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If you know me, which I don’t expect that you do, I’m more of a dog person, and I’ll leave it at that! Maybe it’s a bit harsh to say that cats are a pest, but if you don’t own one, believe me, they can be.
I know I’m not alone in getting frustrated when you walk out into your nicely taken care of the front garden, only to find a wonderful bit of cat poo just sitting there. It happens a lot, and it causes real problems, it’s especially not great if you have children. It’s fine for the cat owners themselves because they very rarely go number two in their own gardens, instead, they spread the love to everyone else’s.
This was happening a lot, particularly in my front garden, for some reason, so I took to researching what I could do about it, hence the article! In this article, I will detail how exactly you can stop cats pooping in your garden, what the most effective deterrents/repellents are, just how effective they can be, whether you can make them with materials in your home and my top cat repellent choices, so keep reading to find out more.
This is a rather large article with a lot of detail in, so you can quickly navigate to the section that will best answer your specific question:
- Our best cat repellent choices
- How do you stop cats pooping in your garden?
- What is the most effective cat repellent?
- Is cat repellent effective?
- Can you make homemade cat repellent?
- 5 Best cat repellent choices
- Bonus: Current best sellers
Our Best Cat Repellent Choices
I get it as I mentioned, this article is pretty long, and you might want to cut to the chase. Not a problem, after all the research, looking into the products, the descriptions, effectiveness and reading the reviews, I’ve decided on what I would consider being the top cat deterrent in the list, or well two (including a budget option).
How do you stop cats pooping in your garden?
There are a couple of ways that you can deter cats from your garden, and we’ll explore some of these in our top products later. The first thing you should always try and do is track down the cat’s owner and see if you can have a conversation with them, they should be actively working on getting the cat to poo inside its litter tray, and not other peoples property.
Most the time you won’t really get anywhere with that, but it’s worth a try. If that is the case, then you need to start on some other tactics to try and attempt to get the cats from using your garden as their own personal toilet, and here are some of the main methods:
- Install a motion-activated sprinkler system – we touched on this in our post about how to get rid of foxes from your garden, and similarly, it works for cats.
- Place chicken wire or rubber spikes – Cats have sensitive paws, they won’t want to come in your garden if it’s uncomfortable (if you have a large fence you can put it across the top of this)
- Get a dog – Extreme measure, and I wouldn’t suggest it unless you’ve thought about it before, but cats will often stay away if there’s any site of a dog.
- Loud noise systems – You can get systems that work on a noise frequency that deter cats, you won’t be able to hear it – or at least not much yourself, but the cat will and it should deter them.
- Powders or pellets – There are pellet and powder products that you can buy to deter cats, just by the smell
- Mothballs – So for some unknown reason, sprinkling your garden in mothballs deters cats.
- Ammonia – If you put ammonia in a container, this won’t exactly deter the cat, quite the opposite. It smells much like cat urine, even to cats, so they will want to go in that container, but it means you can control where they go.
Be aware, deterring cats isn’t an easy job and you may have to deploy several of these methods in order to finally stop them.
What is the most effective cat repellent?
As we have highlighted above, we’ve picked out the best cat repellent choice as the OUTERDO Solar Cat Repellent Ultrasonic Pet Animal Repeller. We’ll go into more detail on this product later, however a few of the main reasons are the great reviews, but also it’s not a solution that you constantly have to keep on top of, you simply place it in your garden and it is powered by a solar panel, there’s no need to keep replacing the battery or scattering powder repeatedly.
Is cat repellent effective?
Yes, cat repellent can work, in any of the forms that we’ve previously listed. Cats are somewhat devious, however, and it’s not a one size fits all solution, like we’ve touched upon you may need to employ multiple tactics such as a combination of an ultrasonic sound device, fence spikes & pepper dust for instance.
It can be extremely hard to deter cats once they have started doing it, but don’t give up!
Can you make homemade cat repellent?
Yes, you can! You might be able to cobble together some of the leftover stuff in your cupboards to make some homemade cat repellent. Here are a few of the homemade solution options that you have & what the ingredients are to make them:
- Citronella Oil Cat Repellent: 20 drops of Citronella Oil mixed with 170-180ml of water
- Citrus Cat Repellent: 2 cups of water, mixed with 1 cup of lime, orange or lemon, adding 2 teaspoons of lemon juice & lemon scented dish soap
- Essential Oil Cat Repellent: 2 drops of lemon, wild orange & lavender essential oil (2x each) and water
- Lemon, Garlic & Pepper Cat Repellent: 1 teaspoon of black pepper, dry mustard & cinammon (1x each), add a crushed clove of garlic, 4 drops of lemon essential oil and water
- Vingar Cat Repellent: 1 part water, 1 part vinegar & 1 part hand soap (liquid)
Several choices for you there! Just mix these solutions into an easy to use spray bottle & spray it in the areas that you find the cats often target.
5 Best cat repellent choices
Now the bit you’ve all been waiting for, our 5 best cat repellent choices. After all the research, I would say that the top two are the best products I’ve come across in terms of overall reviews, functionality, features & effectiveness, however as we’ve mentioned it’s not one size fits all, so you may need to try a few of these in order to actually deter the cats completely.
You can see a lot of the products have mixed reviews, this is simply because like we’ve mentioned not all solutions will work in all types of gardens, so you might have to try more than one.
Without further ado, here are the top 5 best cat repellent choices:
This product by Defenders is a simple yet effective way of deterring cats from visiting your garden and fouling or spreading their scent. You can place it where ever you regularly spot the offending animals. It’s a product that can be used throughout the whole year but it’s best used in dry weather, as wet conditions or even wind can impact its effectiveness, so it’s recommended that you re-apply it should your garden be impacted by any of these conditions.
It’s easy to use, you just open the product up and spread the dust evenly around the area, applying it regularly (around twice a week in dry weather conditions). The product offers a coverage area of 10sq/m.
It’s a ready to use humane solution that won’t harm cats at all, it’s completely safe to them, they simply don’t like the smell. Common areas to apply this pepper dust would be around bins, paths, patio areas or plant space.
Main Features
If you don’t want to read all about this Pepper Dust product, here are some of the main features for you broken down:
- Completely humane & won’t harm the cats
- Coverage area of 10sq/m
- Says it can be used all year round, but typically only suited to dry conditions, so you may want to apply multiple times
- We would recommend coupling this product with an Ultrasonic one as well to ensure it repels the cats completely
These look like pretty daunting things to attach to the top of your fence or wall, as you might be concerned that they will hurt the cats, we will warn you that they are extremely sharp, but they still offer a humane solution and won’t harm the cats so there is no need to worry. Cats can walk on broken glass, but they won’t jump on the glass if they know it’s there, which is the idea of this product.
These strips are made from hard plastic and it’s advised you wear gloves whilst fitting them. They are available in different sizes so should be able to fit any fence or wall that you may require fitting them too. They are an excellent deterrent for all sorts of animals including cats, foxes, birds & even humans!
The cats will not want to jump on to the spikes, they may attempt a few times but eventually, they’ll end up giving up, as long as the spikes are correctly placed. You need to ensure that you cover the whole surface, leaving no gaps so the cat can’t find a comfortable area to jump upon.
Main Features
Want to find out more about the Cactus Cat Intruder Repellent solution? Here are some of its main features:
- These fence spikes are extremely sharp but aren’t dangerous to cats
- The cat will try to jump up a few times, but when uncomfortable, will give up
- Easy to fit, but you need to cover the full area
- Available in a variety of different sizes
- Deters not only cats but foxes, birds and even humans too
This is a product similar to the pepper dust that we mentioned before, but this one is by Karlsten and is another odour based one. It repels cats and dogs so may not be ideal if you have a dog, however, it’s effective as these granules can be placed wherever the cats are offending as it masks the territorial areas, which is the reason they continually come back.
To take full effect these granules need about 2 weeks to release their odours into the area in which you place them. Once the odour is released and the cat scent is masked, you shouldn’t have any further issues with the cats repeatedly coming into your garden.
Perhaps most interestingly with this product the company are offering a satisfaction guarantee. As you may see by some of the top products, it’s not one size fits all and any of the solutions will not be guaranteed to get rid of cats, you might have to try quite a few, so it’s surprising but good, that they have such confidence in their product. They accept a return with no questions asked if you believe the product hasn’t worked for you, although they do state that if you sprinkle it regularly it will get rid of the issue.
Main Features
Interested in buying this Karlsten anti-cat fouling repellent? Then here are some of the main points:
- It offers a Citronella formulation to prevent cats from messing in your garden
- It can take about 2 weeks to really come into effect and release the odours to the sprinkled area
- It’s a natural solution, so completely humane
- They are offering a satisfaction guarantee, if you’re not happy with it, they’ll refund you – confidence!
Bare with us, this may seem like a strange one, but this product is essentially… well fake cats. Another product by Defender, it’s definitely a good, cheap, humane option to try. You can use these three black cats to defend your flower beds and protect your lawns from cats, but not only that, birds, foxes and squirrels too.
These are realistic cat metal models, with reflective eyes & a durable design. You can simply place them in the ground or hang them from a tree or fence. How does it work though? Well, the silhouettes act like hunting cats which will deter other cats and animals from the garden, cats don’t like challenging other cats, they will move their attention to a garden with less competition, so to speak.
Main Features
Just want to skim read? Well, here are the main points and features of these three black silhouette cats.
- Life like “hunting” cats will deter other cats & animals
- You can plant them in the ground or hang them from trees or fences, very easy to fix into place
- Completely humane solution
- Reflective marble eyes that provide a life like look to deter other approaching cats
- Weather resistant materials, so can be used all year round
Bonus: Current best sellers
Are you not convinced by some of our choices? That’s fair enough! New cat repellent products and deterrents are continually coming on the market & some are far better than others. We’ve pulled together this automated section which will detail some of the current best-selling cat deterrent products on the market, so you can always keep up with the latest & best deals:
- Keep unwanted pests out of your garden with Pestbye Cat Repellent - safe...
- Infrared PIR motion sensor detects movement and body heat up to 7m away,...
- Emitting a high-frequency sound that irritates cats and is almost inaudible...
- Easy to set up with a zinc-coated ground stake and tab for fitting directly...
- We're so confident in the effectiveness of our cat deterrent that we offer...
- Deters pets from fouling and territory marking outside, on grass and hard...
- Confuses cat or dogs sense of smell
- Can be used as a training aid
- Conditions the cat or dog not to return to the area.
- Contains Methyl None Key tone. For outdoor use only.
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