Hello.
I have an area of small stones at the front of my house, have done for quite a few years now without any problem.
A few months ago one neighbour had two new cats and suddenly it seems that every cat nearby is using my stones to poo. There are loads of cats here, in quite a small area, one house has four cats, three of them have two. It's getting silly now, I'm having to remove probably ten/fifteen piles every week. If its left more than a couple of days it starts to smell. Without going into detail, it's obvious that it isn't the same cat.........one would have to be an elephant and one must have a poor diet !.
I've tried all sorts of things - the pepper stuff which is usless and even diluted jeyes fluid which smells worse than the cat poo !. I used jeyes yesterday afternoon and I've just looked out of the window to be greeted by a fresh pile. I know it can sound quite funny but it really isn't now.
Everybody tells me to squirt water at the cats but I've never caught one at the scene.
I have had people suggest I let the dog chase them away but of course I wouldn't, the last thing I want is him or a cat to run into the road etc.
I can't place little upright sticks as you can in soil as the area is too big.
So, any ideas please. What has worked best for you ?.

Made worse because a number of cat owners do not bother to worm, you can get some green gel things that will put of both dogs and cats, can't remember what it is called but is available from Garden shops. Jeys by the way is poisonous to cats and disinfectant that goes milky in water is so although I know you are upset by them I doubt you would wish to kill them.

Not going to be the most helpful thing for you in getting the cats to move elsewhere, but I am having a similar porblem (not on gravel).. No owners around me, but I have a couple of cats, plus a few of (now spayed) ferals... and its gardening season.. I dug over my garden, which is now a great place for cats to poo... so I have put out a huge litter tray filled with builders sharp sand in the corner where they seem to prefer and its working.. they are using the sand box.. at least I only have to lift the tray and tip now.. not lift individual cat poo's ..

I do water the Jeyes down and it does say it's ok for disinfecting animal housing (rabbits, pigeons etc) and patio's & paths.
Is it just cat's it can harm ?. Maybe it would in it's pure state, but I put in in a watering can well diluted so I hope its ok.

Jeyes can be used for scrubbing down etc, but MUST be completely dry before allowing animals back onto the area.. it's harmful to all animals..

Something at the back of my mind remembers orange peel being a cat deterrant so might be worth a try

Also this
http://www.earth-systems.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1&gclid=CPicsvHQ_JkCFRSRZgodsGMoGA

Can imagine it must be horrible to deal with!!

Hi Arched

We had the exact same problem with a gravelled area. Every cat in the neighbourhood used it. One house has five cats that aren't allowed in the house anymore as the owners  new girlfriend doesn't like them.  we tried everything that we could think of but nothing worked. In the end we had to take the gravel up and pave over.

Good luck

Have you tried lemon juice?

My neighbour got 2 new cats who decided to poo on my front lawn  just near the car where we all have to walk to get into the car .
I tried all the usual and nothing worked . So in my fury i took to chucking it back on their front lawn to see how they liked it . They obviously didn't as they moved !!!!

My advice is NEVER EVER have small stones or gravel in your garden .

I have the same problem, but on my hard concrete driveway up against my house.  Theres not even anything for them to scrap at they just come and deposit on the solid concrete.  They even do it up against my back gate on the drive with the dogs going mad the other side of the gate.
Someone told me orange peel but i don't buy oranges as my daughter and i hate them.
Vinegar has worked well for me though until it gets washed away after a couple of days heavy rain.

airrifle :)

Illegal, apart from immoral and unethical, Sam.

> immoral and unethical

Maybe , but pretty hard to poo with a bum full of lead !!!

my mum put pegs at each corner of the gravelled area and suspended the fine netting you get to protect soft fruits from birds from it, cats got a shock when they first stood on it but came to no harm and problem was solved.

I am currently trying a similar method. So far so good!
Also kept a bucket of dirty water,from washing up and managed to throw at, NOT, on the cat seems to have deterred him a bit...He is obviously an undoctored tom, a nice siamese, so presumabley someone is using him as stud, should be in a run shouldn't he??

> , you can get some green gel things that will put of both dogs and cats, can't remember what it is called but is available from Garden shops

Jackie, my neighbour gave me a bottle of that when I first got the pup as he was forever grubbing about in a border I have of small white stones.  the first thing he did was wander into the border and pee in it.  the next day he poo'd in it, the little swine!  I can say from personal experience it doesn't work with dogs as he also tried to eat it.  It has a really overpowering smell too.

I used 2 litre lemonade bottles filled with water and dotted around the garden - works best tho if they are amongst plants ;)

The best result I ever got was with a water pistol ;)  but the cats must not be able to see you ;)

Recently the neighbour's cats had taken to depositing in our tiny front garden  - not nice as it's paved and the urine smell was getting a bit strong :(   So I waited upstairs with a large jug of water and poured it out of the window - they haven't done it since :-D

There is a product that will deter cats fron frequenting your garden - http://www.silentroaronline.com

>> immoral and unethical
> Maybe , but pretty hard to poo with a bum full of lead !!!

From someone who's previously had a cat go out one day & never return, I find that very distasteful.

Lion Poo is supposed to work http://www.dobbies.co.uk/acatalog/silent-roar-cat-deterant.html?gclid=CPCWwcPt_ZkCFQsJ3wodqhfJFw

> From someone who's previously had a cat go out one day & never return, I find that very distasteful. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif">

I also had a cat go out one day and never return . I could blame car drivers or foxes , but as i don't know what happened to him i can't .

At the risk of offending the cat lovers amongst you I too have a real problem with cats pooing in my front garden. The dogs do not have acces to the front and the local cats..of which there are many..use it as a public toilet and it makes me very anti-cat. They dig my lawn up and deposit all over it. I have spent a fortune in time and money making my front garden nice as the girlies and OH have the back for playing and in OH's case sheds..vehicals..wood piles etc...as it is mainly paved. The front is quiet and secluded and as it's at the end of a cul-de-sac with no traffic and un-overlooked it was a haven for the birds which I love to feed and watch. But the cats hide in the borders and kill the birds, they poo and pee everywhere and they even use the lawn and do not dig just leaving piles all over the place, Sam I am with you!! Not that I ever would but I do object to them. My dogs do not pester others and I see no reason why cats sould be allowed to. I feel there is a case for having cats contained within their owners gardens, by whatever means available...even if it means caging an area for them. After all people keep other things like rabbits/chickens/Ducks/even exotic pets and contain them so why not cats!
I have to say the odd one takes a risk and runs the gauntlet of the back...I am forever worrying that they will not make it and it would be very upsetting to me if one was hurt. But what can I do? It must be the responcibility of the owners to ensure they do not cause problems for others.
Aileen

Thank you all for replying.

I've spent a fortune so far on the green gel stuff, the pepper stuff etc and they haven't worked.
I like the idea of the net but with a lazy postlady who can't be bothered to walk up the small path but prefers to scruch her way over the stones (and I have red elastic bands to prove it !) I'm not sure how long it would last.
I've read about the lion poo stuff before - might give it a go.
Failing that - I will need to spend a quiet day and evening sitting at the window with a bucket of water !.

I'm with you here, Aileen. At our last house, we were surrounded by cats. Goodness only knows what they were fed but they left their foul smelling deposits in our garden and, even worse, on the patch of concrete just under our kitchen window. Somehow all the cat owning neighbours just ignored this and all denied it was their cats - even when told we'd watched their cats "doing" it!

Now, we live in the middle of nowhere and 2 cats have sort of moved in to our stable and barn. One allegedly belongs to the people who own the barn opposite, but it won't go there because of their little dogs which chase it, and the other just arrived. Now these 2 I don't mind as they do something useful and keep the rodents down.

Well, I have a problem with cats pooing in my back garden - the front one is mostly shrubs and I don't walk in it.   We've had one "resident" cat who likes my front garden around for years, he or she rarely ventures into my back garden.    I was fine with that -- even though now I cannot let one dog off lead in the front of my house because she is on a mission to get this cat.

Now, two more cats have appeared and I must have had about 10 poos all over the grass on the side of my house.   I ended up splashing watered down Dettol disinfectant (the kind you can use on your skin, not the cleaning product) all over the grass, so the cats now leave that area alone.  However, they also now use bark chips I have in my back garden as their personal toilets.   It is really turning my stomach!  My cat-crazed dog managed to surprise one in my garden and it fled up a high tree.   I shut the dogs in the house and the cat would not come down for ages as it was young and there are not a lot of low branches on this tree, so it was scared - until I got some pilchards :-) 

I don't dislike cats, but it really infuriates me that they can poo and piss anywhere they want.  Meanwhile, I have to clean up after my "cat-sized" dogs like they are carrying the plague and I would not dare let them on anyone else's property to do their business.  Yet, cats can leave their mess anywhere they want it seems and that's okay. 

Grrrrhhhhh!

In NZ this was a popular product although I've never tried it.

http://www.skunkshot.com/

I know it was pretty powerful as it was double packaged with big warnings about not getting it on your skin or clothes as the smell was overpowering.  Of course it needs to be place away from your door. HTH :)

If you know what time the cat goes out on "patrol" then set up the garden hose with a sprinkler and turn it on when you see the cat.  Alternatively get a super-soaker water gun :-)  Also, you could bag it up and give it to the cat's owner :-)

lol

Cairnmania, after getting a phone call from the dog warden about  my dogs barking I politely asked if there was a Cat Warden so that I could complain about the cats going in my garden and winding my dogs up, pooping in my garden and keeping me awake with their "singing".  I was promptly laughed at and told to stop my dogs barking.  It's ridiculous how anti-dog with world is getting.

Olbas Oil....Thats what worked for me...Found out by accident, when one of my kids had a cold I gave him a hankie with a few drops of it on and both our cats wouldn`t go anywhere near him...so I put a few drops on the garden where I knew the cats toileted...They hated the smell of it and never went there again. 

Hope this helps

Lisa and the Velcro dog xx

Olbas Oil - what a good idea. I use if on tissues if I have a headache - certainly strong stuff !. I'll give it a go.

Thank again for all the tips.

Well after all the advice on here I have been out in the garden and sprinkled olbias oil onto some cotten wool pads and secreted them in the main areas where the cats sit/hide. I thought as it was nice and the forcast is for a good week if I could keep it up for a week or more it may have a lasting effect on the worst offenders. I have to say the garden in the sun now smells very nice LOL the heat of the sun is boosting the oil and it's walfting over the whole garden so fingers crossed!!! I have concentrated it on the heather beds where the cats seem to like the nice pads of heather and make nests, flattening my lovely heathers:(:( I have also scattered some in the Japanese pagoda to help protect OH's acers and bamboos from having the trunks/stems scratched. They are at thier best at this time of the year with a riot of brightly coloured leaves emerging.
Will let you know if it helps!
Aileen

All your bees are going to have clear nasal passages then :-D

Thats a thought...lol...it will probably put them all off my flowers!! Can't win can I?
Aileen

was thinking more of warning shots over the bows.......

Cats usually do the run of death across the bottom of our garden under the Leylandii. Don't usually stop so i don't have the problem but, saw from a window that on the top of the motorhome there were quite a few 'loads'. Not happy!
I have heard that there is a small bush (similar to a hebe) that cats don't like!

I have never done this myself, but have heard somewhere that it is meant to be brill for keeping cats away - tiger/lion poop! Apparently domestic cats can smell that this is a large predator so steer clear, but I doubt it's very easy to get hold of a couple of dollops of tiger poop! Maybee you can buy it online? Oh, it's also meant to work on foxes too.

> After all people keep other things like rabbits/chickens/Ducks/even exotic pets and contain them so why not cats!
>

Rabbits/chickens/ducks ect. are generally contained for thier own safety, not to stop them annoying other people. Our dogs need to be under control due to the potential danger to people, cats do not pose the same danger to people and as a predator are not at the same risk as rodents/birds.

>It must be the responcibility of the owners to ensure they do not cause problems for others.

The law doesn't see a cat in the same light as dog, cats cannot be trained the way dogs can. If you run a cat over you don't have to tell anyone, if you run a dog over you must report it.

>cats do not pose the same danger to people

Cat poo poses a serious threat to pregnant women and the health of their unborn babies, so much so that they're advised not to clean their cat's litter tray but get someone else to do it. It follows that there is also a risk if they unearth cat poo while gardening - particularly vile when you don't even own a cat.

> Cat poo poses a serious threat to pregnant women and the health of their unborn babies, so much so that they're advised not to clean their cat's litter tray but get someone else to do it.

Very true, however toxoplasmosis can also be caught from raw/underccoked meat, not just from cat poop. Good hygene and wearing gloves while gardening is enough to keep a pregnant woman safe from cat poop and all the other nasties that could be present in soil.

In reply to mastifflover I do not think the issue of "health and safety" is in question here, just having the decency NOT to inflict ones personal likes on another. I love my dogs to bits but know not everyone else does and so make sure they do not interfeer with the everyday lives of other people, I would be very gratefull if people did not inflict thier cat poo, or damage my plants or interupt my love of wild bird by allowing thier cats to come into my garden. And as for containing rabbits /ducks etc for thier own safety...well how many cats are run over/taken by fox's etc every year, do they not need looking after "For thier own safety?"
Sorry this is a real hate of mine. I do like cats actually but in thier place. My friend has Ragdolls and she has a large part of her garden netted over so her cats have acces to outside but not the ability to roam, they are happy healthy and very loving, My Mum kept Siamees for a long time and they too had a large outside area to roam but did not have the oportunity to roam futher. It can be done and I think it should be. I have never hit a cat in the car though have had some close shaves as I am sure a lot of us have and it upsets me to think what could have been if my reactions were not so good. I hate to see any animal dead at the roadside so the thought of hurting one is upsetting.
Just my opinion!!!
Aileen

Maybe it should see them in the same way? after all, they don't just turn up in peoples houses uninvited and move in - they are bought/adopted through choice and then inflicted on neighbours who may not want them! its a decision made by someone that affects someone else

> they don't just turn up in peoples houses uninvited and move in

LOL, that's debatable, many a cat will leave the owners that bought it and go and find somebody elese to live with. My neighbour had a cat move in only a few months ago :)

>then inflicted on neighbours who may not want them!

Nobody forces or trains thier cat to go into other people's gardens.

People are legally allowed to let thier cats roam, if you do not want to allow them into your garden you have every right to get a water squirter that is activated by movement and/or install prickly hedgerows and/or prickly strips along the top of fencing to keep cats out.

I do find the lack of tollerence towards cats quite amusing considering this a dog forum and we all get annoyed with societies lack of tollerence for dogs!

>I do find the lack of tollerence towards cats quite amusing considering this a dog forum and we all get annoyed with societies lack of tollerence for dogs!

I just think it's strange to think that one species of domestic pet is allowed - even encouraged - to roam and soil and kill when another isn't. It's not so long ago that pet dogs were turned out of the house to exercise themselves, just as cats are still. But nowadays we realise that's antisocial and irresponsible.

> if you run a dog over you must report it.

Is this still true ? Report it to who ?    I thought this ended when they stopped dog licences .  

> I just think it's strange to think that one species of domestic pet is allowed - even encouraged - to roam and soil and kill when another isn't

It is anti social and irresponsible to allow a dog to roam because of the potential danger to the public, if no dog had ever bitten, disfigured or killed a person then nobody would have a fear of them wandering the streets. I have never seen anybody frightened by the sight of even a big, burly, tom-cat running along let alone the average size moggy. Apart from a few tragic incidents of cats sleeping on a babys face & suffocating the baby, I have never heard of a domestic cat killing a person or knocking a person over by jumping up in an excited greeting.

Some cats do catch and kill rodents & birds (or my pond fish :( ) , but many people here have dogs that catch & kill small animals too. It's the deliberate setting of dogs onto animals that is illegal, not a dogs natural instinct to kill an animal.

>It is anti social and irresponsible to allow a dog to roam because of the potential danger to the public

Cats cause road accidents when people (understandably, but illegally) swerve to avoid hitting them.

>I have never seen anybody frightened by the sight of even a big, burly, tom-cat running along let alone the average size moggy

I have. Some children are terrified of cats,just as some children are terrified of dogs.

>I have never heard of a domestic cat killing a person or knocking a person over by jumping up in an excited greeting.

I've never heard of a Yorkshire terrier doing either of those things, so do you mean it's only the size of the animal that determines whether it's irresponsible to allow it to roam loose?

When a neighbours pet cat dragged my baby guinea pig through the mesh of the run should I have just accepted it as 'something cats do'?

Cat poo is as offensive as dog poo; if it's reasonable to expect dog owners to clear up after their dogs it's reasonable to expect the same degree of courtesy from cat owners. Double standards are anathema.

>> if you run a dog over you must report it.
> Is this still true ? Report it to who ?&nbsp; &nbsp; I thought this ended when they stopped dog licences .&nbsp;&nbsp;

286 highway code
If you are involved in a collision which causes damage or injury to any other person, vehicle, animal or property, you MUST

stop
give your own and the vehicle owner's name and address, and the registration number of the vehicle, to anyone having reasonable grounds for requiring them
if you do not give your name and address at the time of the collision, report it to the police as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case within 24 hours

It looks like if you hit a cat you have to report it too, but I doubt the police would be interested as the owner is not obligated to keep it on a lead while on a road, unlike dogs.

You can also never get rid of the smell of cat poo when you stand in it - dog poo at least wipes off easily.

> they don't just turn up in peoples houses uninvited and move in

in fairness some do :) my friends cat it turned out apparently belonged to 4 houses in his street! they only discovered it becuase he was getting so fat!

Cats are not trainable to the same degree a dog is & unless all cats are going to be permanent house/cattery cats then it is their natural behaviour to hunt & kill. I have an area that my cats use to go to toilet in on my property, yes my cats go off the property, but they do toilet mainly in my garden & the woodland at the back. My cats do not approach strangers & come only to people they know & when I am out the cats are in

I used to keep small rodents & cats & my cats never managed to break in & kill any of my mice, rats, guinea pigs etc despite bringing wild versions & whole rabbits/grey squirrels..

If you do not want cats in your garden then water is the best thing to use to deter them-I've told my neighbours to use it if my cats transgress.Neither of them as come home wet yet & they are now nearly 2 years old