Cat problem - please help!

[Penellype]

The next door neighbour has always had a cat, but the old one died and they have a new one. I've used sticks pushed into the ground and "prikka strips" before and they deterred the old cat, but this new one is something else.

I have 40 buckets of compost around the garden, most of which are occupied, but some are resting because I don't need them this year or they have had a problem (eg vine weevil). The cat finds them and uses them as litter trays. I have one under a shelf the top of which is 6 inches from the underside of the shelf - that is a favourite litter tray and I have had to tie a plastic bag over it this morning, but that is not going to do the compost any good long term. Another favourite bucket is the one with an inch of holly clippings on top of the compost. It also poos behind the buckets that are placed near the fence, regardless of a thick layer of holly leaves. Today I have covered the soil with compost sacks to try to stop this, but I am worried it will harbour slugs.

The cat also climbs onto the fence, sometimes knocking off my decorative pots. It jumps onto my buckets of veg, flattening them, so I have to cover them with nets or plastic covers if I can, which restricts what I can grow and where. It sprays on my hedges and alpines and scratches about when it has done so, digging up tufts of plants. It chases the bees off my flowers, and all my little garden birds have disappeared. It once left me a "present" of half a baby rabbit in one of my potato buckets. I've tried chasing it whenever I see it and I've tried flicking water at it - it runs away but it is soon back.

Can anyone suggest anything (apart from a gun) that might help? I'm desperate.

[peanut]

I feel your pain. I'm in the same boat, only this morning my neighbours cat left its deposit in my potato patch . I don't what the solution is, or if there is one. I chase it away, throw things in it's direction to scare it off and it does now run away whenever it see's me, but it hasn't stopped it using my garden as its toilet and playground.
It sits for hours under my hedges to try and catch the birds. I push pyracantha prunings everywhere I can, under the hedges and over the beds but it's so bloody determined it just bends and twists itself over and around them and I end up p'd off and scratched up!
I really don't know what else can be done.

[Plot70]

Cats are brutal things and will kill anything new born. They start by pushing the first shoots of spring bulbs back into the soil and then torture birds to death. The things are obsessed with killing everything new born regardless of what the owners say.
The owners almost always deny it until they see CCTV.
I have successfully used a quarter power electric fence This has to be full voltage with a smaller power pulse. These are now affordable in farming stores with adjustable power. After "training" they keep away from strings over the soil for a good few months. I had to build my own unit over 20 years ago.
The other thing is a powerful water pistol filled with a mixture of tobasco sauce and tap water. This puts them out of action for a good few hours as they spend a lot of time spitting the taste out when they are getting it off there fir.
Feral cats at the allotments are no problem apart from the odd half eaten rat being left on the path.
The fouling is to do with the content of the junk cat food that is advertised on TV.
Cats originally evolved to eat rats and mice. A mouse a day or several days for a rat. They are very effective at converting rodents into energy.

[Nicos]

* a MoD note here peeps- just a head up - we need to keep this thread humane , despite the utter frustration.

Heres a link about tobasco and cats…
https://www.hyaenidae.org/the-danger...auce-for-cats/

Sorry to hear you are having these problems Pen - we all are aware of how much effort you put into your gardening.
Is it worth speaking with your neighbours to see if they will at least tell you what type of litter the cat uses - maybe persuade them to give you some to see if it will use a designated box filled with it?
It’s worth a try.

Have you tried rags soaked in vinegar? Fastening the rag to a stick a bit like a flag?
The other things which come to mind would be a motion sensor spray if there is one particular area it focuses on…or an ultrasonic cat deterrent

Other smells they tend not to like are citrus, rosemary, thyme, banana and mustard as well as lavender and eucalyptus. Can you dot plants and peelings around the garden?

I’ve no idea if those will make any difference but I suppose you have to try to make your garden less inviting than the others around you.

So sorry Pen - it’s just not fair is it?

[Penellype]

Thanks for the suggestions - I had considered electric fencing but I am not keen on it. I could certainly try lemon peel as I have quite a bit of that. I am struggling to grow rosemary and have completely given up with lavender as it hates my garden and rapidly dies. Thyme is interesting - I have plenty of plants as it seeds itself in my drive. I will try that.

I'm reluctant to use a sonic repellent as my garden is long and thin and runs alongside the neighbours garden. It seems unfair to frighten the cat when it is in its own garden.

I've nothing against cats - I like them and the one at the stables is adorable. I just draw the line at them using my garden as a toilet!

[Sweet savory]

i sympathise as I also have a cat problem in my small back garden. Bought a sonic motion sensor thingy and despite moving the sensors around as suggested, have found they are pretty useless and certainly don’t do what they claim so cannot recommend. The only way I have found to deter them is to plant very thickly and leave no bare earth. This is always covered with netting of some sort with sticks poking through for good measure. Likewise any pots with just compost in have netting over the tops. I do hope you can work out a way round. My mint was targeted a couple of years ago when just starting into growth and has taken until this year to recover. It seems to leave a toxic residue.

[mothhawk]

I feel for you, Pen. i'm in the same position. My next door neighbour's 2yo cat uses my garden as its personal litter tray. The neighbour said other cat owners (and there are a lot in my small cul-de-sac) told her not to bother with a litter tray - just leave the cat out to perform elsewhere. It found the robin's nest in my thick clematis and destroyed it and 3 eggs - no idea if it caught the robin, but I know for sure it caught the bluetit nesting in the birdbox that has been used for more than 15 years. There were 10 dead new chicks inside when I checked the box.

And thyme won't work. Until I spread chicken wire over it, a local cat regularly pooped ON TOP of my large patch of thyme. In my small front garden I have tried to closely plant every space. And when they can't get to the soil they blatantly poop on the grass.

[dammad49]

Cautionary note re. ultrasonic cat deterrent.
A friend of mine has a severely autistic (and other issues) child. Their next door neighbour installed one of these - it reduces the child to screaming meltdown/terror as to him it is deafening. When approached neighbour just became abusive and threatening, police say there is no offence as its on private property. My friend is in the process of moving house to get away from it.

[Nicos]

^^^^ yikes!…I would never gave thought of that. Thanks for the heads up .

[Florence Fennel]

I shook pepper on the top of the compost where a neighbour's cat kept fouling - that worked and hasn't harmed the cat, he's still patrolling my garden like it's his!

[Jungle Jane]

Years ago I used black pepper & it worked,we have a cat now so it’s different because your neighbours cats marking it’s territory,our cat knows it’s his territory so easier to control,I make my grow areas very difficult for him to get to the soil (sticks etc) other areas have just bare soil where I don’t mind him using,sticks poking up are good too,I balance them too,cats get nervous when things move suddenly. I lay sticks across pots so they can’t be jumped on,netting needs to be raised because our cat just lays on the netting sunbathing.

[Penellype]

Thanks for all the answers.

I did wonder if the ultrasonic deterrents might upset other people or their animals, and I am very reluctant to use one. The idea of catching the cat in any sort of trap or basket horrifies me and I wouldn't consider it. I like cats, I just don't like having to clean up their mess.

This is the current problem area:



Its quite hard to see, but the black plastic was pushed right up against the fence and the cat has simply scraped it (and the stone holding it down) out of the way. The mesh shelf and a thick layer of holly leaves in the buckets are at least keeping it out for now, but I can't use them for veg like this. The buckets are also pushed right against the fence. At least I have nothing planted there, I just don't like the smell and I'd rather not have to keep lifting the buckets to remove the mess.

I do worry that if I prevent the cat from using this area it will find somewhere else which is actually worse. If it does I will try the black pepper, thanks.

[Nicos]

I think you somehow need to make your garden less inviting than the surrounding ones. Somehow is of course the question….

I don’t think getting a cat yourself will work. My cat mostly uses next door’s veggie plot …and theirs uses ours So neither of us can complain.
Unless it’s raining and then they use their own.
I use a lot of fleece.

[mrsbusy]

Just reading through this thread. My suggestion may not be possible for you but if you had a dog it would keep the cat away. I have 2 dogs who patrol my back garden and keep pigeons foxes and cats away. We have our own cat whom they chase but the cat hops up the fence and away.
in my front garden which is a rose garden on raised beds so the soil is quite soft - one bed is targeted - I assume by cats - the roses do not cover the soil and last year I wanted to grow annuals between the bushes but every morning the annuals - dwarf cosmos - had been dug up. This year I sowed Phacelia seed into that bed and although some have been dug up they have grown quickly enough to smother the bare soil.

[Penellype]

Just reading through this thread. My suggestion may not be possible for you but if you had a dog it would keep the cat away. I have 2 dogs who patrol my back garden and keep pigeons foxes and cats away. We have our own cat whom they chase but the cat hops up the fence and away.
in my front garden which is a rose garden on raised beds so the soil is quite soft - one bed is targeted - I assume by cats - the roses do not cover the soil and last year I wanted to grow annuals between the bushes but every morning the annuals - dwarf cosmos - had been dug up. This year I sowed Phacelia seed into that bed and although some have been dug up they have grown quickly enough to smother the bare soil.

Thanks, but unfortunately my house and garden are not suitable for a dog without substantial modification, and I don't want the responsibility and cost of another animal (I already have a horse).