[Indian Summer]

... without the use of tiger pee or other products of questionable veganicity?

I had to pick up their crap today and it was the single most disgusting thing I've had to do in many years. And I don't know what's up with these urban cats, for some reason they don't bother to bury their crap in the ground, they simply poop on our lawn and sometimes symbolically throws a pawful of moss on top of it. It's like they have no manners! Ugh!

(To clarify, these are not our cats, they belong to people in the neighbourhood. I love cats, they are some of my absolute favourite animals, but this is just so unbelievably gross!)

 

[Poppy]

Dog hair is supposedly a repellent for some kinds of rodent pests. Perhaps you could try it. Ask a friend with a long-haired dog to give you a bag of hair and spread it around the areas most likely to have cat poop.

Of course, you could also just get a dog.....

 

[mlp]

I think you would just end up with cat poop and dog hair in your garden.

Moth balls are supposed to deter cats. I tried that once, many years ago, with houseplants, to keep my cats from using them as litterboxes. As I was placing them in the second plant, I saw my cat Friday running off with one from the first plant in his moth. I retrieved it, and that was the end of the mothballs - couldn't risk poisoning Friday, even if it worked for the other cats.

What I have done since is place a lot of pinecones on top of the soil - they don't like the texture of those on their feet. For a garden, though, you'd have to find an awful lot of pinecones.

 

[syzygy]

I put cut up rinds from grapefruit, lemon and other citrus in my garden, but then I have over a dozen citrus trees and make a lot of juice this time of year. It works to reduce the appeal of the garden, but it just means they poop in the grass until I run out of citrus and then I'm back to poop scooping in the garden. Grapefruit works best, then lemon, then lime, then bitter orange (a variety they use as root stock for other citrus varieties that don't do as well in the soils here but you probably won't find it in stores. After my tree froze a few years ago, it now produces both sweet naval oranges and bitter oranges depending on which branch it grows on). The sweeter varieties of citrus like orange, tangerine, mandarine etc are not as effective but still reduce the number of turds I find in that area.

I have also found that strong smelling flowers like marigolds that I have planted between my tomatos to discourage the horn worms also help discourage the cats. They don't seem to poop in the areas where I am growing onions, garlic or chives.

Depending on how big your garden is, I've discouraged my housecats from using my houseplants as potties by placing glass jars from jam, salsa etc upside down in the soil so they can't access a large enough dirt patch to defecate in. You might be able to use plastic too, with the same result as long as they are secured so they can't be moved by the cats or blown away.

Good luck, cats can be persistant when they find something they like.

You could also try a different texture of mulch on the garden to see if that discourages it, especially if they seem especially attracted to the garden area more than the grassy yard.

Maybe even look at what areas they prefer and discover what it is that makes it so attractive and replicate those factors in an area that you set aside a "litter" area so they will poop there instead of the garden.

 

[Indian Summer]

Thanks for your ideas, much appreciated! I suspect what they like most about our garden / back yard is the relative tranquillity since we have no children or other animals. I doubt that's changing very soon though. But I can imagine onions and garlic and such being near the top of their hate-list, and I think we have a bunch in the kitchen that we haven't found a use for - until now! I feel sad to banish them from our property this way because they're such adorable creatures, but if it can stop the poop I'll have to try it.

 

[Amy SF]

Definitely go with anything citrus-smelling. My cats really hate the smell of oranges: fresh, orange juice, and orange scented spray.

 

[Irizary]

I wonder if you put a sandy box somewhere in the yard if that would be more attractive and they might use that instead? I've known cats who come in from outside to use their litter box - maybe out of habit, but I also think the texture is pleasing for them. No idea at all if something like that would work, but I was thinking that with cats it's often more effective to lead them to something more desirable rather than to outright stop them from some activity.

 

[kjel]

hello: i gave my neighbor permission to spray my cats with the water hose if they ever dug in her garden - cats hate getting wet, but the water doesnt hurt them.

i try to make it unnecessary by having my yard as appealing to the cats as possible, and keeping them reasonably supervised.

 

[Pixie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy SF

Definitely go with anything citrus-smelling. My cats really hate the smell of oranges: fresh, orange juice, and orange scented spray.

My cats hate that too!

(They really hate the smell of nail varnish remover but I don't know if that would be a hazard to use something like that as it is probably toxic.)

 

[Indian Summer]

Thanks again for your advice and thoughts. I cut up a heap of onions and lemon that was going to waste anyway and spread this around the garden, especially the most "popular" spots. I also caught a cat in the act and chased her away one time. This kept the garden poop-free for almost a week, but then it was all back to "normal procedure". This week it's been quite good though, because my wife purchased some sort of "anti-cat" stuff (biodegradable and "vegan" AFAIK) that she spread around in the spots. The problem is it wears off when it rains so today I had to go out there again with my bags

Also caught a cat in the act and chased her away - I'm starting to feel like some kind of monster!

 

[rabid_child]

This may be a dumb idea, but what if you put a box of sand someplace nearby? Like an outdoor litter box! Granted, you'd still have to clean up crap, but maybe if they preferred it, at least it wouldn't be a surprise.

 

[SuicideBlonde]

My sister says human hair in the grass. So save your hair from your last haircut and spread it on the grass.

 

[whisper]

If all else fails, pay a neighborhood kid to scoop it every few days for a couple of dollars.

 

[mlp]

Cat diapers.

 

[kjel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabid_child

This may be a dumb idea, but what if you put a box of sand someplace nearby? Like an outdoor litter box! Granted, you'd still have to clean up crap, but maybe if they preferred it, at least it wouldn't be a surprise.

that only works until it rains ~*sigh*~

however, a small patch of tilled garden soil is appealing to them - you could, generously, leave a small corner of your garden un-planted, but keep the soil loose with a garden tool whenever you weed, then the poop should be confined to one area.