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cat/dog repellents
I have a big problem with cats fowling on my garden. I have been told
to use pepper, but this only lasts while we have dry weather. This time of year is not practical, does anybody have any ideas that work in the wet or wintery weather. |
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On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 15:29:38 +0000, Phisherman wrote:
On 24 Feb 2005 03:47:19 -0800, (fred) wrote: I have a big problem with cats fowling on my garden. I have been told to use pepper, but this only lasts while we have dry weather. This time of year is not practical, does anybody have any ideas that work in the wet or wintery weather. Electric fences work exceptionally well in wet weather! Cats like to poop in loose soil, so a mulch discourages that. Also, try thorny branches, sweetgum balls, motion detection sprinklers, etc. A client of mine used mothballs to repel cat from her flowerbeds. She took old sourcream containers with holes cut in the sides, filled with mothballs. This way they wouldn't get wet and clean-up, removal was made easy. Personally I thought she was full of it but week after week, the cats stayed away... and used the neighbor's flowerbed instead. 80) It seems that cats can smell very well and the smell of mothballs is just way too much for them to deal with. It might be worth a try, but your mileage my vary. Good luck. -- Yard Works Gardening Co. http://www.ywgc.com |
Timothy wrote:
A client of mine used mothballs to repel cat from her flowerbeds. She took old sourcream containers with holes cut in the sides, filled with mothballs. This way they wouldn't get wet and clean-up, removal was made easy. Personally I thought she was full of it but week after week, the cats stayed away... and used the neighbor's flowerbed instead. 80) It seems that cats can smell very well and the smell of mothballs is just way too much for them to deal with. It might be worth a try, but your mileage my vary. Good luck. I used to use mothballs but I found that unless you used a lot of them it was a hit and miss situation. I started to use pepper (red pepper works best) and found that it worked better. Also, just about any hot spice works well but they are a little more expensive to use. -- Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A) Digital Camera: HP PhotoSmart 850 For pictures of my garden flowers visit http://members.iglou.com/brosen Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail |
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If you buy a chemical from a pet store to repel pets, make sure you
find out if it can be returned. I tried two different products ... neither worked! This was for a stray dog that liked my brick terrace for her daily duty. Eventually, I had to place a temporary fence around my terrace until she found a different spot. I should have tried pepper. Ray ___________________________________ Talk about weeds: www.ergonica.com |
"fred" wrote in message om... I have a big problem with cats fowling on my garden. I have been told to use pepper, but this only lasts while we have dry weather. This time of year is not practical, does anybody have any ideas that work in the wet or wintery weather. I use bark mulch, and in high traffic areas, sections of rose canes. |
In article hr1Ud.513240$Xk.389296@pd7tw3no, "Leon Trollski"
wrote: "fred" wrote in message om... I have a big problem with cats fowling on my garden. I have been told to use pepper, but this only lasts while we have dry weather. This time of year is not practical, does anybody have any ideas that work in the wet or wintery weather. I use bark mulch, and in high traffic areas, sections of rose canes. Rose canes are a good idea but some of them are apt to start growing! The use of cayane pepper seems to work on cats but it would have to be purchased by the large bags-full for regular re-application, & it does fail in the rainy season. Here's a repost of something I wrote previously on the topic of repelling cats & dogs: Pine cones, well-dried rose or blackberry canes, or even just some interesting looking lengths of tree limbs from late-winter prunings, can be arranged as a nice-looking mulch to discourage dog squats & cat digs. ANY thick groundcover would ruin the area for a dog & cat visits, since what cats like is the fresh dirt with nothing in the way, & what dogs want is a place with nothing growing tall enough to mush their tush. Getting the groundcover established might be a trick unless you buy a lot already well developed to start with. Below are some groundcover possibilities. Groundcovers that are vengeful would include "crimson pygmy" barberry. It's brittle if stepped on, but if a dog steps on it, it'll sure be sorry. And it's slow-growing so if you want it as a ground cover you have to plant a lot of them figuring they won't grow but two or three inches a year. It can grow to two feet high, but don't hold your breath. If in the very long run it does get taller than needed it can be sheered. Other dwarf barberries are more apt to grow two to three feet a bit more rapidly, or could be purchased larger in order to plant a hedge dogs couldn't very well get over, then in the midst of the hedge you could still have bulbs. Dwarf Euphorbia Crown of Thorns is a low-maintance groundcover with wicked spines. There are also many wonderful groundcover euphorbia desert rose hybrids in splendid cultivar colors. Plus Rosa sp roses often called "shrub roses" such as R. carolina that stay under two feet tall but four feet wide, which only take a few to make a great barrier. Some are nearly thornless but others are thick with thorns. By "groundcover" though this means they grow thick & cover the whole area they're permitted, at one to three feet tall, so not little things that cling to the soil, though there are also vining roses that function nicely as short-short groundcovers that most people trellis but they don't need to be trellised. Something thorny that clings more to the ground could include several types of vining raspberries & blackberries, there are some very small varieties that unless trellised just creep around flat on the ground. These can be very decorative, lovely blossoms & fruit for the birds (probably wouldn't want the fruit for yourself where dogs could still lift a leg). You do have to care for vining rubra cultivars though, because otherwise they get too brambly-homely over time. They die back in winter but can be left as dead stickers until new growth starts, for a year-round "ha ha! stuck-your-bum!" threat to dogs & cats. Smilex or Greebriar aka climbing asparagus forms a woody thorny vine barrier, & is sometimes called "cat briar" because it gets the better of cats. Not all species of smilex are equally thorny, but most would be very grim for a dog to squat his tushy onto or cats to scrape their paws. But really vengeful groundcovers aren't essential; anything you plant there that doesn't die back & which can be planted close together would eventually make the area no longer invitingly flat with freshly churned soil for a squat. Such easy groundcovers as manzanita or cotoneaster or even an array of dwarf azaleas would keep domestic animals off, & even a short soft groundcover would foil cats (though not dogs) who need diggable soil. Poo could also just be trowled to the compost pile & regarded as free soil enrichment & just stop being so crabby about cats. At last count I'm visited by four neighbor's cats. It annoys me they get some birds but their poo is way too trivial to go get ****y about. And yes there are some zoonotic diseases associated with uncomposted pet poo, but there is an even better chance of getting tetanus from healthy soil, neither possibility worthy of too much paranoia. -paghat the ratgirl -- Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson |
"fred" wrote in message om... I have a big problem with cats fowling on my garden. I have been told to use pepper, but this only lasts while we have dry weather. This time of year is not practical, does anybody have any ideas that work in the wet or wintery weather. This works in any weather: http://www.taurususa.com/products/pr...egory=Revolver The best approach is to nail the dogs first. Most are larger than cats, and thus make easier targets for new shooters. And, of course, they're conveniently stupid, and are more likely to look right at you and drool as you terminate them. Now, leave the corpses in place for 24 hours as a warning to the cats, who are generally smart enough to know trouble when they see it. |
We had the same problem, although we know for sure its a cat, we've never actually seen him in action. So we can't tell which neihborhood stray it actually is. What worked for us was orange peels. Apparently they don't like the citrus scent. However its not by any means a one time fix since they seem to do the trick for around a week and a half to weeks at most and then you'll have to eat some more oranges and put the peels down. Some good suggestions here might have to try mothballs in a container it might last longer.
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