A cat, which is definitely not my next doors neighbour's, oh no, has taken to crapping on a raised bed where we've got food planted. I've put down mesh , but it now just does it on top of that. It doesn't seem to be bothered by chilli powder.
What can i do that will stop the poo without me having to sit on permanent guard with a gun? And doesn't involve nuking it from orbit, despite that being the only way to be sure?
You can get a cat scarer – it makes a high-pitched noise when cats come close. White ones are generally deaf apparently so don't always get scared away and some try to square up to it. However, it mostly works – no more crap in my veg patch and they're not about as often (and certainly not in that part of the garden) killing the birds.
I've got a similar problem.
I've tried
Orange peel
Ultra sonic PIR alarm thingy
Green jelly granules
Gralic granules
Horribly spiky twigs/branches
The orange peel didn't seem to help, the Ultra sonic seems effective, but hard to be sure as I've not tried it on its own, the granules seemed to work too but are expensive. Covering the soil with plenty of spiky branches works well understandably and is cheap too!
Spikey branches have been working for us so far. I was wondering if we are legally required to return the poo to the cat's owners as we are with over-hanging branches.
Your veg is pretty good at filtering the nutrients out of the poo and turning it into something edible, nature's been doing that for millions of years, leave it to it? Of course you could get worked up over it but you'd need to put it in a greenhouse to try to stop the birds/insects/mice/rats/voles etc pooing in it too.
Best option, other than MTFUing, is to raise the mesh on sticks into a box-like setup that's taller than the cats legs and taut, it won't like it if the net comes up under its armpits.
I believe, but I'm no expert, the white gene is linked to an increased likelyhood of deafness (just so happen to occur together) and so some are but it's just a wives tale that all white cats are.
pook had the same problem in my garden, in the end I made a net frame which covers our veg.
Solved the problem, does not look pretty mind & does not stop them using my lawn instead 😉
On the BBC, Gardeners World Show, they mentioned a plant called Coleus Canina (I think) that was good for deterring cats, never tried it, but might be worth looking into?
95% of the general cat population is non-white cats (i.e. not pure white) and congenital deafness is extremely rare in non-white cats.
5% of the general cat population is white cats (i.e. pure white). 15-40% of these pure white cats have one or two blue-eyes.
Of those white cats with one or two blue eyes, 60-80% are deaf; 20-40% have normal hearing; 30-40% had one blue eye and were deaf while 60-70% had one blue eye and normal hearing.
Of the 5% of white cats in the overall population, 60-80% had eyes of other colors (e.g. orange, green). Of those 10- 20% were deaf and 80-90% had normal hearing.
Deaf white cats with one or two blue eyes account for 0.25 – 1.5 of total cat population
Total number of cats with white coat and blue eyes account for 0.75 – 2.0% of total cat population
We had a pure white one, deaf as a bleeding post it was,though that may just be a coincidence. It used make a right racket trying to sneak along the fence to get at birds and squirrels , mewling away and with a huge bell dangling off it, whilst they just sat there looking at it and taking the p**s. It used to bring leaves,crisp packets, mars bar etc wrappers back instead of mice.
We had a pure white one, deaf as a bleeding post it was,though that may just be a coincidence. It used make a right racket trying to sneak along the fence to get at birds and squirrels , mewling away and with a huge bell dangling off it, whilst they just sat there looking at it and taking the p**s. It used to bring leaves,crisp packets, mars bar etc wrappers back instead of mice.
LOL, we had a frog left as a offering for us by one of ours yesterday, kids managed to bring it back to life in the bath, now they want to keep the thing as a pet!
Jeyes fluid sprayed around the area seems to work (obviously not on your veg)
Maybe a couple of tea bags soaked in it placed around your planter may do the trick.
I've tried two tactics at once so I don't know which worked, but I now have no problems with cat **** whatsoever.
a. I started growing mint and lovage mixed in with my plants. Very pungent herbs and I figure the cats don't like them.
b. In a moment of inspiration i thought 'if they can't sit, they can't …' so I pushed some 4" high wire bordering into the ground, zig zagged across the dirt.
