How To Deter Cats From Your Yard

Eliminate Cat Attracting Plants

Some types of plants are very effective in attracting cats to your yard. Even when you take steps to keep cats out, some plants will make cats get motivated to find a way in.

Plants that attract cats to your yard include:

• Catnip
• Cat Grass, also named Dactylis glomerata
• Valerian
• Cat thyme- not thyme although it shares the same name
• Spider Plants
• Silvervine

Ways To Keep Cats Out Of Your Yard Garden And Flowerbeds

It happened again. Another dead cat in our window well. Every spring for the last 3 years, we had found a dead cat somewhere on our property.

But, we didnt own cats.

And, we werent trying to kill or catch them.

Like many of you, I started to wonder what I could do to keep cats away from my yard. I didnt like to clean up the dead cats. I didnt like the feces in my rose beds, and I didnt like yowling at 3 am that sounded like my newborn crying.

So I started researching and testing different options. I didnt try every method. Some take a lot of time to work, others take more investment into products.

Everyone has different methods they are willing or able to do. So, Ive compiled 51 ways to keep cats away.

For simple navigation, Ive broken it into several sections:

• Attracting Cats To The Right Areas Of your yard

Some of these solutions take more time to implement and some of them take more money. Some are permanent and some are only temporary.

Each way discusses the frequency, cost, and permanency of the solution.

First, lets discuss some of the concerns that you may have with having cats around your yard and garden.

Install 2 Inch Pvc Pipe To Your Fence

This is a DIY take on Oscillot Fencing. A PVC pipe is hard for cats to grip.

If you install it above your regular fencing, then cats cant grip the top of the fence and have a difficult time getting over.

You will need to make sure that there arent any trees or other methods for them to climb over the fence though.

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Install A Cat Motion Detection Sprinkler

If you arent able to catch the stray cat in the act, you may want to consider installing a sprinkler system that has a motion sensor. This is one of the best ways for how to keep stray cats away from areas they should be in.

Devices like theContech Scarecrow Sprinkler, use the motion sensors in their sensor housing unit to detect the presence of intruders, shooting a blast of water at the animal.

Remove Sources Of Shelter

Cats, like many mammals, look for warm and dry spaces to shelter them from the elements. If they arent able to find a suitable place to stay, they move on to the next house. If you have any small openings under your deck or porch, use plywood or chicken wire to fence it off.

Both are inexpensive and useful materials for keeping cats out. Ensure that the door to your shed closes tightly and that you remove woodpiles so cats cant make their homes in these areas.

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Grow Plants That Are Repugnant To Cats

Whether you live in a dry or humid climate, a cold or hot area, there are plants that cats dont like.

Some of the most popular plants that cats hate are:

• Rue
• Chrysanthemums
• Cyclamen

Interspersing these plants along the borders of your yard or throughout your garden will help to keep cats away.

Just dont mix them with other plants that cats love!

Keep Cats Off The Fence With Fishing Wire

Cats are great jumpers and will often gain access to an area by jumping over the fence.

Make it hard for them to get across by tightly stringing fishing wire across the top of the fence.

The wire should be 2-3 inches above the top of the fence.

It should also be tight and secure.

Plus, its invisible.

Cats try to jump on the fence and will hit the wire. They wont understand why they cant get to the surface of the fence.

This helps to train them not to jump the fence.

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Plant Things They Hate

A really eco-friendly way to deter raccoons from your yard is to plant certain things that raccoons are known to hate.

Raccoons have very sensitive feet, so they especially dont like to be near prickly plants. These plants often have large leaves with prickly vines that the raccoons dont like to walk over.

Plants that raccoons hate are:

• Cucumbers
• Globe thistle
• Green beans

You may want to plant a row of these around your fences to make it awkward for them to get in and out. Another area these plants work well is around vegetable patches, which raccoons will otherwise raid.

How To Keep Cats From Eating Your Plants

Cats have different tastes and will sometimes nibble on or even eat houseplants or garden plants. For how to keep cats out of plants in the garden or yard, you can mix in rue or other plants that repel cats.

Or, you could try planting catnip in a remote area to attract the cats away from your garden or other areas where you dont want them to dig. Indoors, the best approach is to train the cat to avoid the plant by spraying it with water when it approaches the plant. You could also add some pebbles to the top of the soil or spray the plant with an essential oil spray .

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Attract Cats To The Right Areas Of Your Yard

It can be difficult to keep all cats out of your yard. If there are lots of cats around or you have a large yard, its an even more impossible task.

Instead, consider creating a feline haven to attract cats to a specific area and away from other areas.

Even feral cats need a safe place to rest and a cat garden can provide that.

Make it more attractive to cats than the areas you need to keep safe.

There are several things you can add that will attract cats.

• Plants: Mint, Catnip, Cat Thyme, Honeysuckle, and Cat Grass
• Create an outdoor litter box by framing in a little sandbox
• Add a perch for them to check out the view
• Include a scratch post
• Put in a water feature
• Plant grass

Spray Vinegar To Clean A Cats Scent And Repel Them

Vinegar works well as a dual-purpose solution. The strong odor is supposed to repel cats.

But, vinegar is also a great disinfectant.

It will eliminate the odor of the cats previous visits temporarily. It will need to be reapplied to continue to be effective.

Cats like to return to the same place. Their urine marks those familiar spots.

Vinegar can eliminate the previous traces of feline visits and make the area less appealing for them.

You will need to respray after it rains, and regularly.

Vinegar doesnt work well on the dirt. It is best used on fences and other surfaces that can carry the scent of urine.

Plus, you can spray vinegar on some plants to keep cats from going through them. Make sure to test a few leaves for a few days before.

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Place Rosemary Plants Around Your Yard

Rosemary is a plant that is often used for cooking and to improve memory, relieve muscle pain, and stimulate hair growth, but it has another use in your yard. Cats hate the aroma that we find extremely pleasant. If you want to know how to get rid of cats, plant rosemary in strategic locations in your yard and garden.

These perennials need a warm, dry climate, so you may need to plant them in containers and bring them inside during the cooler, wetter months, although they often come back up anyway when left out in the yard. The plants may just take a little longer to fully develop after a cold and wet winter.

Solutions That Worked For Me

• Using sprinklers: In my garden, I noticed that the cats usually showed up right around daybreak, so I set my sprinklers to come on then, and it really helped to keep the cats away. I have since purchased the Orbit sprinklers they will even chase deer out of your garden or yard.
• A super-soaker water gun: I have also had great success with a heavy-duty super-soaker water gun I purchased. I just sit quietly at the edge of my yard and soak down any cat that comes by. Water works better than anything to keep cats away. Once you soak down a cat once or twice, it won’t be back. I set up one of the Orbit sprinklers right beside where I park my vehicles, and I rarely, if ever, have any cat tracks on my vehicles.
• Use a motion-activated sound device and keep food away: It helps to think like a cat to determine why it is coming on your property. If they’re attracted to your pond, install either a motion-activated sound device or some sprinklers there. Food is one of the biggest reasons cats and other animals will come into your yard, so practice keeping your environment free of any food source and keep your garbage tightly covered. Your cat problems should go away quickly.
• Be consistent: Don’t leave food out sometimes and then freak out when they come to eat. Don’t give them mixed messages. After all, cats are not dumb animals, and they will learn where they are welcome and where they are not.

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Cats Are Sleeping Under My Porch Or In My Shed

The cats are looking for dry, warm shelter away from the elements.

Solution:

• Once you have located the area in which the cats are making entry make sure to look for any remaining cats or kittens before sealing off the area.
• Use lights and a radio to make the cat uncomfortable to they will move out on their own.
• Also use scents such as coffee grounds, citrus peels, and ammonia to deter any cats from making new homes on your property.

Tips For Repelling Cats

It can be tricky getting a cat to do what you would like in the best of circumstances. T.S. Eliot wrote of the cat called the Rum Tum Tugger, “a curious beast, his disobliging ways are a matter of habit” All too often, the places you don’t want a cat to go are just where they want to. But is there really, as Eliot said, “no doing anything about it”? Surprisingly, there are several techniques to repel cats from the areas of your property you want to protect.

“After about five days usage, “I Must Garden…” stopped a few cats from using my alley as a pit stop. Prior to its application, cat droppings were appearing several times a week over a three-week period on my property but fortunately, “I Must Garden” ended it. Product was easy to apply, practically odorless, and did not leave any stains on concrete. The company states that “I Must Garden” is made from all natural essential oils, so there is no danger of harm to plants or animals. It’s a terrific buy that eliminated an annoying problem in about two weeks”

Peter

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Common Objections To Cats In The Yard And Garden

For many people, unwanted cats in the yard or garden are a nuisance. They can often fight with domestic cats.

Even tame neighbor cats can get into a scuffle with a pet cat because cats are so territorial.

They usually dig to bury their waste so they will dig in the flowerbeds, gardens, and yard. This messes us the look and smell of an area.

Plus its not sanitary.

Why?

Cats are carnivores, not herbivores. While the manure of cows, horses, and other herbivores is good for a garden or flower bed, cats feces is not. It carries disease, illness, and dangerous pathogens.

Cat feces in a garden can create a health hazard in any food grown close by. And, composing it doesnt help, unless you know how to do it 100% correct.

Cats are known to know down ornaments and mess up the look of a manicured yard. This is annoying to homeowners who spend time and money to make their yards lovely.

Their mating cries often sound like a child crying. This is bothersome to neighbors, especially when it wakes up those in the area. But, its even worse for new parents who may scramble to help a baby, only to discover its the cat.

I cant tell you how many times thats happened to me!

• May bother or fight with personal pets
• Dig in the garden, flower beds, and lawn
• Knocking over ornaments
• Cat poop carries disease and illnesses
• Mating cries of male cats sound like babies and wake at night
• Cat feces carries disease because they are carnivore and herbivore

How To Get Rid Of Stray Cats From Your Garden

Whether its your neighbors cat or a stray cat from the neighborhood, keeping cats out of your garden can be challenging. These stray cats may be attracted to your garden for several reasons, including hunting for mice to eat and finding a place to stay out of the elements. If youre dealing with stray cats inside your garden, here are some home remedies for getting rid of cats.

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Place Dishes Of Ammonia In Your Garden

Cats are known to use gardens and soft dirt areas as their personal litter boxes. If you want to keep them from doing their business in your yard, you can apply a solution of equal parts ammonia and water to the area. Place the solution in a shallow dish and set it in places that the cats frequent.

The smell of the vapor deters the cats because they cant stand the way it smells. You can also place the solution in a spray bottle and spray it in areas where cats frequent.

What Does The Vacuum Effect Have To Do With Tnr

The Vacuum Effect has been documented worldwide in many species, including community cats. Animal controls typical approach has been to catch and kill community cats. While this may temporarily reduce the number of community cats in a given area, it is ultimately counterproductive, as the population of cats rebounds. Other cats move into the newly available territory and continue to breedthis phenomenon is called the Vacuum Effect. Its why catch and kill doesnt work. TNR is the only effective and humane approach to address community cat populations. Learn more at alleycat.org/VacuumEffect.

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Create A Harmless Booby Trap For Cats To Scare Them Away

This might annoy your neighbors, but you can create a sound booby trap to scare cats away.

Simply string up some cans with fishing wire.

Two or three cans should be strung together.

Rotate the height that you place the cans from the ground to a foot-high.

Connect the cans with fishing wire.

This makeshift fence should go around your garden or another area where cats frequent.

When a cat goes into the area at night, the cans crash, scaring them away.

Why Do I See Community Cats In My Neighborhood

Community cats live outdoors. Like all animals, community cats settle where food and shelter are available, and they are naturally skilled at finding these on their own.

Because they are unsocialized, community cats cant live indoors with people, and are therefore unadoptable. Community cats should not be taken to animal sheltersnationwide, virtually 100 percent of community cats taken to shelters are killed there. Trap-Neuter-Return is the humane, effective, and mainstream approach to addressing community cat populations.

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How To Keep Cats Out Of Flower Beds And Gardens

As a responsible, loving pet parent, you probably know that the safest, healthiest lifestyle for your cat is one thats indoors. Unfortunately, many of your neighbors may feel differently. As a result, your garden could be doubling as a neighborhood litter box. Not only is this unsanitary especially if youre growing produce it can be destructive to your crop and unhealthy for you if your neighborhood cats are carriers of certain bacteria. Not to mention, digging can lead to potential root damage.

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Of course, from a cats point of view, a bed with fresh mulch or turned soil is a welcoming spot to take care of business. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to make your garden a feline-free zone:

Keeping Cats Out of your Garden

There are several tried-and-true strategies homeowners use for keeping cats and other critters out of their gardens. Here are some of the most effective and humane:

• Ultrasonic devices. These products emit an unpleasant sound at a frequency cats can hear but humans cant. Many are motion-activated and only go off when an animal is nearby.

• Motion-activated sprinklers. Like the ultrasonic devices, these sprinklers are only activated when a cat comes near. An unexpected burst of water is a highly effective deterrent for cats, as most felines dislike getting wet. But dont worry its not harmful, just momentarily unpleasant.

Create a Cat-Friendly Oasis Elsewhere

Be a Good Influence on Your Neighbors

Peace With The Neighbors Is A Click Away

Not everyone wants cats playing in their yard or digging in their garden. Keeping the cats away from areas where they’re not welcome is an important way to maintain good relations with the neighbors. In the end, the cats are going to be better off if everyone is happy than if there is constant conflict. A number of tools and techniques, listed below, can be used to keep cats out of gardens and yards. Keep in mind that TNR will make cats better neighbors, too. Neutering means dramatically less noise, no foul odors from unaltered males spraying, less roaming and so less visibility, and no kittens.

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