Cat poo on my veg!

[onefivenine]

Oh dear... so much for the 'lion dung' deterrent... just heard neighbour chasing cat from flower bed!

[emilymup]

I too suffer with cats using my raised beds as toilets. I now completely cover the beds with wire mesh and plant through it. Not had any poo for a long time now! Bit drastic I know!

[sauzee]

Why should you have to go to the expense of putting up barriers.My neighbour has three dressed female cats which when in season attract every male cat around. Which in turn rip up my plants and spray at back door and cry all night.The cat owners should pay for the barriers to save ill feelings with neighbours and stop objects thrown at them

[Lemon]

We have a family with three cats near us and this time last year, they thought our 2 raised veg beds were their toilet (the cats not the family!). I was constantly picking out poo (not fun when they bury it under the earth) - and many a row of seedlings were ruined by their scratching. Hubby built panels about knee high covered with netting which we place around the beds - it keeps the cats out and if we get a finer mesh netting it should keep the darned Cabbage White butterfly out!

Have yet to start planting this year - bit slow off mark I know - but it will also be more challenging as we now have two free-range diggers who rule the garden - our girlees Bokky & Korma. I think the panels and netting will come in useful again this year as they seem to think everything in the garden is for their sampling. Have now had to move the asparagus pot as they have sampled it before we have (only planted it last year and resisted temptation to eat it), the strawberries had to be moved as they were digging the soil out of the pots and the troughs of Goji berries had to be moved as the chickens had obviously read about this new superfruit and its beneficial properties as they didn't leave us a single berry!

By the way - I am a cat lover, my mum has one at home. I just don't like the ones near me as they poop in my veg beds, scratch out the seeds and terrorise the chickens. We've bought a pair of water guns to show the cats whose garden it belongs to!

[Sonata]

Oh don't get me STARTED on cats pooing on veg. Our local friendly one (I think) used to be welcome in our house - not so any more after I noticed him pooing in my veggie patch.

I've found (fresh) orange peel and tea bags to be helpful. However, they have to be replaced regularly as I found out yesterday when I came hoome to a great big stinking pile of cat poo between two rows of my precious (just planted out the day before to replace some that hadn't survived) pak choi..with one seedling dug out during the covering up process.

That's the worse bit too..you scan to locate and pick it up asap (I have a toddler who is very keen on hanging around the patch, so obviously don't want poo there for her to pick up) and miss it because it's buried.

I believe that if you find and pick it up within 24 hours, the toxo isn't such a problem..just don't leave it.

[Andy D]

I've got this problem and wonder whether my local farmer would lend me an electric fence...

Hmm perhaps not - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3049297.stm

But this looks interesting - http://www.electricfencing.co.uk/keepout.asp

I wonder what the legality, and how humane it is?

[sternyboy]

At the end of the day, if your dog was to dump on a nieghbours lawn and yo left it there'd be murders but cats are Ok? I think not!!! I'd not hesitate to let my dogs out of throw things at them!! They are a pest if you ask me and have no loyalties to the owner, if someone gives them a bit of food they prefer then they are gone!!

[sweetiepea]

One dog, eight cats and three kittens (little darlings) - not a problem in the veg patch. They have their own spots in the fields. Uncles cat and neighbours dog SEEN using largest veg bed as loo. Netting going in today. Will consider sharp sticks to stop the dog.

[purplekat]

Thanks for the bit of perspective duronal, just to add - wild bird droppings can spread salmonella and e coli does everyone think it's a good idea to shoot all those as well!

As for why should you have to pay to protect your crops - most people put up barriers to keep the birds, butterflies and rodents off their veg or pay for insecticides/rat and mice poison etc so why not pay for a barrier to keep cats off. Plus cats will help keep the rodent population down in the area.
Yes they are annoying when they did up your patch, I know I have the problem myself but please, the solution is not to kill, hurt or poison.

[flubba-jubba]

if i found out anyone did anything to my Scratchy for poo-ing in their garden i dont think i could control my actions!!

people just have to find humane ways of keeping cats out or protecting their fruit & veg better im afraid!!

[VampireJack]

Being an animal lover I really don't want to do anything that would harm the cats (yes, they can be pests, but can be very loving also) so I would never use chili powder or mothballs.
What worked for me last year (although it was a little unsightly, but was worth the hassle) was just laying bamboo canes between my rows of veg, both horizontally and vertically (flat against the ground - not upwards towards the sky!) in a noughts and crosses like design. If you can slightly raise them (balanced on bricks for example) more the better. The closer you can manage to have them to each other the better.
It did the trick, and really wasn't that expensive to do. Seems that if the cat tries to walk on them they can roll over which will (in my experience) scare them off.
Maybe throw some citrus peel on the plot too, but try and chop finely as it may give slugs a nice warm home.....

I also tried netting above my plot, but then I caught next doors pesky cat jumping onto it, balancing precariously and taking a dump.
I'm certain it flipped me off one on it's way out of the garden. So, not too successful - although to be fair, the netting wasn't very high so maybe was my own fault.