How do I keep cats out...

[AlphaDog]

I've got a veg garden that the neighbors cat just love leaving me presents in. I've asked them to keep the cat up, but yeah right. No luck there.

Is there ANYthing I can put in or around my garden that will keep cats out? Maybe even squirrels and dogs? But mainly cats.

I've already tried cinnamon and moth balls. Nothing has worked so far. It's breaking a corn stalk every day or two and trust me, there's not very many left. Its a very small garden.

HELP!

[cheezyrat]

I bought a granular product from Southern States Farm Store that you sprinkle around the plants. I had success with it keeping my outdoor cat out of the Hosta bed. After a while she just quit even trying to go there. I can't remember the name of it though. It was in a big shaker can like giant parmesan cheese.

[dirtyfingernails]

http://www.wildaboutanimals.net/recipe.htm

Hey,Dave,
Try this place.
Luck to ya,
Bill

[AlphaDog]

Thanks y'all!

I'll look into that stuff.

Really appreciate your help!

[snowmm]

I think somewhere on this site I read that pine cones will keep them out. They don't like the feel of them on their feet.

I hope I don't have that problem when I put out my veggie garden. I guess I'll find out but I also have several pine trees around my yard so I'll be trying that if I need to.

Good luck!

[cheezyrat]

Hey alphadog I was digging around in my shed and found that stuff that kept the cat away. It's called Ro-Pel. Works for cats, birds and other animals too. They have it on www.bugspray.com

[gardeningmom]

I've heard you can also sprinkle cayenne pepper around your plants to keep the cats out - it may be cheaper than some of the other more commercial products.

[AlphaDog]

The physical link to Ro-Pel, if anyone else wants it, is http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page460.html.

It does cats, dogs and birds. That's good because my other neighbor has boston terriers that poop on my small plants and they break them every time so I can 'kill' two birds with one stone.

Thanks for the link.


Gardeningmom: thanks for the info, I just put out some cayenne until I can get some Ro-Pel. If it works well I may not buy any.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks you guys!

[zuzu's petals]

One thing to consider about using Cayenne pepper as an animal repellant -

Imagine if you got a grain or two of Cayenne pepper into your eye
as a human you would at least understand why you were in such excruciating pain -
and you would know that if you washed it out, the pain would eventually go away -
but animals have NO way of realizing that.

Be it a cat, dog, bird, squirrel or any other animal,
if they have the bad luck to get some of that Cayenne pepper into their eyes,
they will only know that their eye is causing them unendurable pain -
they won't know why - and they won't know that it will ever end -
there have been reports of animals blinding themselves to try to stop the pain.

[AlphaDog]

That is true...

[gardeningmom]

I sure see your point -

[audeve]

I had this same question before... and since asking about it the neighbor's cat has been keeping her distance... so I've been rather lucky.

My grandpa told me the other day that he uses moth balls around his garden and the cats stay away. Any body have any thoughts on that?

[zuzu's petals]

I'm so glad to read that neighbor-kitty has been behaving better.

I had some similar problems, and when I did some checking,
I found THIS about mothballs and toxicity.
At the time, my brother had a really daffy puppy who he would bring whenever he came to visit.
Now, you'd like to think that a dog would be smart enough not to eat mothballs,
but apparently, that isn't always true.

It seemed to me that if I put the mothballs into some sort of a container -
maybe a babyfood jar with holes in the lid,
no animals could nibble them but the fumes could still escape ... ...
although I'm not sure it would have deterred Gator (bro's pup) he prob'ly would have thought it was a toy.

I know, I know I'm a terrible worrier when it comes to keeping my garden safe for wildlife,
even the ones that sometimes annoy me.

[AlphaDog]

I've already tried cinnamon and moth balls.

Yup... already done. Thanks though, audeve.

[audeve]

Oops. Should have read more carefully... Sorry about that.

I'm still going to try the black pepper... just as soon as I make it to Sam's Club to buy it in bulk. We tilled the garden this weekend and with the beautiful soft dirt I'm sure the cat is going to re-appear... I'll post later on and let you know how that works out.