If you are plagued by your neighbours’ feline friends digging up your plants so they can use your garden as a toilet, there’s a very cheap and safe way to deter them, according to experts
Even though they leave behind their pongy packages in your garden, cats have very sensitive noses so take advantage of it by returning a smelly gift of your own.
Cats are cute and fluffy, most of the time, and many love to keep them as treasured pets. The downside to living with a feline friend is the inevitable mess they will leave in your and your neighbours’ gardens when they use it as a toilet. What’s more, in their attempt to find the perfect soft spot to hover their bottoms over, they will often dig up plants you’ve spent hours cultivating and make a right old mess doing it. All this comes with the territory if the animal is yours and is the price you pay for those cuddles of an evening but if the cats visiting your garden aren’t yours, it’s even more infuriating.
If you’re looking for a way to deter the four-legged fiends and keep your garden poo free, experts have shared a safe and cost-effective method they claim always works for them. After one woman pleaded for help on the Gardening UK Facebook page, those in the know shared their tried and tested tip.
Sick of her neighbours’ cats ruining her plants Lucy Starling wrote: “What do people do/use to stop cats digging up flower beds and pooping in their garden? I’ve just recently done a new flower bed out the front of my house and every night a cat has come and dug some of it up and used it as a toilet.”
The green-fingered experts in the group were pretty unanimous in their view that cats hate the smell of citrus fruits and leaving peel in the most commonly affected areas would make them scarper. According the Express, one replied: “Try citrus fruits. Use orange peel as cats don’t like the smell of them.”
Another member commented: “Orange peels have worked for me in the past. Put them down daily. It broke the cat’s habit and it stopped coming for its daily poo quite quickly.” A third agreed acidic fruit was the way forward: “Slices of citrus fruits all along your border. I also use small wind chimes,” they added.
One of the group was a cat owner and used the trick on her own pet: “I use oranges and orange peels, they are fantastic! I’m a cat owner and we’ve had to do that on occasions to stop the cat going for the corner of the wall etc,” she wrote. “They simply won’t go near it as they don’t like the smell. Not that any of these suggestions are cruel, but they’ll take one sniff at orange peels and walk off. Won’t harm them or bother them at all.”
A pack of five everyday essentials oranges are available from Aldi for just 99p, which works out at just over 19p each – plus you get to eat them first if you’re just using the peel. Of course this method is harmless and it’s important to note that cats are allowed by law to roam onto other people’s property.
The RSPCA warns that there’s a potentially hefty punishment for causing harm to cats. “Causing unnecessary suffering to a cat is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (AWA),” it says. “It may also be an offence to put down snares, poison or an unlicensed deterrent. The AWA also prohibits poisoning protected animals. The maximum penalty for anyone found guilty of an offence under the AWA is up to 6 months imprisonment and/or a £20,000 fine.”
It offers other harmless suggestions for preventing cats seeing your garden as their toilet such as placing shrubs closer together so it’s more difficult for them to find somewhere to do their business. You could also try growing prickly plants or put cuttings of them in flower beds. Cats don’t like wet earth so keep your soil watered and failing that a good fashioned ‘shoo!’ or a hand clap will let them know yours is not the place.
Do you have any tips on keeping cats out of gardens? Let us know in the comments below.
