Help! - Cats are destroying my polytunnel

[Jon]

Hi everyone, I hope you can help me. Living next door to me I have the cats from hell. They have taken a liking to my raised beds and particularly my polytunnel.
They climb up the sides and run around on the top, ripping the polythene cover as they do so. My tunnel is less than 1 year old and now has approx 40 patches on it!
I have tried locating spikey sticks, cat repellant powder and "scardy cat" plants around the tunnel but to no avail. Short of surrounding it with an electric fence or sitting watch with a shot gun, I am running out of ideas as to what to do!!
Any advice most welcome.

Cheers

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hi, Jon, and welcome to the vine!

Sorry to hear about your cat problem - tricky one. Suggest you spray the ridge on the top with (say) cooking oil or similar as they won't want to walk on that. Also suggest you invest in a super soaker water gun thingy. Try to hide and splat them with it when they don;t know that it is you.

Lots of grapes have had cat problems - if you do a search in the green bar at the top, you'll find other advice...

Also, they don't like walking on foil - perhaps a temporary strip along the top?

[sewer rat]

Have a quiet () word with your neighbour - explain the problem and the cost of recovering and that you tried various remedies without success. If they can't control their pets, then the electric fence is the humane option - wire it up to a car battery. Me - I would shoot the little *****rs - fill in your own blanks to suit the mood.
PS - OBVIOUSLY i WOULDN'T SHOOT THEM (not whilst they were on the roof - the pellets might damage the polythene more than they have already)

[Hazel at the Hill]

Ah - but in your case, Rat, would the cats not be catching the inevitable mice? Pest control...?

[PAULW]

Get a dog.

[bubblewrap]

I have been told a small amount of strong amonia in bottle tops placed where the cats enter does the trick I have not done this myself as I don't have a "cat" problem.
Anyway we have two cats ourselves.

[bubblewrap]

Or a twelve bore will do the trick?

[Jon]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will try a few of them out and let you know if I am successful.

One day victory will be mine!!

[sewer rat]

Hazel, there aren't enough cats in Ross-shire to control the mice in my field - or the rabbits, or the pheasants, hares, partridges, pigeons......and anyway, I'm allergic to the critters.

[terrier]

Jon, as sewer rat says, get an electric fence, the smallest you can get will be deterrent enough for anything on four legs and they are not expensive compared to a new poly sheet. I've used mine for dogs,cats, foxes and I'm working on a system for deterring moles this winter.

[Carl]

My father recently put a black cat silhouet on his back lawn (typical small suburban garden, enclosed on all sides by shed, house and two fences) it's been there for several months and no cat has gone into the garden, probably won't be much use in big or open gardens, but might be useful in combination with other things


Carl

[The Doctor]

... but might be useful in combination with other things
Carl

Like a big gun, barbed wire and land mines??

[lainey lou]

We had a problem with cats pooing on our lawn!!! I thought cats were supposed to be clean animals and bury their poo, but no, big steaming piles left on the lawn every day! Tried all sorts and finally found that "silent roar" did the trick, it's granuals soaked in lion urine which you scatter around and about this seems have done the trick for 6 months or so, however discovered a cat poo this morning so it must be time for another application.

[Forget-me-Not]

Hi,

I heard they can't stand the smell of ...is it menthol....... the stuff in those deep heat sprays for sore backs. Apparently it can be sprayed on to tea bags and left in garden. Maybe it could be sprayed to part of your polytunnel or something attached to it of your choice where it can't be rained off or harm your plants.

Hope you find something that works.

Beth

[moggssue]

Lainey - are you sure your problem is cats and not foxes? We had a similar problem, I blamed my own cat for a while thinking she was getting lazy in her old age (she's always been very fastidious) but it turned out to be a fox.

Terrier/Rat - would an electric fence work against rabbits, and how harmful would it be?

Jon - my cat hates the smell of chilli or anything similar, the minty/mentholy stuff that they're supposed to hate doesn't faze her at all - I guess it's all trial and error. Good luck, come back and let us know how you get on.