I hope that this query hasn't been posted before. i am a first time gardener and I am experiencing problems with cats fouling in my flower beds. Does anyone know of a good method to prevent this?
Thsnking you in advance.
Go to Google, select Groups, and do a search for "Cat" in rec.gardens -- there are a BUNCH of discussions on this topic.
The short answer is that there's not much you can really do to stop it.
You can try the liquid repellents -- they wear off and a good rain will pretty much eliminate their effectiveness.
You can lay rose stems (with thorns) in your beds -- only viable if your bed(s) is/are small, otherwise the cats will just work their way around them.
You can keep the mulch damp -- many cats will flat out ignore this and use it anyway.
You can get one of those motion activated sprinkler type jobbies that will swivel and squirt whenever something moves in front of it -- pretty effective, but limited coverage and if you have more than one bed it can get expensive.
You can get a dog and leave 'im outside -- pretty effective as well, but has limitations and he might just dig up your beds (ours go around the beds and eat the cat droppings).
You can place chicken wire under the mulch and/or buy plastic pads with little pointy things sticking up -- limited viability due to cost and plantings, but this works fairly well as long as your mulch is only a light layer (the cat scratches the chicken wire and learns to stay away).
You can buy a BB gun and shoot the animals (rubber BBs causing less damage), and/or you can trap them and take them to your local humane society. Some people kill them outright with a shotgun or handgun.
You can attempt to create a space for the cats to use that you don't mind, by adding mulch and such then planting catnip. Some have reported this is fairly effective but not necessarily an end-all solution (i.e., sometimes their beds still get fouled).
You can try walling/fencing the beds off, although most cats can easily jump
5-6 feet in the air from a standing position so this has limited effectiveness.I think that's about the extent of the discussions, minus political debates, animal rights debates, animal cruelty debates, name calling, complaining about people that let their cats out, feral cat pack problems in places like Australia, wisecracks, and any of a number of extras.
James
Rats -- I missed that one. Kind of falls in with the line about using liquid repellents though. I'll have to add it to the list.
James
Maybe combine those two ideas. Look around for some kind of burgler alarm with a motion-activated sound-recording of some dog-barking.
Ideally the dog barking "Jingle Bells."
Very well summerized James.
I use a product called "Repel",it stinks and seems to work pretty good for both cats and dogs. Comes in a half gallon milk type container and runs about 9$ a box.
Motion detecter sprinkler is the only sure way. You can try scattering orange peels in the area.
i wonder if the red pepper trick works on deer?
Sprinkle some red pepper around the garden. Cats have such sensitive noses that after a whiff they leave.
Some people also use sprinklers that are hooked up to motion dectors.
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