Cats in the yard and garden

I enjoyed the thread about the dogs urinating on the shrubs and lawn.

My problem is cats! They leave their calling cards in my back lawn (fully fenced w/ 6' cedar) and dig in my raised beds. I've tried liquid deterrents, purchased from Fred Meyers and the hardware store, without much success. I'm now using coffee grounds in my lawn. It seems to have some effect, as the feces is in a new place where I haven't spread the grounds. Only my wife drinks coffee, so it takes a while to generate 2500 sq ft of grounds.

I'm also trying to deny easy access over my fence, by stapling sand paper and pokey aluminum from cans on the top of my fence in the places I've seen them use previously. I have also have containers of water and monofilament line stretched along the stairs where the access is easiest.

I've been somewhat successful, but every couple of days I see a new deposit or a new scraping at the hills of my tomatoes or potatoes.

I've heard about cayenne pepper, but I don't want to hurt the cats. Apparently they try to lick it off their paws and it's harmful to them. It will be my last resort. I'll try orange peels when they come into season, if I'm still having the problem then.

Any other ideas?

If the coffee grounds are working and you just don't have enough, try stopping by your local Starbucks or other coffee place and see if they give away leftover grounds. Lots of gardeners like to use coffee grounds for their soil, so some coffee places will give you bags of leftover grounds if you ask for them.

Here's an article that you may find helpful--it's got some additional suggestions on keeping cats away http://landscaping.about.com/od/pestcontrol/a/cat_repellents.htm

Unwelcome felines are definitely a problem. Cat's seem to be able to circumvent any deterent to get to where they want to be. The chemical products work for a while but it gets expensive to keep replacing them due to rain, etc.

I know a guy who solved the situation pretty well by employing the following method, but he had to get the permission of the people on either side of his house to do it. It worked like a charm. All 3 neighbors had 6' cedar fences like you describe and here's what they did:

They went to a carpet supply store and bought boxes of the tackless strip that carpet installers put down on the floor which grips the carpeting. They attached this to the tops of all the upper 2 X 4 horizontal pieces that make up the fence with the little points facing UP. This piece of 2 X 4 is where the cats walk to gain access to the yards. The cats won't even attempt to walk along the horizontal braces after they've experienced this ONCE. Cat's learn VERY quickly to avoid anything that can harm them and this method solved the problem in a weeks time. It apparently also worked for possums, squirrels and the raccoons as well.

I'm sure some will think this is cruel, but I have cats myself and mine stay within the confines of my yard and don't venture onto other people's properties. I asked these people if there was any liability issue involved and they said they've never had any problem.

I can't address the problem with your yard in general but I've had very good results from placing pine cones all around my flowers (vegetable garden is fenced). The cats don't like the prickly pine cones so have ended up going elsewhere to do their business. Ecrane is right about Starbucks--they used to give their coffee grounds away free because my son used to bring them home to me on a regular basis. If you don't have a Starbucks close by, try asking at your grocery store if you could have or buy cheap any cans of coffee that have been too damaged to sell.

My two main anti-cat strategies are:

- When I've just dug an area and it's soft and fluffy and sending out "new litterbox!" vibes, I'll cover it temporarily with floating row cover, until the fluff has settled a bit.
- I also _always_ water down a newly dug area before I go away, to change it from fluffy and appealing to wet and heavy.
- In areas where the cats seem to be attracted even to not-freshy-dug dirt, I scatter rose clippings or other thorny unpleasant clippings over the ground.

I love cats, but not in my yard. The only way I have found to keep them out is to catch them with a cage and take them to animal control. I realize this sounds cruel to some, ( I hate to do it) but sometimes my kids won't play outside because my yard stinks from the cats, and I often have to replace sand in their sandbox. Here you can get a cage from animal control with a $25 deposit that is returned when you bring back the cage.

Remember that the average outdoor cat lives only 18 months or less, the average indoor cat, 18 years.

Outdoor cats also catch many songbirds that could be eating the bugs in your garden.

i agree w/ funtomatoes. growing up living next to my aunt and grandmother who both had cats all of us kids had ringworm and impentigo often and still have the scars to prove it. they'd catch every bunny, chick or duckling that happend to get loose, and raid every bird nest they could find while the rats and mice grew fat off the feed in the pens. i wouldn't eat anything where a cat has been. the problem with way too many cat owners is that they don't have their cats, their neighbors do.

I've found that they dont like to go around safflowers, but then, neither do i, too pricky

The only answer I found:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/870295/

cats REALLY dont like citrus, lemons and oranges, but how the heck you would make the entire garden smell of citrus and be strong enough to make cats avoid the area i cant say

you might need to activly scare the hell out of the cats, as cats are extremly territorial, and if you "defend" your territory they will be much much less inclined to pop over and take a dump, i dont mean hurt them gosh no im not evil, but maybe something which makes a loud noise ?

Problem is with cats is their intelligence, personally i would use a super soaker water pistol, spray them with a little water and they will dissapear faster than they came, unless of course its a tiger, LOL then your in deep trouble because it would probably like the water and come back for more ....
oooo saying that, maybe buy some cheap lemon squash, fill the water gun with it and spray that near them, or maybe ..... get some lemon peel near the places where you really do not want them to go

I was just throwing a few suggestions in, in no way do i wish to harm the cats, its just all i could think of

bitis they actually have a neat product out now that is better than a squirt gun, although probably more expensive. I believe it has a motion sensor and it shoots jets of water out.

My only experience with other peoples cats have been involving catnip. I was growing it outdoors so I could harvest and dry it for my cats. All the neighbor cats destroyed it and one still comes up on my porch in hopes of getting a nibble (although the plant is long gone.)
My main problems are with my own lol.

Here are some humane solutions:
http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/HOW_TO_KEEPING_CATS_OUT_OF_GARDENS_AND_YARDS

AND-- if these are "feral" cats, please contact a local Trap Neuter Return group in your area -- they can TNR (including spay, neuter and vaccinate) those kitties and take care of them in a managed colony.AND if the cats DO stray over to your garden, you can contact the people who are taking care of them and they will help you find a humane solution. I've been involved in the TNR movement for 20 years and I sure wish more people would Spay and neuter their pet cats and keep em indoors or at least on THEIR property. It give the cats a bad rap when in fact it's ManKIND who is causing a big problem.

Yes! Trap and neuter! They'll only keep multiplying if nobody steps in to do this, and that won't be good for them or you and your neighbors.

I found a six-month-old homeless kitten in my garden a few months ago and took him in. He's the sweetest pet now, and he loves to sit and watch the squirrels and birds in the garden from his safe, warm spot in the window. :)

My mother has put mothballs in her flower beds with good results. I guess they don't like the smell.

Good suggestion Acemoose! I have our local ladies number in my phone book after she helped me try to trap a mama cat and her babies.

This picture is of Mama. She was attacked by an eagle and we eventually caught her but unfortunate she didn't make it. Her babies were never found so we assumed the eagles got them but I'm noticing a couple long haired cats running about. (Her babies were long haired.) If I can confirm that they are not owned by any neighbors I'll call our gal.

Mothballs, particularly the crystals work great. My suggestion is putting them in a small plastic container that you can bury in the dirt and hide with mulch. That way when it rains, it won't all wash away. If the container fills up with water you can turn it upside, drain the water, and put it back into your garden without losing the crystals.

mothballs are harmful to plants. the citrus orange that works well on killing even fireants, is to my knowledge only found in Florida. Most people that try eating that oranj will wind up with blisters in their mouths, the foodstore oranges arent as oily as that one, the tacky strips are an excellant idea- the damaj they cause heals quickly. Feral, wild cats are prone in S.Texas to feline infectious peritonitis, and leukemia, and tapeworms/hookworms-which people can also get from going barefoot in these areas. Like the armadillo carries leprosy which is also picked up by barefeet.

This message was edited Nov 27, 2010 7:48 PM

This message was edited Dec 5, 2010 7:53 PM

shune, it ain't just TX. any place cats (domestic or feral) "do their business" you can catch parasites.

I find this about armadillos ----

Armadillos are known to carry leprosy, and although the incidence level is fairly low in most regions there is still a risk of transmission if the meat is undercooked.

Didn't see any reference to being barefooted.

there are some diseases like anthrax, leprosy, etc, that live in the soil. Where hogs have been kept, cows cannot be kept because of the diseases being shared. Cattle can get anaplasmosis for instance, and if you have never seen an animal with blackleg thank your lucky stars. It isnt just the meat that carries the 'taint', but the fecal matter...and the soil can keep this disease for years, I believe

Kittriana - I guess I just don't get the point. Going barefoot is not to be recommended - I agree. However, your info on parasites is not in every instance accurate. Thread is about cats and how to keep them from doing their business in certain garden areas. Sorry for my density.

I vote for the crystal moth flakes. When I had problems with male dogs urinating on my shrubs and evergreens, I scattered mothflakes around the area. Since the flakes are small, they are safer since they are not so easily seen.

I also used the mothballs to train my own dog to stay away from my houseplants at the window.

I would love to get hold of tiger or lion droppings to keep antelopes away. That would fix it. But where....?

Blomma - sounds like you need some zoo doo - but from the cat cages, not the herbivore cages!

wannadanc,
You betcha!!

ok, I should have added cats in with cows, hogs, armadilloes. I have watched farms tilled up and soil used in city yards, and I have watched towns grow from cornfields and old milkbarns, most home contracts in the country areas of Texas include a restriction on the property - cannot raise or keep hogs on the property. Its like we teach our children not to put their fingers in their mouths because we dont know where they've been- your dirt is older than you- do you KNOW where it has been? For me, Daves Garden isnt just for blogging about cats-it is sharing experiences and knowledge about your land, plants, and the common sense our forefathers learned by dying in not knowing- you are on a beginning gardening area- do you not care that mothballs can add damaging chemicals to your plants and soil? That you can find parasites in the soils-and viruses? beyond cats. Yes, my information was general, yours is uninformed. Mine can be misleading, I have forgotten many many things I am trying to remember, my profession is not sitting at home or where I can put my fingers on stax of books-or computer added-info readily. My memory has seen happen what I do comment on, irregardless of how many people deny that this will never happen, cannot be, wont be a viable occurence. NEVER say never, it will jump up and slap you in the face. Promise.

have to jump in with this one fact-

anaplasmosis is transmitted by ticks, and very rarely, flies

yes, I did know that they had finally figured that one out, my sis's baby calves were plagued by that, and at the time I became acquainted with it, it wasn't known where it was spread from, but, where did the ticks and flies pick it up from?

infected animals not dirt

kittriana, you're absolutely right, we don't know where our soil has been and should probably try to find out from some of the long time locals what our properties were used for in the past. for instance, being a native i know i don't want to buy a home that was built on top of the old dump, and you couldn't give me one of the 3 homes that were recently built where the ranchers had dug pits years ago, filled with whatever poisin they were using 50 years ago, and herded the cattle through them to get the ticks off of them 2 or 3 times a year. this is a website for gardeners, and gardening is about soil. we try to get the right p h and nutrients to get the best results for our efforts but what good did it do if our soil is contaminated by chemicals.

kittriana - I understand that you want to help - nothing wrong with that.

Because this IS a beginner group, please be sure your information is accurate.
That is the part that bothers me.

Your intent is noble!

wannadance,
Amen to that.

I know, wish I had the time to make this a primary hobby, my other job uses a lot of energy and stress levels high, I get to watch more beginners and a lot of don't cares go by me every day. Heartsickening. I've forgotten many many things I knew, and progress moves forward by leaps and bounds, chuckle. Many things have come to light in the years since my memory begins in 1953, and changed. Guys, soils can and Do retain viruses, so do stagnated air pockets, as well as what I generally lumped together as 'diseases', they have a different life span than we do, and these flare up because of changes in climates, changes in the way we unearth 'new' ground and old, etc, it would take a lot of people a lot longer than I have to chase all the data down, not all the bio learning is sitting as information in a computer data base yet, and will be obsolete before it does. I'm glad and proud to see the efforts DG does in trying to keep up with the current events. Honest. The feces of infected animals is sitting in our soils, and this is what I was trying to say one very tired night, because those flies and ticks don't just suck blood from infected animals, and those mothball crystals leave a residue-there is a thread somewhere in DG that has the info- that stays in our soils. Kind of like the White House can't grow edible veggies in their gardens because of the land the place was built on- the plants take up the nasty things left behind into their little juices and hold the poisons for the unsuspecting...

kittriana In your rambling, can you find a method of keeping cats and dogs out of gardens, deer/antelope from eating plants, and what to fertilize plants with that meets your approval? Ofcourse, it has to be a method that can't touch the soil since it "retains viruses" and "disease".

absolutely, but you wouldn't approve, chuckle

You could try several pots of the plant coleus caninus. I think it goes by "Dog b Gone". It stinks a little (not that I've noticed, but then I can't smell roses either). I understand that it takes several plants to be a deterrent. I want to keep mine in pots when in my veggies - because I think it's poisonous and I'm afraid I'll mix it up with lettuce or something. But you don't have to worry about the cat or dog eating it - they don't like the smell. It did end up being the one plant in one of my gardens that wasn't tasted by rabbits and squirrels. And you don't have to replace it after every rain. It likes rain.

This is not coleus - but it is a method that also seems to work. (I didn't plant him by the way. He just took a nap while "helping" me dig up my garden. This is one of my former foster pups.)

Deer fences are not built straight up and down, they lean out toward the incoming deer in a slow rise, for a set distance/height, wish it would work on coons and possums...

Something that seems to work on all unwanted animals - the human kind included i.e. salespeople lol - are the motion sensor sprinklers. They're also called scarecrow sprinklers. I know amazon sells them. The sprinklers by Contech are great! My grandmother has them due to cats, but they also took care of the squirrels (her feeders are polemounted) and her new neighbors dog. He would agrressively and loudly run along the fenceline if he heard the back door open. She just turned the sprinkler around for a few weeks and watched him get hosed every time he came up to the (chainlink) fence. He stays away now :-)

michellinAL that is hilarious!!!! Love it!!!