Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: AlaninCarlisle on April 28, 2017, 13:49

Title: Cat deterrent
Post by: AlaninCarlisle on April 28, 2017, 13:49
Can anyone recommend a cat-deterrent, chemical or otherwise that I can spray/spread onto my recently sown beds please? I am ready for carnage against our own and our neighbour's cats which, the minute my crops are showing and I need to remove the chicken netting that I had laid flat over them as protection, decide to use the area as a lavatory and scratch up all the new seedlings
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Fairy Plotmother on April 28, 2017, 13:51
Shot gun! I've tried all sorts without success.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: azubah on April 28, 2017, 14:01
I cut my DH's hair and he does mine, so I spread the hairs around. I think that puts them off, and the slugs don't like it either.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mumofstig on April 28, 2017, 14:39
Can anyone recommend a cat-deterrent, chemical or otherwise that I can spray/spread onto my recently sown beds please? I am ready for carnage against our own and our neighbour's cats which, the minute my crops are showing and I need to remove the chicken netting that I had laid flat over them as protection, decide to use the area as a lavatory and scratch up all the new seedlings

I have to net veg beds in my garden, not particularly attractive I know, but the only thing that seems to work.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Plumby on April 28, 2017, 16:28
Coffee grounds.  I've sprinkled it on my beds and so far with success.

I nabbed about 10kg from Costa which helps.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mrs bouquet on April 28, 2017, 16:35
I buy lion poo, its not in a raw state, it's treated and comes in round pellets.  It works everytime, I just use it about 2/3 times throughout the year.  Brilliant.  Check it out on Google, I get it from Primrose, but there are other places.  Good luck, Mrs Bouquet
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: AlaninCarlisle on April 28, 2017, 19:44
I could only find Lion Poo on line which meant that I'd have to wait until next week to get some , by which time I'd be muderous, so drove into Carlisle to Pets at Home and bought some stuff called Get Off at £8 a plastic jar. Will report back on its effectiveness
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Blewit on April 29, 2017, 07:14
Curry powder works for me.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: ghost61 on April 30, 2017, 05:54
We use a sensor detector attached to a water jet.  It's battery operated and seems to do the job - trouble is the cat just goes in the front garden instead!
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mrs bouquet on April 30, 2017, 09:55
I just had a look at the lion poo packet, it is called 'Roaring Success'  :D Mrs Bouquet
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: al78 on May 03, 2017, 10:28
Bramble branches laid across the beds you want to protect. The cat will not rummage around where they will get a sharp thorn in their paw, and if they do, they quickly learn not to do it again.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Mum2mj on May 03, 2017, 15:07
I just had a look at the lion poo packet, it is called 'Roaring Success'  :D Mrs Bouquet
Does this also work with foxes?
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mrs bouquet on May 04, 2017, 13:49
There are foxes around the gardens, but not in mine.  I never considered the lion poo deterring them, but perhaps that's what it is.  Mrs B
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: 8doubles on May 04, 2017, 14:00
Have a look on Youtube , Jack Russell and lion cubs ! :)
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Paul Plots on May 05, 2017, 02:58
I've had no problem with the neighbours' cats for ages. Where they were once frequently "visiting" even the front lawn is "visit" free :)

How?

Simples: My son and daughter-in-law moved into the bungalow where my veg plots are and they brought their two cats with them!! One is a posh-job cat and rarely goes out. The other is a once-was-feral cat so nothing dares wander onto her patch.... and my veg patch is left untouched... apart from the odd rolling about in the empty dry patches to sunbathe.

Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: arh on May 05, 2017, 07:43
That's the point. Cats always "go" in some one else's patch, So one either obtains a cat of their own, or goes to great lengths to stop other peoples cats from using their plot as a toilet. But why should we have to?. There's enough, (probably not!), notices etc. about dogs but none about cats.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: I Love Spuds on May 05, 2017, 10:44
Cats, by law, are free to roam, thus pooping were they roam. Dogs are not.

You can put a dog on a lead but you wouldn't a cat. Dogs are far more domesticated then cats are (mostly!)

How bad are these cat litter problems? As you can tell, I don't have any problems but I grow at home and not on a lotty.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: al78 on May 05, 2017, 11:31
That's the point. Cats always "go" in some one else's patch, So one either obtains a cat of their own, or goes to great lengths to stop other peoples cats from using their plot as a toilet. But why should we have to?. There's enough, (probably not!), notices etc. about dogs but none about cats.

Cats are treated like wild animals, dogs are trained and domesticated (you can't train a cat) and they have a higher potential to cause harm to humans, they are two completely different animals. As for why you should have too, the same reason you should net your brassicas from pigeons, or put copper rings around seedlings to discourage slugs.
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mrs bouquet on May 05, 2017, 16:23
Another deterrent, I have found works well (like the brambles), is to go out and pick some wild Gorse,  it is  now in  flower, so cut  lengths and transfer them home in a sturdy sack, and lay them around the beds.  They look pretty and the cats, definitely will not go where it is prickly, and boy are they prickly..  Take strong gloves !! Mrs Bouquet
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: Fairy Plotmother on May 05, 2017, 16:34
My lion poo has been ordered and dispatched!!!!!
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: 8doubles on May 05, 2017, 17:44
Another deterrent, I have found works well (like the brambles), is to go out and pick some wild Gorse,  it is  now in  flower, so cut  lengths and transfer them home in a sturdy sack, and lay them around the beds.  They look pretty and the cats, definitely will not go where it is prickly, and boy are they prickly..  Take strong gloves !! Mrs Bouquet

A great idea if you do your gardening in a suit of armour !  :nowink:
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: victoria park on May 05, 2017, 19:38
In my experience, cats do as much good as they do harm. The rodents do far more harm to planting aspirations which is partly why cats have been favoured all over the world. So the furry bundles are seen as a complementary and fully fledged part of my ecosystem. We have 150 plots and only 3 known cats. Not enough. I need to grow some cat nip  :)
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: 8doubles on May 06, 2017, 08:35
In my experience, cats do as much good as they do harm. The rodents do far more harm to planting aspirations which is partly why cats have been favoured all over the world. So the furry bundles are seen as a complementary and fully fledged part of my ecosystem. We have 150 plots and only 3 known cats. Not enough. I need to grow some cat nip  :)

Spoken as if cats only kill rodents and not every endangered songbird they can !
The only possible eco friendly cats are native wild ones not the tame ones that are bred and fed by humans and only hunt for sport !

I like to do my own pest control (pests only not any thing small)  thank you ! ;)
Title: Re: Cat deterrent
Post by: mumofstig on May 06, 2017, 09:39
I'll lock the thread now that all the useful advice has been offered, before emotive disagreement takes over, as always  ::)