Cat repellant

First I want to say I have no problems with my neighbour's cats, just the waste they leave in my 'garden'.

We live in apartments but on the ground floor unit, so we have a little patch of greenery out front, potted plants and such on the grass. The neighbour does not have any. They threw away all the plants when they moved in. So naturally all her cats come over here to hang out. Legally, they're not even allowed to keep cats in the apartment. I think they have 3 or 4 inside cats, and they leave food outside for all the other cats in the neighbourhood.

(It's kinda unfair coz I have to keep my dog locked up all the time because if she gets out she chases the cats up trees and then my neighbour starts screaming that we let our dog kill cats (i'm serious she did that once and started screaming for everyone in the neighbourhood/walking by to come look) My dog just gets really excited, she doesn't bite or growl even, just chases them, tail wagging wanting to play. My dog is very silly.)

So back to the topic, the cats s*** all over my garden, and it really smells, and when I go out to hang my laundry and step in the grass, I always have s*** on my slippers and it's getting pretty annoying. Extremely unpleasant actually. Ok I need to admit I'm mad enough to call the pest control to come get all these feral cats (and the non feral ones on the loose outside) and take them away. I mean stepping on s*** all the time... and cat s*** stinks the worse.

Anyone has any ideas what to do to keep these cats away? The neighbours and us don't have a very good relationship, and I don't want to do anything directly to the cats like spray water or chase them away for fear of misunderstanding. We put thorny plant cuttings in some of the pots so they stopped sleeping in them. Is there anything else I can do to keep them off our patch? Oh I can't talk tot he neighbour either, coz the wife is abit of a crazy person and behaves in a very uneducated manner, i.e. screams and yells loudly and says nasty things (like we're out to get her then calls out all her adult children to join in and they do. amazing) when we've tried to talk to her about other issues before.

Moth balls?

are they pooping on the grass? because if that's the case, that's very unusual. Cats like to poop and bury their treasures, so they most often target soil. If they are pooping on the grass, then I would have to wonder if it's really cats and not dogs pooping there?

And while I haven't stepped on any cat poop, I doubt you'll get them all over your slippers as they're often quite dry, and if they've been lying around for a while, they most definitely will not be mushed unless you have very heavy tread soles. To me it just doesn't sound like cat poop (at least not the ones I've seen, and I grew up with cats).

If you know 100% without a shadow of a doubt that there are cats pooping on your grass, there really isn't anything you can do other than to remove what they like to use as their toilet.

How're the cats getting into your garden? If it's a fence, putting up meshing helps. Also, cats HATE stepping on sticky or scratchy surface - scotch tape, the hooked part of velcro tapes, so you can probably try and put something like that around the area. I feel kinda sorry for the cats, human environments aren't exactly safe for any animals to roam around in unsupervised.

hey badger, it's a tropical climate, so the grass is thick and hides poop very well. also 90 to 100 percent humidity, so cat poop here stays kinda sticky unless its 2 days old, or the rain washes it away. cat and dog poop smells different. (but i suspect there's also someone who lets their dog do it in front of my apartment. i've seen it)

Maybe u're right and i stepped on dog doodoo, but i also smell the cat doodoo...

alexis, the cats are supervised... neighbour watches over them as they do it all over, then herds them in.

Call your landlord.

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Originally Posted by deeaimond

alexis, the cats are supervised... neighbour watches over them as they do it all over, then herds them in.

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What a ______. Your neighbor's probably one of the reasons why its still illegal to keep cats in apartments. :mad: Well, if you DON'T mind cleaning up after them, leaving a large litterbox of sand out would probably attract the cats to do their business in there rather than all over your yard. Doesn't stop them from getting in but would mean the poop is contained somewhere you can't step on them. Now what you do with the poop you scoop up from that box, is completely up to your creativity. :p

Yoicks. It seems to me the question is at least two-fold:

How to stop the cats from pooping in your yard: let's say these were your own cats. Then a large litter box or a patch of dryish dirt or sand underneath some bushes where they could dig to their hearts content would probably keep them happy. Maybe supplemented by some kind of repellent on the grass, but I don't have any experience with that. Cats are creatures of habit, so you need to break the habit.

How to stop them coming into your yard: honestly, I would go for spraying them with water. Or a light newspaper swat over the head, makes a lot of noise but doesn't hurt. That's what we've asked our neighbours to do when our nosy, bold cat comes visiting unwantedly - yell, shoo, hiss, spray them, be obnoxious and scary, just don't hurt them physically of course.

How to get on with your neighbours...: now that's the hard one. Can you pretend to be allergic? Scared of cats? Have a litter box for a while, then give it to your neighbours as a "gift"? Camouflaged as a really big plant? ;) I don't know. I'm surprised the cats are that bold, actually, when you have a dog. Can you have your dog chained outside long enough to give them the idea that your patch is the dog's territory?

Three ideas:
1. Scarecrow sprinklers at your border. These have motion detectors in them, so they'll go on automatically and spray the cats when they try to walk into your property. You can just tell your neighbors that they're up to water your garden.

2. Make a garden bed at the border between your yard and the neighbor, and lay chicken wire flat over the mulch (cut holes to fit the plants in). Cats HATE to walk on chicken wire, so this works very well to deter cats. The bed needs to be wide enough so that cat can't jump right over it.

3. And start looking for another place to live! It seems as if cat poop is the least annoying part of your neighbors.

When they poop in dirt i sprinkle cayyene pepper around and it works for a while. Not sure if it works in grass easy to try though and cheap

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Originally Posted by HipGnosis6

Call your landlord.

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Yep. This should not be your issue to deal with. Plus your neighbor is a pig. We have 4 cats, but we don't let them outdoors. #1 it's not safe for the cats and #2 any roaming pet is somebody else's nuisance.

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Originally Posted by zoom-zoom

Yep. This should not be your issue to deal with. Plus your neighbor is a pig. We have 4 cats, but we don't let them outdoors. #1 it's not safe for the cats and #2 any roaming pet is somebody else's nuisance.

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I sure wish more cat owners had your attitude.

If the talking to the landlord doesn't work I'd contact your local animal control and find out what exactly your right are. Maybe you can put out a humane trap and turn them into animal control where they'll have to be ransomed out.

/oops, you said they WATCH their cats do it? That might not work. I"d bag the poo up and hand ti to them in a brown paper bag and say, "I think you forgot something". Disgusting pigs.

as much as it may attract what you're trying to deter, I do like the idea of giving them a sand box or a patch of area where they can dig (that's if they're really made by cats). Repelling won't work, so might as well lure them to a spot where they'll keep their goodies away from your feet!! And when it's full, like others said, scoop them up in a bag and hand them to the owner.

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Originally Posted by HipGnosis6

Call your landlord.

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Especially since cats are not allowed in your apartment complex. All you need is some OTHER neighbor to see all these cats clustered around YOUR apartment, crapping everywhere and you not even cleaning it up; and have that neighbor get YOU evicted because it looks like you have cats!

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Originally Posted by badger

as much as it may attract what you're trying to deter, I do like the idea of giving them a sand box or a patch of area where they can dig (that's if they're really made by cats). Repelling won't work, so might as well lure them to a spot where they'll keep their goodies away from your feet!! And when it's full, like others said, scoop them up in a bag and hand them to the owner.

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I really don't get why one would enable these people. That is so being a doormat to the situation.

OP refers to feral cats, also. That is definitely a situation where you should be able to either call in the animal control people to, or get a humane trap from them. I am a huge fan of supporting animal control laws, and my rights as citizen/taxpayer to not have unlicensed, unsupervised roaming "pets" in my yard.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

I sure wish more cat owners had your attitude.

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As do I. We have more than a few roamers in our neighborhood...they like to spray around our doors and under our windows, which agitates our indoor cats, then they feel the need to retaliate to protect their territory. Years ago it was really bad. There were at least a dozen cats wandering around, including a mama and her feral kittens. We have a neighbor a few blocks away who has a "free kittens" sign in their yard at least 2x/year, every year. I want to kick these people where it hurts most.:mad:

wow. That was alot of posts, looks like i am not the only one who has problems with cats. in response to some ideas

landlord - no landlord. This is the land of public housing (80% nationally i think) apartments are owner occupied mostly.

'my' yard - we don't actually have a yard. We just happen to be on the ground floor so there is a patch of grass in front of my door. It's state property. So no fencing. We just put plants there so it feels like there is some greenery.

why i don't call the pest control people - because ultimately i still need to live next to these people, and they do love their cats, they're just not very educated about keeping them as pets. Same way i don't want the AVA (agro-vet authorities) to come take away my dog coz people say she barks and runs out without a leash sometimes (we do have a dog license but if we break the laws and people complain they can take her away.) And i will feel bad for the cats, they don't do anything wrong.

The point about the soil makes sense i didn't really think of that before, the cat **** smell got stronger only in recent months even though the cats have been here for ages. they used to do it in the flowerpots, but we put thorny branches in them. The two trees in front got really big and the grass in the middle areas has gotten really bare, maybe its the patches of bare soil that the cats are using. (and then the ones I step on must be the kind parcels left by some people walking their dogs - i know who these people are but we can't stop them)

I read something on the internet about a citrus spray I can make from peels, and maybe i'll try a chilli and garlic spray, like the cayenne pepper just around the perimeter or the exposed parts. Maybe call the town council to trim the trees so the grass will start growing again.

just one more thing so today on my way back to my place i saw the neighbour lady come out and so i tried to strike up a conversation with her and i was successful, so i kinda told her about her cats doing it in my patch and how i stepped on two turds that morning, and she kinda tried to deny it, but eventually she said she was sorry about it. I guess i'll see if she tries to keep her cats out of my patch from now on. (and maybe she won't get so indignant when my dog runs out occasionally when we open the gate since same like her cats doing it all over I 'can't really help it')

hey, good news on the neighbour interaction! Unless you create such a ruckus that you get them kicked out, you do have to live next to these people somehow.