Cat Repellent or How to Keep Cats Out of Your garden

Do cat repellents work? How to stop a cat from using garden as litterbox? Tell me how to keep cats out of my garden. These are base questions of concern to all gardeners but is there a real answer?

The first line of defence is to ensure that your yard boundaries are secure. Any gaps in your fence should be blocked to deny low level access. But cats can jump so fix a taut wire or string some six inches above the top of your fence to deter this approach.

Once inside your garden many habitancy say that the best cat repellent is a dog who will soon see off any feline invader. If you are not a dog lover then you will have to resort to more passive methods. Since cats like to lie on freshly dug soil you should lay mulch on your borders so that no bare soil is left exposed. Seed beds should be covered with wire netting or twigs arranged as a barrier.

Young trees should have plastic guards fitted nearby their trunks to protect them against use as a scratching pole.
Your garden pond should be covered with netting to keep your fish safe.

Cats are commonly known to dislike water so a well aimed bucketful or a squirt with the hose will literally make an intruder run. After one or two dousings it may learn the part and stay away.

To protect plants and borders both mothballs and citrus are said to be efficient deterrents. Place the mothballs, orange peel or lemon rind in the borders. Alternatively spray cloths with orange scented air freshener and place the cloths nearby the plants you wish to protect. Other known cat repellents are cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, pipe tobacco, lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, eucalyptus oil and mustard oil.

Certain herbs are said to deter cats. In particular rue but not catmint which has the opposite effect. Coleus canina is an additional one plant which is marketed by one merchant as a cat repellent.

The broadcaster Jerry Baker has suggested treating your yard with a tonic made from chewing tobacco, urine, birth control pills, mouthwash, molasses, detergent and beer. A smallholder has reported success using dried rabbit blood but you may feel that the ingredients listed in the former paragraph should be tried first.

If you visit your local garden center or hardware store you will find some cat repellent products on sale. These range from electric water sprinklers and ultrasonic devices to sprays and granules.

Motion activated sprinklers act in the same way as a burglar alarm using an infra red detector. When the cat enters the area covered by the detector the sprinkler shoots out a jet of water to scare the animal away. It is claimed that, after one or two encounters with the jet, the cat will learn to avoid the area.

Ultrasonic devices emit a high frequency sound which is annoying to cats (and dogs) but is not audible to humans. There are varied separate models some of which control continuously and others which have an infra red detector and only emit a pulse of sound when the cat triggers the device. To be thriving you need to ensure that the model is remarkable adequate to cover the area you wish to protect. In addition make sure that the sound frequency is designed for larger animals since some models are intended to deter insects and so would be no use for cats.

There are also commercial scent cat repellents. Those that use chemicals should be kept away from any food crops but the significant oil based granule varieties act in the same way as orange and lemon peel mentioned above. an additional one way to keep a cat out if the garden is a repellent evaporator which consists of a container retention puffed rice which has been impregnated with significant oils. These are efficient for three to four weeks and can then be refilled for a additional period. an additional one natural stock which many habitancy claim literally keeps a cat out of the garden is lion's dung. You may need to visit your local zoo to derive this although some stores do stock zoo poo.

In Ontario, Canada the local township provides a cat trap service. Once the animal enters the cage it cannot leave but is wholly unharmed. The owner has to pay to recover his pet and so should be encouraged not to let the cat stray in future. Apparently few owners bother to reclaim their cats but just derive an additional one kitten. Any way this sounds like a good way of dealing with a cat that cannot be deterred by any other method. If there is no such scheme in your area, just buy your own trap.

So, to recap, the first priority is to derive your boundary fences. Then you have the whole selection of suggested cat repellents ranging from homemade recipes to expensive commercial gadgets. I would recommend that you try the orange peel and prickly twigs for a start. If you are nearby when the intruder appears, try the pail of water or hose. Even if you miss, the shock may be a adequate deterrent. If these do not do the trick, then you may have to consider the commercial alternatives.