Keeping Cats out of the garden

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Aug 18, 2011
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We have a small garden going on in our back yard, 40 or so plants. We also share an alley with a crazy cat lady who keeps our alley well stocked with a few dozen feral cats. They've started using our garden as their litter box. An electric fence isn't really an option, scared our young neighbor kids will get into it. I should have put chicken wire in the dirt before planting but that ship has sailed. Thought about putting in a motion activated sprinkler system but I'd set it off every time I decided to drive my car. I really don't want to install $200 worth of fencing, that a cat could easily breach for $20 worth of veggies. Anybody got any better suggestions?
 
I've taken chili peppers (dried) and ground them up in the food processor, and sprinkled them with good results.
 
hopmedic said:
I've taken chili peppers (dried) and ground them up in the food processor, and sprinkled them with good results.
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The garden is mainly a pepper garden (Ghost Peppers) I figure when they start to develop their fruit, the problem will work itself out :)
 
hmmm - I remember my folks telling me about a meeting with their county extension agent on how to keep deer from eating their landscape plants. He said, "Pee on it". All the husbands immediately thought, "Finally, something I'm good at!" and all the wives thought, "Oh, dear Lord."
 
Fencing is going to be your best bet, but keep in mind that cats can jump fences with relative ease.

We put chicken wire up, about 4' high, around our garden. It's buried around 6" underground, and we have had zero problems with cats, deer, rabbits thus far.

The rabbits might get turned into dinner with the assistance of a BB rifle, though... ;)
 
most small firearms should do the trick...
 
Try putting a cat carrier out there. I don't know a single cat that will go near it.
If that doesn't work, get one of those HAV-A-HART traps. Put something stinky, like old salmon in it. If you catch one, just let him stay in the trap for about an hour or so. Then you can either haul him off, call animal control, or just let him go. No more cats will come by as long as that trap is out there. They cost a lot less than fencing and are easier to install. And if your neighbor sees it, she may decide to round up her cats.
 
Get some clear plastic drink bottles, full them about 2/3th full and lie them on their sides at various locations near the plants.

This has worked for me for over 20 years - apparently when they approach the bottle, they see their own reflection, think its another animal and move on.
 
Remember the movie "The Rookie" (2002)? The groundskeepers at the high school put cut hair from the local barber shop all over the baseball field where they were trying to plant new grass. It kept the deer away, and the grass grew. Our neighbors tried it in their garden, and they said it worked for the deer. I wonder how it would work on cats?
 
Geico266 said:
Pellet gun works too. ;)
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Problem is, I don't see em' doing it, they're sneaky little things and shooting cats on someone else's property isn't something I'm going to do. They'll be all over the alley and never in my yard, I just come home to their handiwork. I guess we'll chicken wire fence it, sprinkle some pepper and lay some water bottles out, I'll pee around it for good measure and I need to shave my beard for summer anyway. If I find time, I'll go stalk a mountain lion and see if I can get him to pee for me :D
 
trap the cats, turn them into SPCA, or ????
 
JOhnH said:
Try putting a cat carrier out there. I don't know a single cat that will go near it.
If that doesn't work, get one of those HAV-A-HART traps. Put something stinky, like old salmon in it. If you catch one, just let him stay in the trap for about an hour or so. Then you can either haul him off, call animal control, or just let him go. No more cats will come by as long as that trap is out there. They cost a lot less than fencing and are easier to install. And if your neighbor sees it, she may decide to round up her cats.
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One of my barn cats spent several nights in a Hav-a-hart trap. I guess she thought a dinner of peanut butter and sardines was worth a sequestered night or two. She even did it for cat food with jelly. The trap worked better on her than the raccoons. :)
 
I can put up a 5' chicken wire fence with T posts in 30 minutes, including a pseudo-gate. That will be your simplest. Give them something they would prefer, build a 4x4 sandbox nearby!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I can put up a 5' chicken wire fence with T posts in 30 minutes, including a pseudo-gate. That will be your simplest. Give them something they would prefer, build a 4x4 sandbox nearby!
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That's the thing, we have 3 elevated gardens... i.e. sandboxes filled with nice potting soil.
 
A "friend" says that cheap, unbaited mousetraps scattered through the beds does a nice job of keeping the cats away after a few nights.

Helps discourage raccoons, too.
 
havaheart and a 55 gal bucket of water to drown the little bastids in.
 
If so, be aware that he might be of a mind to see if you will pee for him.

bartmc said:
If I find time, I'll go stalk a mountain lion and see if I can get him to pee for me :D
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I'm LMAO at this thread. Rusty: I didn't know you know my former wife down in Fort Lauderdale. At one point she was dealing with and loving 18 cats, most of which were feral. But she'd catch them and take them to get them "fixed." I'd like to Copy each of the responses in this thread -- but there are so many "solutions" -- and send them to her; however, she wouldn't be too happy about the ones predicated to firearms of any kind. She is an expert user of Have-a-Hart, however.

HR
 
once upon a time there was a guy caught electrocuting cats with a rat trap baited with cat food, and wired to a 110 outlet, one side of the 110 leg to the spring side of the trap, the other to the nail driven thru the wooden board where the spring hits, snap, buzzzzz, bye bye cat.
 
As best as we can tell from the video, this cat was either in the backyard of my wife's childhood/teenage home, or right next door today. Her old house is definitely visible in the video.

The cat is up a cottonwood tree and there were only a few of those along the creek bed. The creek ran through her back yard.

http://kdvr.com/2012/06/01/mountain-lion-startles-neighbors-in-morrison/

Her brother noticed the news article and sent it to her. Big kitty. ;)
 
bartmc said:
That's the thing, we have 3 elevated gardens... i.e. sandboxes filled with nice potting soil.
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Pull all the plants, put in ornamental gravel - win-win! No worries about feral cats, no more fussing with gardens!
 
stagecoachco said:
"ornamental gravel", isn't that an oxymoron? :wink2:
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If I was able to sit in the easy chair, reading + sipping my American Honey, and could glance out at the former site of watering/weeding/fertilizing/tending....that gravel would be gorgeous!
 
We have a similar problem, and I have a solution that has worked very well for us. It is called a "Scare Crow," (Google it) and it a motion activated water sprinkler. We got a very good laugh the first few times we got to watch a cat get surprised and sprayed. They stay out of our yard now. Works for squirrels too. It will also get you if you forget and walk in front of it (BTDT!).
 
somorris said:
We have a similar problem, and I have a solution that has worked very well for us. It is called a "Scare Crow," (Google it) and it a motion activated water sprinkler. We got a very good laugh the first few times we got to watch a cat get surprised and sprayed. They stay out of our yard now. Works for squirrels too. It will also get you if you forget and walk in front of it (BTDT!).
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Went with a similar home-brewed solution.
Not only did I figure out a way to keep them out, I found a way for them to help me keep the garden watered too :)

This is the initial prototype run. We had some left over supplies from our install of automatic sprinklers, I basically hooked sprinklers up to a motion detector :) Gotta clean up the install tomorrow, the wireless motion detector receiver doesn't work very well with the 24VDC sprinkler gate. Going to go to something hardwired.

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I wonder if something like that would work on deer (forest rats, rodents with hooves, etc)? The challenge would getting motion sensors everywhere I need them. They could be wired to the appropriate circuits in the sprinkler system.
 
Ghery said:
I wonder if something like that would work on deer (forest rats, rodents with hooves, etc)? The challenge would getting motion sensors everywhere I need them. They could be wired to the appropriate circuits in the sprinkler system.
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According to my neighbor, deer don't mind being wet when fresh veggies are at stake.
 
bartmc said:
According to my neighbor, deer don't mind being wet when fresh veggies are at stake.
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That's what I was afraid of. They LOVE my wife's flowers. And we haven't eaten a blueberry from our bushes yet.
 
Ghery said:
That's what I was afraid of. They LOVE my wife's flowers. And we haven't eaten a blueberry from our bushes yet.
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The Cherry growers in eastern Wa, use a propane cannon.
 
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