/pooing. And if they think another animal has marked the territory they will move elsewhere. So, a tip I heard on a gardening programme was to sprinkle urine on the flower beds etc. so if I ever find cat poo in the garden, DH is sent out there for a wee...Cheaper than anything you buy in a shop! It sounds vile but should put them off for several months at least, providing it doesn't rain in the first day or so..

A few months ago in the summer, we were plagued by cats pooing on the gravel on our patio. It because a giant cat litter!

I was beside myself because I don't like cats, and the thought of cat faeces everywhere was really winding me up.

i bought 3 bottles of lemon floor cleaner, dettol lavender and lemon fragrance and a few packs of anti-cat poo granules.

firstly every time there cat poo, you have to remove all traces of it, wrap in newspaper and bin it.

then I hosed the gravel with fresh water.

then half filled a watering can and top up with Flash lemon floor cleaner and water it over the whole patio.

then sprinkled the anti-cat granules around the edge of the patio and lots on the site where the cat had pooed to eradicate its smell, so it wouldn't find it again,

after about a month, the cat must have got fed up and went elsewhere.

it was awful!

I hate cats for this reason. Such an antisocial pet. My neighbour has something like 8 of them and they shit all over my garden. They have killed and ripped apart a couple pigeons in my garden too and left the carcass and feathers for me to clean up. They also go through the food bins and make a disgusting mess. I've tried everything nothing works. One of the other neighbours put poison in their food waste bin after the unteenth time of it being emptied all over their driveway on bin day. I'm not sure they knew it was a cat doing it. These bins have a handle that locks them but this particular cat can open them. Of course it's sad the poor cat suffered but now it's gone neighbour keeps the remaining cats indoors more and has told me he finds if he pick up the shit from his garden and had a sandpit for them he's getting less complaints they are shitting in everyone else's garden.

Your hatred is misplaced, @BestEffort.

It’s the owners who are anti social, not the cats. We have 4. We have cat proof fencing and a big litter tray for each, because we understand that other people don’t like sticking their fingers in/treading in cat shit when they don’t keep cats. I have raised beds myself!

It’s akin to dog owners not picking up or leaving black bags hanging from trees.
Either way, not the fault of the animals. Please don’t hate them!

It's very difficult to hold any affection towards animals who trespass into your private living space and soil everywhere @MrsSkylerWhite

quite frankly it matters not whether it's the cat or the owner, the net effect is exactly the same, cat faeces everywhere and loss of songbirds. Going outside and finding feathers everywhere is very distressing, knowing a poor little bird has been ripped to shreds. This thread is discussing how to deter cats from messing on private property. They aren't our pets yet we have the problem of clearing up their mess.

the frustrating thing is that cat owners are not held accountable in law to their cats unlike dogs. Cats can roam freely wherever they want, and they tend to do just that.

My cat poos all over our grass and nothing deters him! DH job is to pick it up and wash the grass so it's safe for our dd2 to play on.

We have decided to give the cat to our mil because we are fed up of it. That and him clawing our furniture.

I'll never have a pet again.

Did you not know what a cat was before getting one?

Get a cat of your own? 😊

Can you still buy them from anywhere? Used to love that smell!

Here are two cats I spotted the other day having a catch up session That’s a boundary dispute! No wonder they weren’t paying attention to the deterrent.

Haha! There was some rather aggressive meowing so you may be right. The cat on the left has been a regular visitor since we moved to this house and the black and white cat a new visitor. I don't think the brown cat was too pleased about this.

They look they are about to rip each other to shreds!

Water pistol is the answer,you won't have to do it after the initial scare,cats aren't stupid,they'll stay away. Lots of thorny bushes,coffee grounds etc too as suggested.

You can borrow my dog if you like, she loves running out and barking at them. Interestingly she doesn't seem to recognise our own cats as cats, they're a separate entity not worthy of woofs.

Otherwise a super soaker would do the trick, they only need dousing a couple of times! Or you could try motion activated sprinklers?

Everyone suggesting water pistols, I've been trying that for months, it's not working. Hard faced fuckers

A friend of ours caught a cat that kept pooing in his garden and dunked it in a sink full of water. The cat freaked out and never returned.