TIA,
Ellen

D.

Just like in many other cases - my neighbors are irresponsible about their cats as well and left me with only one choice...

No need to buy traps... Call the animal control in your city who will provide you with a trap. Once you trap a cat all you need to do is call the animal control and they pick the cat up. I am only on my 9th day, yet have caught 8 cats. Good luck.

Trapping and sending your neighbor's pets to the pound is mean and in some cases may be illegal. Death isn't appropriate punishment for pooping in someone's garden and most likely the owner will never even know what happened to the cat or why nor "learn their lesson"

I've got a lot of bare soil where ground covers or young shrubs and perennials haven't grown all the way in yet and mulching with composted yard debris has been a deterrant that has worked well. Mulching between young ground covers is recommened whether you have a cat problem or not.

You can also lay down chicken wire or bird netting and lightly cover it with mulch in areas they really like. You can also lay down branches or twigs temporarily, until they learn.

Using motion activated sprinklers can work, shooting the cats with a hose, water cannon or even just yelling at them can train them that your yard isn't somewhere they should be.

I get angry when my neighbor's dog gets out and poops on my lawn or when my other neighbor lets her leashed dog lift his leg on my plants along my curb but I would never consider harming the dogs!

Collectors usually have unsocialized or feral animals that cannot usually be considered pets. Many have to be euthanized when the authorities do catch up with them.

That is different than trapping your neighbor's beloved pet.
Multnomah County Animal Control euthanizes more animals than they successfully adopt or are reclaimed by their owners. Sending someone's pet there is as good as having it killed.

I stepped in a nice big pile of dog poop on my front lawn (which is bordered by an 8' wide mixed border so the dog had to come up my driveway to get to the lawn) just the other day. I am not going to grab him and take him to the shelter the next time he is loose. Poop happens.

There is bird, raccoon, opossum and squirrel poop in my yard too.....

Our neighbor behind would rescue strays. She got them all fixed, vaccinated and did take good care of them but she fed some of the wilder ones outside and sometimes it seemed like there were twenty five cats in her yard. We really did not have problems. Her yapping Dachsunds were more problems than all the cats. We lived next to her for 11 years. She moved this last summer. She took the tame cats with her and her mother moved into the house with two really obnoxious yapping Yorkies. The mother has gradually stopped the outdoor feeding and the daughter and her husband gradually collected all of the cats so there are no more. I'm hoping the raccoons will be reduced too since they were drawn to the cat food. I had more problems with them than the cats.

Faith

Keep in mind that each cat is different (like people), what works for one may not necessarily work for another. On the plus side, most cats will keep pesty squirrels, moles and other critters out of your garden. They're great for keeping out moles, rabbits, squirrels, and other critters which can do more damage in your garden than a cat ever will. Birds aren't stupid, they watch for cats and stay away. Sometimes natural law comes into play and the quicker animal wins, it's natural law.

If the cats have owners, talk to them without being confrontational. The cat owner who allows his cat to damage other peoples' property is as guilty as the cat hater who kills the cat for trespassing. Remember, cats will be cats, and it is unfair of us to blame them for being what they are and how nature intended them to participate in this world. After-all, we praise them when they catch mice or rats or other creatures we deem to be 'pests'.

* amonia soaked (corncobs, etc)
* aluminum foil
* bamboo skewers
* black pepper
* blood meal fertilizer
* bramble cuttings
* Carefresh - "recycled" wood pulp
* catnip - donated into your neighbor's yards (so they'll stay in their own yards)
* cedar compost
* chicken wire (metal or plastic)
* cinnamon
* citrus peels
* citrus spray
* cocoa bean shells
* coffee grounds -fresh & unbrewed, not just a light sprinkling (highly recommended by MANY Gardenwebbers!)
* dogs
* electric fence for animals
* essence of orange. essence of lemon, lime (citrus essential oils)
* fresh manure(ditto)
* garlic cloves
* gumballs from the Sweet Gum Tree
* gutter covers
* hardware cloth
* 2 liter bottle full of water (magnifies movement on other side)
* heavy bark mulch
* holly leaves
* keep the area damp, they like dry soil
* lavender
* liquid manure (good for your garden too)
* motion sensor sprinkler
* pennyroyal
* pinecones
* pipe tobacco
* plastic forks
* predator urine
* red wine vinegar
* river rocks over the exposed soil
* rocks, crushed
* rose bush clippings
* rue, an herb (Ruta graveolens) (highly recommended in plant form only)
Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler
(do a froogle.com search or www.safepetproducts.com)
Shake-Away Domestic Cat Repellent Urine Powder
(do a froogle.com search or www.safepetproducts.com)
* short twigs throughout the planted area about 6" apart
* six-inch bamboo skewers (pointy side up)
* Spray on your leaves (not the cat): fill a spray bottle with 1/2 t chili powder, 1/2 t cayenne pepper, 1 t dish soap and water
* squirt gun with water
* talk to your neighbors
* tansy
* thorny berry, lilac, hawthorn, rose clippings
* toothpicks
* upside down vinyl carpet
* vinegar sprayed on areas where they roam
* water bottle on "stream"

NOT RECOMMENDED:
*** chili powder, red crushed pepper, cayenne pepper (NOT recommended), it gets on the cat's paws then they wash themselves and they get it in their eyes, beware cats have literally scratched their eyes out because of this. Even if it's one cat out of 500 infected in this way, that's one too many for me.
*** Don't ever use mothballs or flakes. Those little toxic waste pellets destroy cats' kidney function, could seriously harm people who handle them, and yes, contaminate your own garden soil. Their packaging even warns against using them this way.

Give them their own areas:

(To keep them out of where you don't want them)
(If you don't mind them protecting your garden from other critters)

+ Pick the cat up and bring it to eye level with the plant to see and smell it up close. Usually, once a cat seen and sniffed at the plant, she usually doesn't bother with it later.

+ give them their own plants - i.e., pots of grass for her to chew on and a place in a large planted container on her balcony with some miscanthus grass in it (the cat likes to curl up in that for some reason)

+ if the cats are strictly indoors and attracted to your houseplants, grow catgrass for them. If someone forced you to remain inside one enclosed structure all your life, you might be attracted to the plants too.

+ Barley Grass
+ Any type of "catgrass" from the pet store
+ Carex elata 'Bolwes Golden' but put it in some shade
+ Catmint
Nepeta mussini
cultivars (Simply put, Catmints are Catnips without any culinary or feline use. In any case, they are, however, phenomenal, long flowering, hardy perennials that belong in every fairie or flower garden.)
+ Catnip
Nepeta cataria
(in your own yard) The oils of which also work as a mosquito repellent that works 10 times better than Deet! Catmint is the common name for all varieties of Nepeta. Catnip is the common name for the specific variety of Nepeta called
nepeta cataria
, which is the variety that cats are most attracted to.
+ Cat Thyme (Teucrium marum)
+ Flax
+ Oat Grass
+ Jacob's Ladder
+ Lemon Grass
+ Loose soil and mulch like small bark mulch
+ Mints
+ Purple Fountain Grass so the cat lays in the long leaves all day. Maybe put something in that the cats really like and - you know cats won't winky were they like to hang out.
+ Sandy area
+ Silver vine (Actinidia polygama)
+ Striped Ribbon Grass (can be invasive)
+ Sweet grass
+ Trificum aestivum (type of cat grass)
+ Various Varieties of Cat Mints (Catnips)
+ Wheat Grass
+ Wheat Berries
+ Valerian

As a gardener, grow your indoor cat some catgrass and catnip. They're healthy alternatives for your houseplants and they'll much prefer them.

Change the litter to something they prefer. If you don't clean it out everyday, consider it. Cat's appreciate a clean, comfortable place to go just as much as humans do.

This list compiled from existing GW posts by Violet_Z6, email at violet.z6@gmail.com for comments and suggestions regarding this list.

A......

I also can't have plants covering every spot of bare earth ;-)

I meant coarse bark nuggets, not fine shred. Fine shred is like compost, easy for them to use.

And, actually, you really should have all your bare dirt covered - unless you are leaving areas of soil open to warm up for plants that need it, like warm season annual vegetables.

CatStop is the one product that I've found works 100%. My DM had problems with the neighbors cats living in her yard and stalking her bird feeder. She set up 2-3 of the units and never saw the cats again. They can be costly, but I searched online and on ebay and found much lower prices.

Raccoon feces look and smell like cat and they don't cover it up. We had raccoons going on the roof of our shed until all overhanging branches were removed. They were also going on the rocks around the pond before we put up an electric fence.

The website below has do it yourself plans for a motion activated water cannon. Much cheaper than buying a Scarecrow. Raccoons don't mind being squirted though...

That being said, i would have a real problem with a neighbor who chose to trap my cats and take them to the pound vs. talking to me first.

I can understand your frustration, however as there are many stray cats in my neighborhood, that spray/pee my porch and railings. Generally, this causes my cats to freak out and spray/pee back. I do sympathize.

Thank you, buyorsell, about pointing out that racoons have similar scat. I hadn't thought of that.

Dogs can be just as much of a problem for the garden. Unleashed dogs do poop on my property and they do bark all night. But that doesn't mean I am going to trap them and send them to the pound.

So....
1. Must be organic
2. Must be dafe for children and pets, like I said, I don't want the cats dead, just out of my garden
3. must not hinder seeds sprouting and things starting to grow
4. Prefer to make it from stuff around the house, if possible
5. No sprinklers. I don't have the $ to be spending on that stuff what with saving money for the new baby
6. Remember that I do not see these cats in my yard, but I know it's them. I found a fresh turd in the bare earth yesterday. I almost threw up.
7. Absolutely no cayenne pepper and the like that will burn me, my kids who help me in the garden or my dogs who sit near me (not in the bed) while I garden
8. Something that will work quickly, as this is a serious health risk to myself and my unborn child
9. I sincerely doubt the humane society will come all the way out here in the boonies every day to set a trap and pick one up every day. We live pretty far out. And I don't have that kind of time.

Any suggestions?

Good luck!

Wearing gloves and washing your hands before touching your face, eating, cooking or preparing food will protect you from toxoplasmosis. You have to actually ingest infected feces to get it.

Who knew outdoor cats had this lifestyle? My large, soft, geriatric, indoor cat is amazed at all the action in our totally fenced backyard. A couple of notes and then perhaps someone else can share more: the 8 stray cats that live on the old lady's front lawn next door(some are pregnant! yay!) enjoy napping under my giant lavender plant. Right. Ok.
They also poop on long, wet, green grass in my backyard. How is that like cat litter?

I am however, buoyed by the idea of hardware cloth - s'pose I could lay this along the top of my fence? They don't like walking on it, is that it? Also the outdoor cat box is a brilliant idea! But for the cleaning of it. And the water bottle! Our grandmas were alright, man. I'm so trying that tonight.

My pug dogs do their level best to chase the wee beasties away and are responding very well to me hissing "Go get 'im." Bless. But every. other. fricking. day the dogs still get to that chocolate pudding before I do and start lapping it up. I tell you, I am one step away from maddness. Must all stray cats have runny bums??? I swear I wouldn't mind a daily turd find because as someone said, crap happens. But not as a breakfast blend.

So, what's my point? I love all these ideas. Keep 'em coming! I'll let you know about hardware cloth. Thanks for making my day. I thought I was the only crazy person on earth running around my yard in my pj's at 6am with a plastic bag full of cat chocolate, shaking a can of pennies into the ether.

It is also not normal for it to be runny.

Likely it is raccoons, regardless of how many cats are hanging out in your yard.

Here is a website for inexpensive cat fencing that will keep your cat in & other cats out. If you look at the picture you can see that you don't even have to buy it, I think all the components would be readily available at home depot.

www.catfence.com

Do you have a pond? or leave food out for your dogs? Both will attract them to your yard. As will sheltering trees and shrubs.

Coffee grounds are working a bit and those bamboo skewers are doing wonders in the empty spaces between my plants. I even put down some cocoa bean mulch in the front yard around new plants(NOTE: poisonous to dogs, so not in the back)and that's working well.

I now consider it a sport to get to the poop before my dogs do and they consider it a sport to chase the cats out. So, we seem to have come to an agreement.

Raccoons in Phoenix!! LOL! I love it.

While we also have cat poop problems (though many of the feral cats have been trapped or CNR), our problem is RACCOON POOP!

Went up on our shed roof over the weekend (the shed has been smelling like sh*t, thus the investigation) and found pile after pile of raccoon feces. Cleaned it all up, used a disinfectant (thinking it might be a deterrent).

Just 30 mins ago, my wife witnessed a raccoon coming from our neighbor's tree onto our roof, and took a big squat!

Does anyone know a good way to get rid of the "raccoon pooping ground" on our shed roof?

Why so many raccoons? We live across the street from Green-Wood Cemetery's 478 acres...though most of our furry friends roost in the trees between our row houses.

Thanks!

Excellent results were had with small river rocks to cover a small patch of soil next to my patio. The stray cat immediately stopped his daily diarrhea deposit in that spot.

I lived in Phoenix for fifteen years.

Raccoons are almost 100% nocturnal especially in the desert. It would be very rare to see one but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

I belong to an online pond forum and have since 1999 and have multiple friends who have ponds in Phoenix and who do have raccoon problems. Right in the city.

Raccoons are native to the Sonoran Desert and they are supremely adapted to life in cities with humans. Raccoon populations have spread and grown with cities.

Phoenix has tons of habitat perfect for raccoons. The canals and irrigation ditches are full of crayfish. There are golfcourses and condos with lakes on every other corner. There are millions of people with garbage, pet food and backyard ponds with fishy buffets for them.

Are there overhanging branches that give the coons access to your shed roof?

we had the same problem until we severely pruned the neighbor's pine tree and once the shed roof was totally out in the open they stopped going up there.

I miss the look of the branches but the smell and mess were foul and I don't miss that at all.

The neighbor's finally trimmed all of their overgrown conifers that they should never have planted in the first place and raccoon traffic in general has been slowed up.

one was in my front yard pond last night though. Tore my waterlilies to shreds.......My fish pond is electrified but the smaller ponds aren't.

You might end up having to run a hotwire across your shed roof. Fidoshock is about fifty bucks and available at Petco and Petsmart. Lower voltage than livestock hot wires. Easy to install.

Thanks. Funny enough, that's how we found out about our high-point bathroom. I went up on the roof of our shed to clean off debris and severely prune "the tree of Brooklyn" the ailanthus.

Left ONE overhanging branch stump (it was substantial in size, needing perhaps a chainsaw). Darn it if the bugger just jumped over last night and took a big dookie in front of my wife and I.

We will resort to further trimming this weekend, though we have phone/cable lines running close by. Can't cu those ;)

Sigh!

Still have the problem, though not as much as we have gotten a dog... dog isn't out in the garden all day though!! What garden I have is behind chicken wire at the moment!

wish me luck

I myself have been obsessed with this topic since I got a yard of my very own (a year and a half ago!). I tried the orange peels...didn't know they should be rotting, so thanks for that. Sticks poking out of the ground also works great.

Here is one that I didn't read on this post. Set up string (think cat sized tight-rope) a couple/few inches above your fence. Apparently this makes climbing over the fence difficult. I haven't tried this myself, but would love to know if you have and if it was successful.

Otherwise, away from lawns: Cobbles, cobbles, cobbles. Bare dusty dirt needs to be covered anyway, and cats do not like to try and push rocks aside. Turn an eyesore and source of disgust into an ornamental feature - permanently.

For larger areas, bark mulch works. Cats poop only in my new beds with beautiful compost and smallish plants. I'm hoping that as the plants fill in the cats will not have as much surface area to poop on.

I learned another way to tell cat poop from racoon poop. In additio to being on top of the grass or other surface, racoon poop is smooth and wettish, and cat poop is dryer and segmented. We'd been finding poop right on top of the grass and I told my husband that in over 40 years of living with cats, I'd never seen a cat poop right on top of the lawn without digging.

1/4 acre, completely fenced, but fences are considered playground amenities by cats.

I chase and bark at the cats. Only thing that works. Thinking of getting a Newfoundland puppy but that breed gets along really well with other animals. I'm more ferocious.

These wild songbirds like to congregate and socialize this time of year. There are hundreds perched in the treetops making a racket. You can hear them 2 blocks away. Finches and sparrows especially noisy. This drives the cats crazy. It advertises birds, birds, zillions of birds, come and get 'em ...