Short of shooting the cats nextdoor

[mackerel]

how do I get them to stop pooing on my patio and garden? I've just disinfected with Jeyes on the patio, but anyone got successful strategies given I have a v.v. active and curious 11mo old?

tea bag with eucalyptus oil, lots of them.

plastic bottles filled with water lying on your patio/lawn wherever, i never why people did this til last week - the cat gets a fright with its reflection? !!

we bought an 'sonic' cat scarer.

It has a PIR which detects movement and then emmits a high pitch note 'not detectable to the human ear' but disliked by cats.

Well that's the theory, we could hear the sound if we were in the garden and it was irritating so we would turn it off whilst we were out. That said after two weeks I turned it off and so far (3 months on) the cats have not returned but we do have birds feeding off the lawn again. If the cats did come back then I would put the cat scarer on again for a couple of weeks.

We got our cat scarer new off e-bay as they were half the price of our local garden centre.

your wee

squirt the cat with a squeezy water bottle whenever you see it in the garden.
Or, the most successful method - get your own cat. Your own cat is unlikely to poo in its own garden and will soon have your garden as its territory (after a bit of fighting) and this will deter other cats from coming in.

I've got bloody 3 of them next door

Have protected my newly planted summer bedding with (sharp) twigs, manure and anti-cat spray. Worked for 6 weeks so far ... but I suspect too good to be true.

Apparently tiger poo is v. effective deterrent

A pump action, repeating water pistol. Not sure it works, but God, its satisfying to actually be able to shoot at the little feckers.

Get a cat!!!

We have 2 and have no poo in our garden. I know that people get annoyed, on the other side, our neighbours have commented favourably on the lack of mice around these days.

... er, owning a cat could lead to premature demise of the pet family hamster too!!!

(I actually like cats. Just not when they poo in the garden/come in and make beeline for hamster cage...)

If you scatter bits of citrus peel everywhere (lemon, clementine or orange) they don't like it and will stay away. But the pump-action water pistol is hugely satisfying. I purchased one after the bastard cunning moggie from next door got all four of the robin fledgelings from the nest outside our kitchen. Come to think of it, haven't seen the fecker since.

I've had a cat and hamster safely together (in fact, at one point I had a hamster and 6 cats!) - cats usually give up when they realise they can't get to the hamster.

Why meddle with a water pistol? BB gun is the way to go
I've had to totally scrap my veg patch this year because the bloody cats even dug into my mini poly-tunnel to crap amongst my beetroot seedlings.
I was going to try the sonic scarer, but down-the-road neighbours have one and I can hear it.
Can't get a cat 'cos we're allergic.
Apparently sprinkling mothballs around garden deters them, but probably not a good solution with kids around.
Do the tea bags with eucalyptus and/or citrus peelings really work?
Also, having now shrouded "veg" patch with polythene, what kind of mulch could I use without the cats using it was a litter tray? Would they poo on bark chippings?

Cats will poo on anything even bark chippings. I used to have a huge problem in my old garden. Very disappointing to have to check the garden every day before letting the kids play outside and then having holes in the lawn from me clearing up their mess trying to make sure I cleared everything up. Runny poo - not a nice experience to clean up.
Buying a cat is not the solution unless you don't care if your cat starts pooing in everybody else's gardens [unless your cat poos in a litter tray].
Cat owners should train their cats to poo in litter trays and not let them roam around pooing everywhere. Toxicara is a real problem.

My neighbour swears by mothballs. Plenty of them.

hello, you can by something called silent roar, from garden centres, it is apparently freeze dried lion dung
it works as the cats recognize the smell as something bigger and more ferocious than them!!! and clear off sharpish.
i am planning on getting some this weekend as 2 cats have pretty much taken up residence in my garden im not a great cat lover, and im sick of the sh*t!!!!
think its safe with kids too, so well worth it
hope that is helpful

if the cat has had it's vaccinations though and is wormed toodles there should be no toxicara

Yes I know mustsleep, but that is if they've had their vaccinations and been wormed. There's no guarantee that the cat pooing in somebody's garden is one of those.

Does rebelmum's suggestion about using your own wee work? Not actually planning to wee on the lawn myself but DS has a potty that needs emptying on a regular basis...
(Thinking that small boy wee would be less disgusting than the multiple neighbourhood cat poos that I need to scoop up before he can play outside).

Watch where the cat poos,
dig hole,
insert blown up balloon,
cover with earth,
sit back and wait to PYSL.

(Dunno if it works, but sure would be funny!)

Disclaimer: I actually love cats.

Jelly, Is that the cat version of putting cling film over the toilet bowl?!?

In all honesty, I would just shoot the cat. Not your cat, not your problem. Me, you and Jacobsprincess could club together for a glock.

Hee hee TeeBee