Pet peeve!

[DaveBromley]

surely a decent .22 air rifle would solve the problem? I HATE cats as far as I'm concerned they should all be rounded up and disposed of lol

Seriously though have you tried the plastic spice strips? we had a similar problem a few years ago and a mixture of covering the entire perimeter of the garden in spike strips and covering them in lemon juice once every couple of days far about a week worked a treat

Dave

 

[Bushwhacker]

Wolf widdle - http://www.predatorpee.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LE&Category_Code=WU

 

[John Fenna]

I am not a cat lover.
My neigbour on one side has a bunch of cats, semi-wild some of them! - that wander through our garden and have been known to take birds that come to several of the feeders we put up in our garden, crap in our veg patches and have fights under our windows.... very annoying.
The neigbours on the other side of us are not on the cats route and have open fields on the far side of their garden.
They are not bothered by the cats.
However - they are plagued by rats - rats that have undermined their shed to the point it had to be demolished - rats that climb their apple trees and eat the fruit - rats that scare the women and children of the family.
I put up with the cats as they deter the rats (which we too have suffered from in the past and had them coming into the house wrecking a shed etc) - and I know which I prefer in the garden!

Now - if only the cats would hunt squirrels I might get to eat some of the hazel nuts I grow in the hedge!

 

[Grendel]

Friend of mine tried this:

http://www.bestpestcontrol.co.uk/water-spray-cat-dog--bird-heron-repeller-scarer-20-p.asp

Personally I’m a cat lover and my moggy uses a litter tray for dumps. Pity the neighbour’s dog that keeps coming into out garden doesn’t. Filthy animal (owner not dog). We live in a quiet cul-de-sac he lets it run wild crapping on anyone’s garden but his own so he doesn’t have to walk it or clear up after it.

 

[Bushwhacker]

I am not a cat lover.
My neigbour on one side has a bunch of cats, semi-wild some of them! - that wander through our garden and have been known to take birds that come to several of the feeders we put up in our garden, crap in our veg patches and have fights under our windows.... very annoying.
The neigbours on the other side of us are not on the cats route and have open fields on the far side of their garden.
They are not bothered by the cats.
However - they are plagued by rats - rats that have undermined their shed to the point it had to be demolished - rats that climb their apple trees and eat the fruit - rats that scare the women and children of the family.
I put up with the cats as they deter the rats (which we too have suffered from in the past and had them coming into the house wrecking a shed etc) - and I know which I prefer in the garden!

Now - if only the cats would hunt squirrels I might get to eat some of the hazel nuts I grow in the hedge!

There is a case for this. We have ferals up on the farm, most get dealt with but a couple are allowed to roam.
Say one rat causes £10 - £20 worth of damage per year and a cat catches 100, then that cat is worth £1000 - £2000 per year.

 

[yungmannfuzz]

I have this problem too.

I have said for years that its not fair. Vegetable patch covered in crap. So so annoying. I think that 2 litre lemonade bottles filled with water have done the trick. I have just put them around, and in my patch.

Also orange peels seemed to do the trick too.. but you need to keep replacing them. I read up on this before, and I think you can get stuff to repel them that has the sent of Tiger poo.. Also human pee!

I remember at the start of this years veggie growing, nearly half filling a tesco bag. I was SO close to throwing it over the fence!

 

[Husky]

Where I live there are three farms and one in perticular has an out of control cat population + a lot of "normal" pet cats as is usual when living in the country side. The cats are a big nuisance to me but only because my dogs kill them and I have to pay the owners for them. Four so far. One in my fenced in garden and three while the dogs were on a leash and I was holding the other end! I have been lucky so far as all the cats have been "surplus" which no one really cared about and the remuneration each time has been a bag of moose meat. However I anticipate the day when I will have to pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds for a prize winning pedigree cat or even chiwawa that the owners take no responsibility for.
One can argue that I lack control and responsibility for my dogs because they are able to kill cats but then, if roaming free and killing wildlife is the cats nature then the same goes for my dogs.
The cats hide in the tall grass beside the trails and think they are invisible. The dogs know that if I spot the cat I will stop them from getting to it so they have learned to not let on that they have seen the cat and hope that I don't see it. When they are to close for me to be able to stop them they make their move.

 

[dwardo]

Is there any legal responsibility at all for cat owners? If i can prove for instance that its someones cat that is constantly kaking in my garden then surely they should be held responsible for cleaning it up?

 

[Balanophage]

Had the same problem when living on an estate in Maidstone - we had a corner plot surrounded by cats. The previous owners of the house couldn't have been that bothered - the first time I went out in the garden to dig it over, there was just turd after turd appearing - it was like it had its own archaeological layer! (It was the bright pink ones that really freaked me out.) Fortunately the garden was completely enclosed, and we sorted most of the problem by fixing spike strips round the fence. The only cat this didn't work on was a very territorial ginger tom, and the sight of him determinedly mincing, in some discomfort, along 3 fence panels topped with spikes was so funny it was worth the risk of a bit of cat crap in the borders!

As to pepper or other substances sprinkled on the garden, most don't work and those that do will often be rendered inactive by rain - works out both expensive and time-consuming. What we really need is for the genetic engineers to create an owl that preys on cats.

 

[British Red]

Hmmmm

 

[Radix lecti]

Grandfather always used to use plenty of Slug pellets in the borders and thick coats of Creosote on the fences many years ago,it seemed to do the trick,but i suspect you would not be allowed to do that today.

 

[Jock]

My biggest gripe is the toll they take on the local song bird population.

 

[JonathanD]

Grandfather always used to use plenty of Slug pellets in the borders and thick coats of Creosote on the fences many years ago,it seemed to do the trick,but i suspect you would not be allowed to do that today.

That would kill all of the shnufty-pigs too. And birds

 

[Harley]

It would be a punishable offence to be found poisoning your neighbours cats with aspirin, so it is probably the best thing to avoid poisoning any troublesome cats with soluble aspirin, which is available very cheaply from your local supermarket.

 

[Neumo]

Mmmmm Cat Owners Vs Dog Owners... This could be an interesting thraed. I side with the cats. I have an old Black Cat that used to be my Mums and I have looked after her since she passed on 5 years ago. She will come inside to use the litter tray & then go back outside again. I can see the problem if your garden is a the local WC for every cat around. The only sure way to deter them is by getting a dog.

This came up in the pub a while ago & one of the old farmers came out with the line 'You just have to wait till bonfire night & get the shottie out.....'

Dont approve of that. The only thing worse is those idiot dog owners that pick up their dog's mess, put it in a bag & then leave it by the path or hang it on a barb wire fence. How stupid do you have to be to not take it with you if you have bagged it up or just leave it to rot down with all the other animal scat, like nature intended. Hate that one, when you come accoss such a bag a few days later when it is all full of gas. Rant over.

 

[789987]

i seem to recall a thread that said they could be sold to the local chinese restaurant as rabbits when skinned. this could be a bushcrafting experience in the waiting.

trapping, skinning. making the trip to civilisation to exchange natures bounty for cash. before purchasing new bushcrafting equipment.

 

[Neumo]

i seem to recall a thread that said they could be sold to the local chinese restaurant as rabbits when skinned. this could be a bushcrafting experience in the waiting.

That is more likely to end with a headline in the papers saying 'Cat killing **** gets 5 years'. Not cool at all. It would probably work as rabbit & cat are very hard to trll apart when skinned, from what I have heard.

 

[bojit]

Catapult and a bag of frozen sprouts !

Gets rid of the cats and sprout at the same time .

Craig............

 

[Man of Tanith]

Any animal fouling and not being cleaned up afterwards is not on.

We have two dogs and i almost always pick up after they have done thier business(unless i am out in the middle of nowhere in which case i figure a lil dog poo aint gonna hurt or it is really runny in which case i cover it with soil) and have even invested in some funky dog toilet to biodegrade the dogs doings so it is hygenic for all. mind you the leaving dog doings in plastic bags in the woods is well beyond my grasping of logic?

my own personal peeve is horse crap as they do massive ones and for some reason its ok for that to be left wherever it falls.
As for cat messing in garden i heard lion poo was effective but i find with teo dogs i dont have the problem

 

[Kepis]

ever seen a cat that can swim? - nope nor have i, been a few soggy moggies around here by all accounts- not by me i do hasten to add, we do have one that lives over the road that insisted on using the veg patch and flower borders as a dunny, it didnt seem to like the copious amounts of wood shavings i put down on the garden from the work shop though, must have hurt it's paws - bless, solved two probs in one hit, no more cat poo and i got rid of a couple of sacks of wood shavings, that will eventually rot down and put some nutrients back in the garden, or so i thought, it has since taken to leaving messages on the lawn, it wont be doing that for long, i see a viable target for some live trap practice and then a size 11 boot up it's backside