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Kats are a known annoyance and People often ask how to keep cats away from yards. Cats are unpredictable, so there are few sure-fire cat repellents. But below I consider some of the best approaches known to keep cats away from yards.
Broadly speaking, we can label all of these diverse approaches as "cat repellents," since they are all designed to repel unwanted feline intruders from
a specific area. Even after taking all these steps a ladder of the time cats are known to make new home as close as one hundred and fifteen feet away from there original home so be sure to check the surroundings after some time
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A Cat Repellent for Before You Even Begin:
If you haven't planted a flower bed yet, but you anticipate having trouble keeping cats out of your yard, be aware that one of the most effective cat repellents is readily available at most any hardware store: chicken wire.
No, I'm not going to suggest you erect a fence by using wire created to keep Chickens in. Instead, lay
this wire down on top of your soil (or mulch, if you're using mulch in the bed), across the planting bed, before you plant. Why? Because cats disdain walking on this wire. Using wire cutters, you'll be able to open up pockets in the wire sufficiently large for installing your plants.
Cat Repellents After the Fact: (10 Ways to Keep Cats Away From Yards):
If it's too late for the wire option? Not to worry. The ten cat repellents on which I focus below are all intended for existing garden beds. While on the subject of wire, I'll begin with electric wire fences.
1. Like rabbits, cats can be kept away humanely with a specialized fence made just for cats. This fence is so safe that it is even recommended by several online sites.
Next,
Water: The Ultimate Cat Repellent?
Sometimes, to keep cats away from a yard, you have to think like a cat. Put yourself in the cat's place. Observe cat behavior. For instance, they're pretty fussy creatures, aren't they?
One of the things cats are fussy about is getting wet. Water is "kryptonite for cats." Getting wet seems to be almost a phobia for them. Use that phobia to your advantage in trying to keep cats away from yards.
2. When you catch cats in the forbidden area, you can try hosing them down with a large/super style water gun or similar water guns of different sizes. Such action may reinforce the notion that they are unwanted in your planting bed.
3. But if that doesn't work, you can go hi-tech. Devices such as motion detectors that use water. These detect an intruder's presence and fire a blast of water at it.
Continuing,
Thinking like a cat again, another thing we can say cats are fussy about is how something smells. You can use feline fastidiousness to keep cats away from your
yard in a number of ways:
"other" Cat Repellents:
4. One of the other cat repellents available is a powder like sprinkle that bears the scent of the urine of predators that cats fear, namely, the coyote, the fox and the bobcat. This cat repellent comes in a granular form, which you simply sprinkle around the problem area. These products are mostly organic in nature, making it an acceptable option to use around children and pets. Nor will it harm your plants.
Plants That Are Cat Repellents:
5. Some plants give off smells that cats dislike. One such plant goes by the common name, "scaredy cat plant."
As the second term in the plant's Latin name, it indicates (think "canine"), it is also effective if you have trouble landscaping with dogs. Other plants often recommended for keeping cats away from
yards are:
•rue
•lavender, which deer pests also dislike
•pennyroyal
Other Substances That Double as Cat Repellents
6. Try sprinkling a stinky substances around the problem area, including:
•dried-blood fertilizer
•mothballs (drop them into a can or jar, cover, and make a few holes in the cover)
•cayenne pepper flakes (but see below)
Note that mothballs are toxic, thus the recommendation that you use them in a covered can or jar. Avoid even this usage if small children will be in the yard and could, potentially, open such a can or jar. Note also that some people caution against using cayenne pepper in this fashion, saying it can be harmful to cats. So if you're an animal lover and tend to be on the cautious side, then save the cayenne pepper to flavor your food!
Still "thinking like a cat" to figure out how to keep cats out of gardens, let's consider something else cats are fussy about: the texture of what they step on. After all, it's not for nothing we have the expression, "pussyfooting around..
How to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden: No Pussy footing Around
7. Cats don't like to walk on bristly material. So in mulching the problem bed, include something on which the refined paws of cats will fear to tread, such as
sharp-edged pine cones.
8. Another mulch-related idea is to use stone mulch. It may not be the most attractive mulch for your particular bed, but cats prefer to poop in loose dirt. Cats usually won't bother with an area mulched in stone. They'd rather be pussy footing around where the digging's easier on their paws.
How to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden: Striking a Compromise
As in landscaping with dogs, sometimes the path of least resistance provides the best solution to your problem. Strike a compromise with your cat by planting a separate bed of catnip plants, in another part of the yard. Not all cats go nuts over catnip plants, but those who do may come to view their catnip patch as their own private sanctuary.
9. Better still, make a sandbox just for cats and keep it in close proximity to the catnip plants. Chances are that the sandbox will serve as a magnet for cats
How to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden: Technology to the Rescue, Again
Technological approaches to keeping cats out of gardens don't stop with the motion-activated sprinklers mentioned on Page 1. You can also keep cats out of gardens using ultrasound.
10. Ultrasound devices operate on a high frequency. It's
inaudible to humans but unbearable for cats. Installation is easy. You simply situate the device so that it faces toward the garden. A motion sensor detects the intruder's presence, and the device then gives off its high-frequency sound, scaring off the cat.
The concern over how to keep cats out of gardens is readily understandable and has nothing to do with whether or not one likes cats. Nor does it matter that much whether the cats in question are your own or someone else's
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