So, the local cats shitting in the garden has gotten to a point where the kids can’t safely get out to play without us needing to sweep the lawn/gravel/boarders for fresh (or stale) droppings each day. I’ve tried making things less attractive to them by leaving slightly pokey branches about the garden but this doesn’t seem to be doing much.

A potential next step is a motion activated sprinkler to keep them off the garden and was wondering if anyone here might have tried this in the past.

Do they work? Are they overly cruel? Any suggestions for a good one? Is it fair to test it on the kids?

There was a cat shit thread on here not long ago that I need to find as it had some good recomendations, cat pooping in our front garden ☹️

We have a cat activated Jack Russell…

I have the same problem , wouldn’t hurt them but I hate the wee feckers . I’m going to try this,https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71gp8pktiPL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Pepper spray; fill the sprinkler with bleach.
Shoot the verminous bastards.
As for hurting them or being cruel – no problem; they would happily scratch out your eyeballs.

Sprinkle a few handfuls of this around the hotspots. They don’t like the smell –
https://www.viovet.co.uk/NAF-Garlic-Powder-Granules-for-Horses/c6404/?quick_find=126850&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrdKhz8X56wIVyentCh3ZzAUDEAQYAiABEgItLPD_BwE

Lifted from a previous cat post

How to stop the neighbour’s cat crapping in my garden

G Ebay

Kit car windscreen wiper kit – bout £9
12v timer relay – bout 5
Photoelectric sensor bout 5
Wires, plastic box, 14v drill battery I had lying about
Installed on cat walk through – traffic now noticeably down

Option 2 – remote and receiver set about 8, add timer relay and wiper kit so you can watch

Is the gravel 10mm pea shingle, it’s the same size as kitty litter, I was advised 30mm min and sharp edged.

There’s loads of stuff they’re supposed to not like the smell of – orange peel, lavendar, pepper, formulated granules and capsules you can buy – but they want to shit there, they will. I put some spike strip down and the first night they even walked on that and left a little pile of ‘up yours human’. Not been on it since thankfully. But a few weeks ago decided my front grass was the new loo. Cleaned it up every day, put down the anti-cat smells. New piles the next day.
Put down lavendar.. new piles. Left them and nothing new since. hmmm
Vile little bastards.

I’ve tried making things less attractive to them by leaving slightly pokey branches about the garden but this doesn’t seem to be doing much.

Hmm. Wild animals aren’t bothered about some twigs lying around. There’s a surprise.

A sprinkler will work quite well. We have 5 indoor cats (well 4 and an old cat who can’t get out of the garden). I’d sometimes put blame down at the ‘servants’ for not having fresh litter. We’ve also always ensured the cats do have somewhere to go in the garden. Our old cat, who can’t see very well, pushes behind some plants for some soil to have a crap if she can’t get in the house – she’s never crapped or peed on the lawn.

With all the cat’s we’ve had, most have come in for a poop – out indoor cat’s have a large cat run in the garden, with assess to shingle and soil to poop in. They still come in for a crap and a pee.

If you fancy a bit of fun, a super soaker is quite good – we’ve used them in the past with nightmare Tom cats – you don’t even need to hit them, but the surprise is often enough to stop them coming back.

Cats love freshly dug soil – maybe use bark. Despite many neighbour’s having cats, we don’t see any sh1tting on the lawns though. Might sound daft, but how about somewhere in the garden out of the way that’s got some fresh soil – away from the kids – behind a shed, end of garden ?. I know you shouldn’t have to, but the cats will go there.

Cat latrine here. Until i put up a metal windchime and 2 beach spinny windmill things. Cats seem to hate these. Neighbours think were mad mind.

I had a problem here with a feral colony a few years back, there were at least half a dozen of them. Part of it is a territorial thing. I marked my territory myself over a couple of nights and it stopped immediately.

As above – mark the territory yourself – works pretty well, is cheap and you can make more repellent just by drinking more..

you can make more repellent just by drinking more..

Men have been making themselves more repellent by drinking more for millennia.

A colleague at work bought a motion activated sprinkler for his front garden that was being inundated with cat poo.
It worked, but I think he also got the postman a couple of times (bit rude of the postman to be crapping on his lawn, so probably deserved it).
No direct experience of a sprinkler, but in our old house we had a timid cat who was being terrorised by a much larger cat. I got into the habit of having a full pint glass of water in the lounge if I had the patio door open. I got quite good at wanging an arc of water that the terrorising cat couldn’t get away from. It only took about 3 direct hits, before it got the message & stayed away.

Garden-mad neighbours over the road have taken to leaving rose stem/twig/stick trimmings on the flower beds where they have had deposits. No idea if it works though.

Thanks for the replies.

I don’t think the wind charms or stinky substances are going to cut in in our garden. The two main offenders are next doors new (ish) kittens who would probably just end up playing with them and they don’t at all seem put off by the lavender we put in.

I’ll probably try and get hold of some chunkier gravel to see if that puts them off using that part of the garden (it needs doing anyway so guess this is as good as an excuse as I’ll get to do that) and then I guess it is worth gambling £30 to give one of these a go.

After seeing the video above I’m half tempted to roll my own verosion, with some pop up sprinkler heads (I could even use them to water the garden in the summer), as I suspect I could get a better instant coverage but will try the cheep off the shelf option 1st.

If I am going to try this, does anyone have any recommendations for motion activated video cameras I could pair it up with? Just to make sure it’s working.

Sprinkler and wildlife camera on order. Will report back if I get a good response or any decent pictures/video.

I have tried the smelly granules, they worked for a day or two.
This definitely works:

I did have to dial down the sensitivity a lot, to stop it from scaring/wetting passers by. Also the unit is a little battery-hungry, but AA batteries are cheap-ish.

If you fancy a bit of fun, a super soaker is quite good – we’ve used them in the past with nightmare Tom cats – you don’t even need to hit them, but the surprise is often enough to stop them coming back.

We moved house a couple of years ago and next door have a bastard ginger tom who thinks he owns the road. When I introduced myself to the neighbours and the lady opposite, they all mentioned this feline bellend and how they sometimes find him curled up on their beds because he climbs in open windows.

I have chased him out of my kitchen a few times and thrown things at him when he was in my garage.

I bought a super soaker and have managed to get the little **** a few times plumb in the face and a few other body shots. The **** is genuinely scared of me and will not come near our garden. If it sees me it runs a mile.

The trouble is you can’t do anything too bad too them because they will make a Netflix documentary on it!

AA batteries are cheap-ish.

Dude, rechargeables.