How can you keep your garden feline-free?

There is a cat in our neighbourhood that sprays our front door and letterbox so we have a permanent smelly entrance to our home. Very unpleasant for the postman if we haven’t cleaned it off before he arrives and it is impossible to get rid of the stink.

On top of that, numerous cats take it in turns marking out their territory, spraying and killing plants in the garden, leaving their stink behind. They use our garden and plant pots as their loo and kill our wildlife.

Cat owners say it is natural and that non cat owners don’t understand cats, but why should we have to spend our time cleaning up their smelly mess, spend money on deterrents, watch them murder our wildlife just for fun?

Cat owners could train their cats to use a litter tray but they don’t want the smell in their homes. They could also take steps to ensure cats cannot get out of their gardens. Animals that hunt to survive is natural, but cats get fed so do not need to hunt.

Just about everywhere I have ever lived cats have been a nuisance, and I quite understand Adelaide when she says her thoughts turn murderous.

Why do we have to put up with it? Why do we have to spend money on deterrents? Why can’t cat owners take responsibility for their pets and take steps to ensure they stay on their own properties and don’t annoy other people?

Hi Adelaide

You wrote:

“More than half of Which? members say cats have been a problem in their garden in the past two years.”

Oh really? – I seem to have missed that survey – or did you really mean “more that half of the members who responded to a survey on this blog”?

Adopt your neighbour’s cat. Treat it as your own. Stroke it, cuddle it, feed it treats and luxury foodstuffs. Let it regard your garden as its own personal space. Provide a nice aromatic litter tray and keep it clean. It will soon stop plopping on your plot and start squirting up its owner’s doorframe. Can the owner complain? Hardly – their remedy is to keep their cat under their control.

Was the survey just of Gardehing Which? subscribers ? Just curious.

I have now seen the survey results under the heading of a page the Best Cat repellents which does have numbers of members who have tried different methods and some percentages.

To add some science a first glance at the Web gives

” Abstract

Ultrasound deterrents for a variety of mammals, including cats, are widely available in the commercial market, but few have been independently tested for efficacy. This study tested the efficacy of an ultrasonic cat deterrent ‘Catwatch©’, using 63 and 96 volunteer observers in two long-running (18 and 33 weeks) blind experiments. Results indicated that the device did have a moderate deterrent effect, reducing the probability of a cat intrusion into a garden by approximately 32% in the first experiment, but not in the second. The average duration of intrusions was reduced by approximately 38 and 22% in the two experiments, respectively. The magnitude of the deterrent effect appeared to increase with time, since the device was deployed. It is likely that the size of the deterrent effect could be increased by positioning the device(s) more carefully with regard to entry points to the garden that are regularly used by cats.”

The efficacy of an ultrasonic cat deterrent
Sarah Helen Nelson, Andrew David Evans, Richard Brian Bradbury 2005

A summary of the $31.50 article by a readers is:
” A study into the efficacy of ultrasonic cat deterrents found that they do work, and that the effect can discourage cats from returning increases the longer the device is used. Unfortunately you have to pay to read the results of the testing, but I can summarize that in the 18 weeks test they involved well over 50 cats and concluded that ultrasonic device did reduce cat visits. They also advised that the effectiveness could be enhanced by carefully planning the location of the device to capture cat entry points.”

Water is reputed to be effective and you can actually buy a water jet and a ultrasonic sounder as an all in one.

Just to see what is available a quick scan gives:

“Many people find cat-fouling a nuisance and their hunting can cause distress. This device is proven to reduce the presence of cats in gardens and the deterrent effect increases over time. Put simply, Catwatch actually trains cats to stay away from your garden.

Catwatch does this by emitting a unique ultrasonic alarm, triggered by the cat’s movement and body heat as soon as it enters the protected area.

The only cat deterrent tested and recommended by the RSPB, and was awarded Product of the Month by Practical Fishkeeping for its outstanding success in pond protection. Only repellent approved by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the UK’s leading wildlife organisation.

Made in the UK
Two year warranty
125m2 (1,350ft2) coverage
Inaudible to humans
Does not affect other animals
Harmless to cats
Can be powered by a 9 volt battery or a mains adaptor with increased performance.
Mains adaptor sold separately – Click Here to view.
Works day and night, in all weather conditions ”

I doubt it is going to 100% effective unless it is used judiciously around the garden so that the cats are made to jump in different areas but for those people who suffer it would seem a cheapish
cure.

In the Which? test it ends up with an unexplained 32% score. I am not sure if this means 32% found it effective or it was only effective 32% of the time. If it was the former it might be helpful to know what brands of ultrasonic device they were using, whether they moved it about, or simply the garden was too large for a single device.

Perhaps Which? should carry out an ultrasound cat deterrent test and /or buy a copy of the 2005 report to precis the results in a useful way.

The Two best deterrent’s on the market without doubt is either a good Terrier dog who is trained to go bonkers at the merest mention of the Cats word or failing that is the wonderful ultrasonic water sprayer aka Scarecrows. I am now on my 2nd one and they are simply brilliant and within a week or two you will have a beautiful cat free garden, plus the added bonus of your garden being watered. Last year my 1st device seized up due I think to the salts in the water gradually fowling up the works, (its a good idea to try and soak/wash the device yearly in order to stop that salt buildup occurring), in the meantime the neighbouring & all other local cats all decided to play mark thy territory and despite the plethora of cat deterrent chemicals I used none worked effectively for more than a few days, the first rain showers negated the effects and so Mr / Mrs cat decided the area needed marking with crap bombs, just nicely buried below ground so you got a real nice pungent surprise when hoeing / weeding. Enough was enough and I invested in a water scarecrow again and within a fortnight all cats have decided the area no longer needed marking and all was well with the world. They are readily avalable and though expensive they are well proven and certainly solve the problem.

alfa-

That is very interesting alfa as you might have thought the RSPB commissioned research would have sussed body mass/heat levels for triggering during their testing. Possibly worth raising with the manufacturers that it is over-sensitive however given that cats and bird temperatures are only a degree or two apart it is a problem.

However it did make me aware what a pest birds are for wrecking seeds and pinching fruit so overall it makes a cat seem quite useful. if you are a gardener who grows crops and from seed.

I did note that an external power module was sold and just thought it was a convenience thing but perhaps excessive battery usage is the real reason. This US version claims:
” It operates for up to nine months on one standard 9 volt battery. (Battery life estimate is based upon 4900 activations spread over 245 days at an average of 20 per day.)
Unit protects about 330 square feet (20 feet or 9m in front of the unit in an 80 degree arc). There are no controls or adjustments. Simply install the battery and position in your garden”

I did note that prickly strips are available to make cats wary about leaping onto fence panels or walls to get into gardens. The cheap solution presumably is berberis, pyracantha is too wicked, but holly etc is probably just right.. If one wished to be more decorative I wonder about teazels. And of course it better be your fence that you are attaching them to. However leaving them spread on the ground where cats land will eventually train them not to trespass as it is uncomfortable.

I have used branches to keep birds and I suppose incidentally cats of growing seeds. I have also used black plastic sheet underneath a thin layer of soil when growing potatoes [ to save on mounding-up] and I suspect cats would not like that.

wavechange –
Given the study was 2005 it would be nice if another survey was carried out.

I tried everything to stop the cats pooing in my veg patch at my old house. Tried the orange peel, the chilli powder and the ultrasonic scarer but they just stopped for a bit and then came back. I even went round to my neighbours and told them about the advice on the Cat Protection League website as to how to encourage their own cats to go in their own back garden. I was told, “they won’t do that” and that was it.

Contemplated smearing it all over their front windows or leaving it on their doorstep (this is when I had sunk my fingers into fresh poo, again).

But then I tried pelleted chicken manure, which is a good fertliser, lasts on the surface of the soil for longer than the orange peel/chilli and really, truely worked. I used to go round every month or so and scatter handfuls.

I’ve moved now and live near the farmers’ fields. In a semi-urban environment, pooing in gardens seems to be more trouble than it is worth, presume they go in the fileds and hedgreows. They come for my bird feeders but I run at them hissing like a mad lady.

S*** gets censored but “crap” is ok?

Cats are independent creatures with no concept of other people’s property, We had such an independent animal when I was small. It knew the time my father was walking home from work for lunch and in the evening. It would wait in someone’s garden down our road and then meet him and follow him home. As for property, neighbours about 6 houses away had laid out a (tinned) salmon salad tea for guests but left a window open in the dining room. The salmon largely disappeared, the culprit being our cat.
This is life, isn’t it? We need to share our world; we don’t own it.