Cat deterrent help please?

[Guest]

Morning can any of you lovely knowledgeable peeps recommend any tried and tested methods to deter cats?

I used to use moth balls, but like everything that actually works they are now banned and supposedly bad for you. Its not like I was eating the ruddy things (I know it is the vapour air thing but still...)

Any help is much appreciated

[Bill HH]

From what I have read, the electronic thingys that make ultra sonic noise dont work but there is one that sprays a jet of water when it detects movement which seems to have good results. best of all though is a dog.

[Fleurisa]

Prickly prunings eg holly

[Martin H]

I got some cheap bamboo canes from poundland and cut them into six inch lengths. Whenever I plant out something new I poke them into the ground maybe six inches apart for a few weeks. This stops my lovely cat from scratching around and digging up.

The cat prefers loose soil so once the plants are settled in and growing the canes get moved to the next thing.

At the moment the canes are where I planted my crocuses a week or two back. Meanwhile the cat is doing her business in the mulch around the herbaceous plants where she doesn't do much damage.

[veggiechicken]

This thread may help http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...buy_31595.html

Just a gentle reminder that any posts advocating cruelty will be deleted and may result in the thread being closed. You have been warned - so keep it kind!!

[WendyC]

Cats don't like anything citrus but you may not want peelings around your beds. As Martin said they love freshly dug soil, like where I had prepared for the wallflowers. Laying twiggy prunings over the soil deters them to go elsewhere. They are basically quite lazy so make it hard for them.

[bearded bloke]

Hi all just to say any new ideas in this thread will be copied into the thread linked by VC (post#5) as it is a "sticky" in Grape Recommendations, so it is easy to use as a master reference instead of trawling through loads of threads

[Noosner]

I haven't got a new idea about this, but just wanted to echo what others have said about cats liking bare soil. I was having problems with neighbours' cats earlier this year (the dog wasn't actually that much use! The cats were too quick) but as soon as the spaces were taken up with plants, the cats went elsewhere.

I think they like to revisit the same spot, too. So you could designate a nice, freshly dug area as a 'cat' area?

And make sure other areas are covered/occupied.

[arpoet]

Big Loud Dog?

[Zelenina]

I got some cheap bamboo canes from poundland and cut them into six inch lengths. Whenever I plant out something new I poke them into the ground maybe six inches apart for a few weeks. This stops my lovely cat from scratching around and digging up.

The cat prefers loose soil so once the plants are settled in and growing the canes get moved to the next thing.

At the moment the canes are where I planted my crocuses a week or two back. Meanwhile the cat is doing her business in the mulch around the herbaceous plants where she doesn't do much damage.

My neighbours' cat loves my new seed beds, so I've been using cheap plastic knives stuck in the ground in the same way, to prevent her having enough room to scratch and squat comfortably. Seems to work quite well, though it doesn't stop the trails of pawprints.

I'm hoping she'll keep the mouse population down, so I don't want to completely stop her visiting. But she'd better leave my lizards alone!

It also stops me treading on the seedlings accidentally, because I feel a knife under my foot, or hear the plastic crunching. I guess bamboo would be more ecologically sound, but it's not cheap here, and I don't have a car to fetch it in. Maybe I should go out in the fields when the trees and bushes are dormant and cut some twigs.

Before I came to this village, I was living and gardening temporarily in a house where the cat had six kittens. Most of the garden was lawn, so they particularly liked the nice soft soil of my veg patches. I found a couple of pieces of light plastic fencing mesh and laid them over my newly planted seeds and garlic to protect them.

[Snow]

I get problems in my garden from cats. Not only making a mess but being noisy and waking me up. Or I used to. I tried everything this summer and nothing worked. The conclusion I reached was that the only thing that works that won't harm the cat is water. They just hate getting wet. Get them wet and they won't come back.
I heard next doors cat in my garden at 4am in July, so I crept down and outside, I had left the hose unreeled, I grabbed it quietly and turned the tap on. That obviously made a noise but I managed to get his very wet before he left. Not come back since.
I then invested in the scarecrow which is attached to your house and used infrared - it works but is noisy and indiscriminate. It went off when a hedgehog came by (much to my surprise - I didn't know I had a hedgehog) so I try not to use it now. But if the cats come back next year, I'll have to.