Cat poo

[tootsnwoocake]

We have a very narrow path up the side of our house which is our only access out to the front where we park. The surface is pea gravel and the local cats are using it as a toilet. They don’t bury the poo so on a daily basis there are usually between 3-4 poos along the path.

We pick these up and get rid of them with a trowel and a dog poo bag as soon as we can but we are out most days so we can’t get to them quickly and we rarely catch the cats “at it”. It’s a very wet area to boot so the poo quickly turn to mush and it really stinks.Most of our neighbours have cats ( there are 6 houses in our row and 7 cats there alone, in addition to 10 plus in the neighbourhood streets) so I have no idea which cats they are, and even if I did I doubt there is much the owners could do about it.

I’m not sure there is a solution to this but I’m pretty down about it as it makes me feel physically sick having to clean it up and it is impossible to avoid as the path is so narrow. The kids often miss it as it is kind of camouflaged by the gravel stones and bring it in to the house on their shoes also. Other than resurfacing the path so it is smooth which we can’t afford to do anyway I was wondering if anyone had discovered a solution that actually works please?

citronella spray - will get washed away thought or one of those high pitched sound things will deter them from there!

Thank you. We have bought some sprays which claim to repel cats but which are not effective, sprinkled coffee grounds, lemon peel, lavender, cinnamon etc liberally around we have also tried one of the high pitched cat scarers but to no avail.

I have not tried citronella spray yet so that’s something to try. It’s a long path so difficult to cover the whole area.

Garlic powder, lavender, lemon/citronella .... anything strong smelling. We have a tiny yard (in a city, mid-terrace) and every house surrounding us have cats that use our fake grass as a toilet. It's awful! Liberal garlic powder was the only success.

Thank you. You have my sympathy. I’ll try that. Just the stuff you get in the spice aisle in the supermarket?
I’m guessing I would have to do that daily until the cats changed their routine?

Sorry, you will have to get rid of the gravel and make it a smooth surface somehow, could you just put concrete flagstones down yourself, it's not difficult, look at videos on YouTube.

My experience was from an adjoinjng kitchen extension which had a flat roof covered in gravel (often done on older style roofs to deflect the sun's heat). Cats suddenly decided this was just the world's biggest litter tray, and the smell wafted everywhere ......we cleared away the poo daily, doused the gravel in disinfectant, citronella oil, garlic, various commercial catproofing products including extract of lion 🦁 poo 💩 . In the end we had to simply sweep away the gravel and leave the roof to the sun!!!

Thank you, that sounds awful for you. Yes we may have to look at this although the path is an awkward width and we would not be able to manage this ourselves.
Thanks also to pp for garlic powder suggestion, we have sprinkled this up and down the path and it has lessened but not completely eliminated the poo-ing. I will persevere with it!