How to discourage a lonely cat from walking onto the property

Lonely animals are cheeky and fearless, and sometimes they walk into open doors themselves in search of sustenance. Close the door more tightly, otherwise you can find marked territory not only on the property, but also in the dwelling itself. You do not want to see a puddle in your house. Think about it, maybe you should get a dog, which you wanted for a long time? Its barking will not please the uninvited guests.

How do I keep the neighbor's cats off my property?

I have a sore subject. Many people, I think, have faced it.

I am very fond of cats and other animals. BUT… The neighbor has five cats. And they all walk through my vegetable garden. I, of course, do not feel sorry, let them walk. The truth is sometimes hurt to tears when they jump off the fence and break everything to me, not to mention the fact that when something sowed, there is just all over the place. Not only that, they also take a bite out of cucumbers, they would eat them, so they wouldn't be so offended.

Maybe someone can tell me how to discourage cats? Maybe you can plant something stinky, so that the cats will be scared off by the smell, and they will not go to my vegetable garden?

I also drop vinegar on a small plank and put it on the path between the beds. You don't have to put it between all the paths. If standard bed width, you can do it across the bed.

Renew the "repellent scent" according to your gut: when you stop hearing the smell – drop more vinegar. When the crops in the beds in June, the cats are no longer afraid.

Vinegar helps a lot. It's the only way I save myself.
Eh, dogs are a thousand times better!

You DON'T feed other people's animals, even if they are nobody's! A cat won't starve to death in the summer because there are plenty of mice around.

Cats will go to the litter box in overdrawn beds of soft soil. But cats are creatures who like cleanliness very much. So, it has to be damp on dug and sown beds, and no cat will ever get his paws dirty if the bed is wet. Dry, loose beds can be found in the surrounding area.

You need to get your own cat. If you already have a kitty, then part with it, give it away. Not neutered smart cat on his hunting territory will not let any stranger's cat! And all the neighbors' cats will gather for playdates and peeping.

Again – if you do not feed other people's cats, it will work natural selection! Who learned how to catch mice and birds, will survive! The rest will go away (fall out of the evolutionary process) themselves.

There is also a humane way, get a dog. Better a fox terrier, and the cats on the site will not see more. Good luck.

Some smells cats don't like very much.

You can discourage cats from visiting your yard or garden in several ways that are not harmful to cute little animals, but give you the results you want. For example, cats don't like certain smells, which means that these smells are perfect for use on your property to keep your neighbor's pets out of your garden. It's quite possible to be a cat lover and not allow them to go to the toilet in your garden. Just use these tricks! Everything you need is perfectly natural, all easily and cheaply available at your local supermarket.

No chemicals.

Cats are certainly cute and adorable animals, but they become less cute when they shit in the most unexpected places and run all over your yard. This can get you in a lot of trouble, so you might be on the lookout for a few tips to avoid it. Because we love animals, we're not fans of the idea of scaring cats away with chemicals or horrible methods that are not at all appropriate for animals can cause them harm. We think that keeping cats out of your garden is definitely a natural way to keep them out that won't hurt anyone.

How to chase away stray cats

If you have stray cats coming at you, you need to do a few manipulations at once. This should definitely help. Buy lots of tangerines, oranges and lemons. They hate the aroma of these fruits, they are even afraid of it. Spread the peels around the vegetable garden and places where you find the "pile" most often. Rest assured, the animal will definitely not go there. And in the future will remember and will bypass it. But the smell is not the only thing that scares the cats away. You can buy special products in a pet store; they are harmless, but unpleasant. Sprinkle them on favorite places. True, there is one disadvantage – the smell of the product will not last long, you need to irrigate it regularly.

Cats do not like the acrid smell of vinegar and ammonia. Sprinkle them on rags and spread them over the area. But also do not forget to wet them, the smell quickly evaporates in the air.Also of folk remedies, you can use wormwood, lavender, scattering them around the vegetable garden. Sprinkle ground pepper on fruits to protect them from spoilage. Water seedbeds more often, clean creatures do not like to get their paws dirty. They are unlikely to want to dig in wet soil.

What to do if that doesn't work

Keep an eye on the pet to see what loopholes it's getting through. If it's a hole in a fence or crevice, stick rags with glass wool in it. It won't do any harm, but it will irritate the skin and become uncomfortably itchy. To avoid thinking about how to chase the troublemaker away again, place a sprinkler with a motion sensor on the lawn or between plantings. As soon as the tailed one appears in its sight, it will be dramatically watered with cold water. It's unlikely he'll want to come back again.

You can protect trees from attacks by wrapping the trunks with netting or covering them with roofing felt. This will also protect them from other pests.

If you like to wake up to birds singing, place feeders in a prominent place. It makes it easier to fly away from the predator. If nothing helps and he persistently returns, buy a cat repellent. An effective remedy so that they do not come again and do not ask to enter the house. A human can not feel it, but the cat will hear a sharp and long sound, and will be frightened and will not come back.

Block the entrance to the garden

From boarded-up fences to privacy shrubs, ward off curious cats by making it harder for them to enter your garden. If cats still find their way into the garden, the RSPB suggests surrounding the area with a fence (such as chicken wire) tilted in the direction from which the cat will approach. In addition, flimsy plastic roll-up fences placed on top of the fence will prevent cats from climbing over it.

Cats are very sensitive to smells, but there are a few smells they hate that might surprise you (and you probably have them in your kitchen). Try these remedies:

You can either sprinkle drops directly on your beds, or soak absorbent cotton with them and place them in areas of infiltration. As seasoned gardeners assure you, cats will smell it once and immediately disappear.

Best advice: Consider growing coleus caninus (Plectranthus caninus) in your garden. It has a pungent odor that is known for scaring away cats and other invasive animals.

Install an ultrasonic repellent

As with water scarecrows, purchase an ultrasonic cat repeller that emits a high-frequency signal to deter cats. Although it may take up to four weeks to discourage them from visiting your garden, cats will find the piercing sound unpleasant and leave – it's inaudible to humans.

Cats prefer smooth and soft surfaces for walking, so why not try covering part of the garden with rock chips, stones, small pebbles or netting. As soon as their paw touches a rough surface, they are sure to go away.

Garden and vegetable garden

Your pet princess can be as clean, thoroughbred and intelligent as she wants and still choose a fresh, warm bed (where you just sowed carrots, by the way) as a bed. This is at its best.

It's good to lay on a fresh bed!

Twigs, branches

We all know that cats have soft, sensitive paw pads. Dry brushwood spread around the beds will discourage them from walking on it or going about their needs. If you have leftover branches of raspberries or gooseberries after pruning, this is even more effective as they are prickly.

Mulching

Mulching is a useful agronomic technique that helps the gardener in caring for the plants. Unfortunately, cats like most types of mulch. For example, they will not refuse to lie on soft hay, dried lawn grass, small chips, sawdust, compost. But if you fill your plantings with coniferous fallen leaves, the cat prefers not to go there – it is prickly. The same effect is achieved if you cut fresh spruce twigs and put them between rows of plants. Cones are another uncomfortable type of mulch for whiskers.

Cats do not like coniferous debris

Stakes

To protect young plants from encroachment in some cases stakes help. The height is chosen experimentally, but usually it is not less than 25 cm. Personally, I once had to literally fight for the right to have a beautiful juniper bush: visiting cats chose it as a good place to "chat". The cat tags were renewed regularly, while the bush was yellowing and withering.

I had not only to stick pegs, but also to stretch a net around the coniferous plant so that the cats could not approach it. Here it is important to correctly calculate the distance from the net to the bush, so that the cats, on the one hand, could not "splash" to the target, and on the other hand, could not get inside the fence.

Sprouts

Even before the beginning of warm season the moustached ones are beginning to make it clear that all our fuss with soils, seedling containers and the like is of genuine interest for them. We have to remind the pets who's the boss.

Planting boxes are great for cats. Photo by LyudmilaLozovikZhuk

There are times when understanding cannot be achieved. Then you can use the tricks described above. For example, grease the edges of seedling containers with citrus essential oil or vinegar. A fence of sticks around the plants will prevent the cat from resting comfortably on them.

If this does not help, you can put a barrier on the approaches to the window sill, for example, from tulle. Yes, you will have to remove the barrier each time you water and then put it back in place, but the seedlings will remain unharmed.

The benefits of cats in the garden

The presence of a cat in the garden can be very beneficial for you when you need to scare away rodents from the plot. To keep your cat comfortable on the property, create a place for them to play and rest in the sun. They will appreciate plants planted nearby: catnip, common wormwood, valerian. Cats will keep your garden and plantings safe from mice and moles.

• Cat feces may contain parasites or pathogens not found in herbivore manure. This is a concern because most of us plan to eat the food we grow!
• Stray domestic cats kill songbirds, about 140 million (birds and small animals) each year.
• Stray cats can exacerbate neighborhood relations.

Ways to scare cats off the property

Do cats roam your neighborhood? Try these humane ways to keep cats out of your yard and garden so they don't dig up your prize flowers and turn your landscape into their own litter box.

Conversation with owners.

If your neighbor's cats have been poking around in your garden, the first place to start is to talk to the owners of the unwanted guests. Perhaps the cats just got away or there is a way to keep them away from your property. Ask the owner if the cat is spayed, and ask them to ensure there is a suitable toilet in their own garden.

Wet soil and auto-irrigation.

• If your pest has a favorite spot, wash it well with a hose (or water from a rainwater barrel) to remove the smell or splash of urine. Reinforce your cleanup with eco-friendly liquid soap on doors, garden furniture, etc. Cats tend to pick the same spot repeatedly, so remove their previous footprints around your garden to prevent repeat offenses.
• Cats love to get wet, so a motion-activated sprinkler that turns on every time it detects movement and animal heat is great if your patience is running low.Every time a cat wanders into your garden, the sprinkler emits a sudden stream of water along with a startling noise to scare it away.

Smells that repel cats

Cats have very sensitive noses, so even smells that are barely noticeable to us can be unpleasant for them. Some smells are so pungent that cats want to stay away.

Here are some scents that repel cats and ways to use them in the lawn and garden:

• Store-bought repellent sprays are designed to repel cats with a formula of smells they don't like.
• Citrus: scatter fresh citrus peels or spray citrus-scented spray liberally.
• Coffee grounds: after making coffee, spread used grounds around the area and in places where you've seen cats more often.
• Vinegar: Dilute vinegar with water and then spray. Do not spray near grass or a garden, as vinegar can harm plants.
• Pipe tobacco. Spread it over the area you want to protect from cats.
• Essential oils: fill a sprayer with water and add up to 10 drops of lavender, citronella, lemongrass or eucalyptus oil, then spray on the cat's favorite areas.

Neighborhood cat problems

Sharpening their claws on trees

One of the favorite activities of a normal cat is sharpening claws. A tree is the best place for this activity. Although the tree itself claw has a hard time. Young trees with soft bark especially suffer from the cat's manicure.

Marking the territory

It is a matter of honor for every adult cat to stake his territory with a "scent" mark. Not only urine is used, but also a special secret that literally burns out the plants. As the saying goes, let the cat into the garden, and lo and behold… "fragrant" marks are so ingrained that it is impossible to get them out.

Hunting birds

A cat is a hunter by nature and will hunt anything that moves. It's good if it's mice. But even birds that gardeners try to attract to their plots to fight pests will also be hunted. And even small domestic fowl can be spun by an adult cat.

Chickens and chicks of other domesticated birds often become victims of these moustached hunters.

They trample and eat plants.

What little cat doesn't like to bask in the sun, bask in the fluffy bed or flowerbed, try the young greenery or just play with the flowers. This is how flowerbeds and beds suffer.

They set up unauthorized toilets in the beds

In the spring of this activity, cats – lovers of burying their "creations" just dig up seeds and sprouts. And in the summer the owners, digging up carrots fertilized by their pet, have far from tender feelings towards their and their neighbors Vaska and Purkas. Besides "cat manure" is not fertilizer but a possible source of toxoplasmosis infection, a dangerous disease for people (especially for pregnant women).

Cats can infect helminthes: it is enough not to wash properly the crops from the bed.

Folk ways to scare away the neighbor's cats from the garden plot

That's how a harmless creature that recently purred peacefully on the couch, curled up in a cozy ball, becomes a real barbarian in the eyes of the owners. And then there uninvited guests with tails from the neighboring plots, and cats that are "in free flight. The problem acquires global proportions. Brainstorming begins in search of an answer to the question, "How do I keep my neighbor's cats off my property and teach mine to observe the norms of decency?" Here are a few methods from the folk piggy bank.

Repellent plants

The smells of some plants cats categorically do not tolerate. These include:

This trio will decorate the garden and tickle the whiskers of purrs with an unpleasant smell for them.

Two other garden "scarecrows" are wormwood and coleus dogwood. Planted around the perimeter of the plot, they will become a reliable barrier to furry "pests".

You can plant tobacco, but dried and crushed leaves of this plant, scattered over the plot, are good as a repellent.

Vinegar

Ammonia, kerosene, gasoline and crealine are at the same level as vinegar: they are all intolerant to the delicate sense of smell of cats.

Old rags are moistened with these "stinky" liquids and scattered around the area. This budget option will ruin the appearance of the garden, but the cats will realize that this area should be avoided.

Homemade repellents

Spraying is a way to protect the plantings without throwing foreign objects.

Chopped garlic and a few drops of citrus essential oil are added to the mixture. The liquid is poured into a bottle with a sprayer and sprayed on the soil under the plants.

You can prepare a vinegar and soap solution. To do this, you need to mix vinegar, liquid soap and water in equal proportions. With this composition, spray the areas that cats most often use as a toilet.

Vinegar quickly evaporates, so the procedure of spreading the rags or spraying will have to be repeated periodically.

Protect seedlings: a mission is possible

It all starts with the seedlings. Check what the hostess sowed, try the seedlings on the teeth, to lie on young greenery – the favorite activity of many fluffy animals. Yes, and indoor flowers suffer from their attention. What to do?

Toothpicks are not always good enough to protect against cats

A cat understands: if the mistress tries to do something about the seedlings, she will splash water on him, too.

It is said that cats are frightened off by the smell of citrus fruits and some spices. But this is not certain.

But in general, the method can work. The main thing is to find exactly the scent that is unpleasant to your pet. Of the tips that I have come across: wipe pots (windowsill) with vinegar; place a bay leaf; put an open jar of balsam "Zvezdochka" next to the plants; sprinkle with any perfume. Although perhaps the simplest and most reliable solution is to use special products, such as "Antigadine" or similar.

• Put protective nets and screens

In my opinion, the most effective, reliable and practical way. Though not without its disadvantages:

• First, such protection must be specially mastered and somehow fastened where the seedlings are;
• Secondly, if the cat is active, you need a very robust structure to withstand its pressure;
• thirdly, it is more difficult to take care of the plants, because every time they have to be opened and reliably closed again.

Bed protection: The cat won't get past!

The interest of whiskers and striped animals in our beds is usually very practical: in loose soil it is easier to dig a hole, to cope with the toilet.

Good job owners – take care of the cat!

So, however paradoxical it sounds advice to equip the cats on the site a comfortable place toilets, it may work. Special "sandpit" or even just a piece of dug up land in a secluded corner of the garden – and maybe there will be no more unpleasant "surprises" in the garden beds.

If you equip the animals with a comfortable toilet on the plot, perhaps the beds will cease to attract them

But not everyone wants to have on their garden such "decoration". Yes, and one hundred percent protection it does not give, we need options more reliable. For example.

Metal nets and grids don't bother the plants, but they bother the cat

But there is a downside. If your cat not only comes to the bed to dig in the ground, but also to bask in the sun, such protection will not stop him. The solution: put up a netting on a simple frame of greenhouse arcs – and the plants are at ease, and the cat won't pass through.

The grid can be thrown over the bed, but it's better to fix it on the arcs

By the way, the shelter in general can be anything – both mosquito netting and thin spunbond will do. The main thing is to create a protective barrier between the cat and the bed.

How to scare away cats

wikiHow operates on the principle of a wiki, which means that many of our articles are written by multiple authors. Volunteer authors worked on editing and improving this article while creating it.

If you are dealing with your own cats, your neighbor's pets, or other members of the feline family, you may want to know how to safely keep them off your property without harming the cats or the environment. There are plenty of options to quickly, easily and naturally make your space less attractive to cats, whether indoors or outdoors. Explore step one for more details.

How to repel domestic cats

• Some cat owners report a good experience in solving similar problems by using strips of duct tape on the armrests of sofas or cushions, in order to create a strange and unpleasant texture for cats. By attaching tape with the sticky side up or down, you can achieve the desired result, as this method works as an effective deterrent.
• Equally effective is the use of scented repellents on small sheets or pieces of foil, in order to make a particular place in your home less attractive to the cat. You'll learn more about these scents by watching the next step.

• Lemongrass, lavender, coleus, and other natural scents that deter cats. Try placing lavender and citrus zest in small vases on shelves near fragile items or in other places where your cat doesn't have to walk at all. If there is a need, add essential oils of the same scents to increase the concentration of the scents. By using a lavender or citrus scent spray on your carpets, cats will stay away from certain rooms in your home. You can also use these sprays on other soft surfaces, such as curtains and bedspreads, to deter cats from them.
• Most cat repellents that are commercially available are made from fox urine or waste from other predators. You probably wouldn't be thrilled about using such products in your own home, but you can read more about that below.