Cat invasion

We have a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood and they seem to like using my flower bed as a litterbox. Any help?

Dog

Have you thought about a scarecrow? I use one to keep the Bunny from Hell away from my plants (s/he thinks repellants are condiments, sigh).

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_2_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=scarecrow+sprinkler&sprefix=scarecro

There is a granular product called Ro-Pel that you sprinkle around anything you want to protect. It has worked for us to repel skunks, rabbits and opossums. The label says it also works with cats.
Alternately, chicken wire laid on the ground around plants will deter cats from digging, which is the first step to using your flowerbed as a litterbox.
Does your town have an animal control officer? If so, he/she may be able to loan you Hav-a-Heart traps to catch the kitties and take them to a shelter.

bitterapple

would ground pepper work sprinkled on the soil? I've also seen motion sensor activated sprinklers that give out a shot of water when set off. Also, my cat love(d) to lay in the glads and smash them over until I gathered up a big bunch of the neighbors' pinecones and spread them over his laying spots. I figured if they hurt like heck to step on then they can't feel too good to lay on and it's working.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 6:29 PM

This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 6:32 PM

I dont think pepper will work. Drs foster and smith sell many differnt types of motion sensors and training aids.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/pet_supplies.cfm?c=3261+1894
What are you growing? the plant it self could be attracting the cats.

You can always try contacting your local animal rescue group

http://www.gardeners.com/Safe-Cat-Deterrent/YardPests_DogsCats,31-954,default,cp.html

My uncle said he sprinkled moth balls around to keep cats from using his flower beds as a potty. I put some around my carport in the winter to keep cats from sleeping on my motor for warmth. Would hate to de-tail a cat.......or worse!

trickiwoo has the right answer, mothballs. My wife has been using them for years to keep cats out of her pot plants. Ran the skunks out from under my Mom's house with a bag of mothballs. On lady I know throws them under her azaleas to wasps from nesting. The only thing is they use to not cost anything and now they are expensive.

My cat loves to poop in my flower garden. I put garden stakes in the places she likes to go, or just branches and sticks that fall from the trees. Make it an obstical course. Cats hate this, and will go somewhere else. It looks kind of weird, but at least they won't disturb your plants.

My neighbor at my old house had several cats that used to "frequent" my garden. I finally used a, um, best description I have is it looks like black plastic chicken wire (sorry don't recall the name...duh!) I found in the garden section. Basically fencing, I cut it up and laid it on top of my beds in chunks in between my plants. They didn't like poking themselves on the cut edges or walking on it so it worked. Nothing else worked for me but ya never know until you try. It's not the prettiest but you can't see it from afar & depending on how thickly you've planted it gets hidden by growth.

We have tried adding quite a lot of crushed eggshells to the garden soil, in the top inch or so - - every time I used eggs in cooking I hand 'crushed' the shell and stuffed it into a plastic bag that I kept in the freezer - when I had enough collected I spent about 1/2 hour mixing them into the bed most affected by the digging -
This wasn't an original idea of mine, but it has helped - they don't seem to like the nasty egg bits in the soil -
I haven't had good luck with the chicken wire when we had a cat - but LOL two things might have prevented that - I was trying to keep her out of a herb patch that included Catnip - and probably we didn't attach it down firmly enough - she had a rollicking good time destroying it, and when it's your own cat, that is not such a problem, or at least it is one that you can more easily live with.

I found a piece of poo near my mint plants today. I'm not sure who left it tho

I thought cats were nice and clean and sanitary and buried their poo. Am I wrong?

Oh they bury their poo, that's the problem. Your gardening along and...eeeeeew! I just love that. Or like last weekend, I was yanking weeds and thinking "what is that smell?" then I saw my dog digging something out of the bark, cat poo. YUK!

Some of you guys think I stretch the truth, like when I mentioned my wife had a 100 pot plants, but there used to be about 100 cats at my Moms when I was a kid. Dad had clostrophobia and wouldn't get under anything. Kept developing water leaks under the house and yours truly had to fix them. You talk about cat poop smell, it was rank. Finally told Dad I was making my last trip under the house, which was brave because you didn't give ultimatums to him, especially a 16 year old boy. He went to town and bought enough galvanized pipe to re-plumb the whole house. One more trip did it for me. Have never forgot that scent, let me change that, odor. I won't share how dad thinned the population down, some of you might be to squemish.

I would never doubt that someone had 100 potted plants LOL! About 10 years ago when my "then hubby" & I moved to a house from a townhouse we took 50 outdoor pots and indoor ones as well. Not 100 but I'll bet if I counted up my home now I could come close! :) And thanks for not letting us know how the cats were...um..."thinned."

Your welcome ican. Dad didn't waste a lot of time or effort when enough was enough. Momma had those darned cats trained. She would go to milk and the cats would be lined up be the back door. They would follow her in a long line to the milking stall. They would line up under the bottom board and sit. They knew better than to set foot in there while the milking was going on. When she was through milking, she would fill the cats bowl full of milk. The doggone cats would set there till she had the bowl full and walked off. Then they would come drink. Pretty neat huh.

That's pretty funny. I can totally visualize the cat line. So did your mom ever know what happened to the cats?

Well Dad would tolerate the 100 it was when the population got over that, that the thinning process began. And yes, Mom knew what was going to happen but I never heard her say a word. It wasn't because she was meek and mild and totally submissive, though she was all of that to a degree, but she would stand on her hind legs and beller if she thought she needed to. Dad ran the outside and she ran the inside. Neither asked the advice of the other. The cats were really a necessity. We lived in huge old two story house and with out the cats the mice would have taken over. Absolutely no way to keep the little varmints out. Those cats would get left over table scraps but that was it. They were expected to earn their keep. You know I never saw one of them that was skinny. Cat and dog stories I can tell by the hour and all true. Oh yeah, we didn't have a cat that would rub up against you or get around your feet when you were walking.

What? No cat around your feet? LOL! For me it's my dog that's a problem. He'll stop right in front of you to "stretch" in the middle of the hallway. I think he does it for amusement. My cat is always running ahead to the food bowl. He would eat all day if I'd let him.

Sounds like you had an animal filled life! So how many pets do you have now? 8 dogs, 14 kitties? I could listen to stories about cats and dogs all day :) Have you checked out the pet forum on DG? If you haven't you should. I like that and the jokes forum. I still have a hard time believing how many forums DG has! I can cruise around for waaaaaay too long. Guess it keeps me out of trouble ;)

Do not have pet one. Wouldn't mind having a cat provided it never rubs against me when I have my suit on, get under my feet, get in the wife's pot plants and last and most important don't get on my car.

Would really like to have a dog. I like them big and ugly. My favorite of all times was an airedale. He looked exactly like the one that was in so many Disney movies in the 70's. Only requirements are don't pee on my tires under the car port (that one comes from my wife) and don't dig in my yard. I am a fanatic when it comes to my yard.

Jim, you will never find a cat that lives indoors like that! LOL

Ah, you haven't been to the pet forum??? Here's the link if you're interested
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/pets/all/

Do you know where to find the forums? I assume you do, but if you haven't checked it out yet you go to the communities tab at the top of the page and then to discussion forums. Amazing what's in there. Pets is under "Leisurely Pursuits" LOL!

I haven't been to the pet forum yet. I've love this Beginner Gardening and Beginner Vegetable Gardening that I've pretty much stayed with it. I really don't care for animals in the house. Never had but one in my house in all these years. One night the temp was supposed to be down in single digits and Jo decided that big old airedale of mine was going to freeze. (we had only been married a couple of years. Had the dog before I had her.) I tried to convince her he was made for that kind of life but she wouldn't listen. Called him to the door and tried to coax him into the house. Nothing doing. Finally caught him by the collar and drug him in sliding all four feet. Jo only weighed 100 pounds and the dog weighed about 80. It was quite a tussle. We turned out the lights and went to bed. In a few minutes I heard Bully get up and start investigating the house. We had hard wood floors and I could here his toenails tapping on the floor as he walked. He went to the kitchen and then back through the living room. Down the hall and into the babies room. Every time he stopped you could hear him snuffling. Then down to our room. After that he went back to living room and laid down in front of one of the old time chill chaser gas heaters. He was asleep there the next morning. Jo went to the front door and opened it and out he went. After that he would come when you called him but he wouldn't get close to the front door and he never let Jo get her hands on him again. Funny, huh. He got run over a couple of years later. Had just got to old to get out of the way. When I found him he couldn't move, just lay there and wagged his tail. I had to shoot him. Cried like a baby and Jo and I dug him a grave and buryed him.

get a fog horn! when you see a kittie blow it. If i was a kittie I wouldnt want to visit you after you disterbed my in a private moment

I have one of those "brain dead" cats that can't find his way out the door. If I leave it open a few inches, he can't figure out how to nudge it with his head to get it to swing open. He just sits there and cries until I come and open it for him, which gets VERY old after a while.

He falls in the toilet on a regular basis trying to drink the water. Won't touch canned food except for a bite or two. He eats the mice he catches...so he's earning his keep.

My yard is a magnet for stray cats, so I put down the dried thorny clippings from when I prune the roses. This works very well at keeping them from digging.

The best thing to do would be for owners of cats to walk them on a lead the same as dogs.lol why is it dogs have to on a lead when outside but cats dont> dont say its because cats are naturaly free roamers. dogs would be the same if they were alowed out on thier own.
a cat is supposed to be part of the family the same as a dog. so why throw the cat outside to poop instead of keeping it in the same as dogs?
can you picture it?
all the lovely little cats with thier little sparkly collars being walked with thier owners down the road.
OOPS got to go, time for my medication again.x

Oh Jim that's so sad about your puppy! Poor old guy. Thanks for the story about your wife & your dog. What a scene!
I love the way you describe things, I can totally visualize it.

As far as the forums, I understand. It took me awhile to venture away from the gardening section long enough to check out other DG stuff. :)

So you had your fill of animals in your childhood? :0 I can't believe it. LOL!

Like big ugly dogs a heap. Back in the good ole days I mowed over flowers. Yard work was a chore. Now its a fetish. Got to have it perfect. No holes dug by a hot dog. That is the kind with out the bun.

is alittle bit of cat poo good for the plants?

LOL! Big ugly dogs. My dog is pretty good so far. At first he was digging around but a few no's seem to have worked in the flower beds. We'll see.

I didn't like yard work growing up either. It took years before I got bitten by the gardening bug. Now I actually enjoy weeding. Still not thrilled about mowing the lawn though. Who needs lawn anyway?

iluvcatz I don't think cat poo is necessarily BAD for your plants, just for you when you accidentally dig it up. Yuk!

ican, were you the lady from AK I sent the invite to look at my yard and garden photos. If you were you'll notice those threads of green between the flower beds. That's my yard, well a little bigger than that maybe. Just like a frame around a picture. If I could, i could spend 24/7 in my yard and garden. Love it.

No! Please send! Where do I go see your garden??? I was hoping to run into more AK people on DG so I could get AK gardening advice but I haven't run into any on the garden forums, I did on the photography one.

My ex-hubby used to get really irritated with me because all I wanted to do was play in the yard which of course interfered with house work. But the yard is so much more FUN!!! When we sold our house one of the people looking at it came in from the yard and said "O.K. which one of you likes yard work?" My ex just turned to me. Guilty as charged. ;)

Ican, I can't remember which thread I was following when I gave her my address and I don't have a clue what she uses on Dave's. I have her name and email but I'd better not give that out. She is a heck of a nice lady. Without pulling up my dele's I'm guessing at her location, but I think it is Ancorage. She has a web site that is great. wecandighitalaska.com

My email is jimgoodman1@hotmail.com if you want my photos email me. They are on Kodac Share and I'll have to send you an invitation.

Hang with the gardening and yard work, it is great fun and good for the bod.

Good thing I reread what I posted. Apparently hit a wrong key on the web site. wecandigitalaska.com

Thank you! I will send you an email. I can never see enough garden photos LOL! Thanks for the website, I will check it out :)

Got your email. Like your first name. Favorite cousins name.