Is your garden the neighbourhood cat toilet? Here’s what you can do
26/5/2023
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
Crap! They’ve done it again. Many garden owners are no stranger to the struggle of clearing cat poo from their lawn or flowerbed time and again. Here’s what you can do to keep the felines at bay.
Cats are to take care of then some other pets – for one, because you don’t have to walk them. They do their business independently. This can, however, prove a nuisance to others – for example, to one pet-less reader in the Galaxus Community. In the comments of my interview with an animal psychologist, a reader asked how they could stop the neighbour's cat from doing his business in their garden. For said reader as well as anyone else plagued by cat faeces, here are some tips. Disclaimer: as a friend of felines, I probably couldn’t bring myself to implement certain of these.
Communicate
The simplest option, which also costs nothing, is to seek out a conversation with the cat owner. Perhaps they could do something against it, like set up a litter box outside for their cat to use instead of your garden. But neighbours can’t always influence their cat’s toilet habits – or may not want to.
Chase them away
If your neighbours don’t want to hear you out, then maybe their cat will. Another option that’s free of charge is to scare the animal away from your yard using auditory cues such as a hissing sound or clapping.
Hose them down
If noise doesn’t faze the cat, perhaps a little spray down with the garden hose will do the trick. But keep in mind that some cats, such as the Turkish Angora, the Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest Cat, are real water lovers and probably won’t get the memo. In addition, you won’t always be in the right place at the right time to catch the cat red-handed. If that’s your main issue, a motion-activated water jet animal repeller might be worthwhile. If it detects the cat, it’ll spray water in his direction.
Scatter away
If that doesn’t work either, you might try taking a trip to your kitchen. Why, you ask? Well, something cats don’t like at all is the smell of coffee grounds and pepper. So, it’s worth a try to put some out in little plates in your garden or to scatter some in the affected flowerbeds. This is an inexpensive option that should have the added benefit of acting as a fertiliser and attracting earthworms. But it does have one drawback: the effect quickly fizzles out in rain or wind. The same applies to cat-repellent sprays, powders and granules.
Plant away
If you’re looking for a longer-term solution that doesn’t cost much, you can fill your garden with plants that cats don’t like. These include the Plectranthus caninus (colloquially known as the Dog Gone, Scaredy Cat Plant), lavender, peppermint, rue, crane’s-bill or scented geranium. In addition, spikey plants such as roses may prevent cats from doing their business in your flowerbed. You can also use plants that cats especially like – think catnip, cat thyme and valerian – to lure them to a specific portion of your garden so that they leave the rest of it alone.
Sound the alarm
Certain cats are a tough cookie to crack – neither scaring them away or hosing them down, nor coffee grounds or repellent plants will deter them. In this case, there remains a slightly more expensive, but quite effective option: an ultrasonic cat repellent. It comes equipped with a motion detector and emits high-frequency sounds when movement is detected. These sounds aren’t audible to humans, but are extremely unpleasant for cats (and other animals as well).
Alas, if the neighbour’s cat proves such a Rambo that it continues pooping away in your garden despite all attempts to deter it, then I suppose I have just one more (not-so-serious) suggestion for you: perhaps it’s time to drive your neighbours away with hissing sounds or clapping instead of their cat. But you didn’t hear that from me.
How do you manage to keep cats out of your garden? Let me know in the comments!
Header image: Shutterstock
Darina Schweizer
Senior Editor
Darina.Schweizer@digitecgalaxus.chI like anything that has four legs or roots. The books I enjoy let me peer into the abyss of the human psyche. Unlike those wretched mountains that are forever blocking the view – especially of the sea. Lighthouses are a great place for getting some fresh air too, you know?
