7 Clever Ways to Banish Cats from Your Yard

Discover ways to deter cats from entering your yard or garden using harmless techniques for kitties.

Feral cats can be advantageous for gardens by keeping voles
, mice, and other rodents at bay. However, when straying felines hunt songbirds, create burrows in flowerbeds, and deposit their waste within these excavations, they swiftly turn into pests. Below are seven humane strategies to deter outdoor cats from entering your property without harming them:
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What Are the Reasons for Keeping Cats Away From Gardens?

Feral cats might turn your vegetable and herb gardens into their personal restrooms, confusing bare dirt patches with litter boxes. Discovering several cat droppings among your carrot and leafy greens can be both an unwelcome shock and a potential risk to your health.

Despite the use of chicken and rabbit droppings can be safely composted And when incorporated into vegetable gardens, cat and dog droppings frequently harbor parasites and harmful bacteria that can contaminate edible produce. Therefore, this could serve as sufficient justification for discouraging cats from your garden. Additionally, roaming felines might occasionally harm plants or consume them. songbirds , hummingbirds, and the tiny frogs you've enlisted for natural pest management.

Advice for Discouraging Feral Cats From Entering Your Property

With some minor adjustments in your outdoor space, you can create an environment that deters wandering cats and prompts them to find another place to go.

1. Discourage Digging

Cats tend to prefer digging and relieving themselves in loose, dry soil. To discourage them from treating your garden as a litter box, increase the frequency of watering the beds. apply an additional layer of mulch that cats won’t be inclined to dig through.

Coarse wood chips and gravel mulch can discourage certain felines, yet a ground cover made of prickly pine cones or clippings from raspberry vines, rose plants, and holly shrubs might prove even more successful at keeping them away. To protect their gardens even more rigorously, some cultivators opt for inserting chopsticks, bamboo skewers, and plastic forks with tines facing upward into close groupings throughout vacant areas.

2. Try Deterrents

Products designed to deter strays from coming around tend to vary in effectiveness when it comes to keeping cats at bay. Sprays made with predator urine, cayenne pepper, clippings from dogs' fur, orange rinds, distilled white vinegar, and garlic solutions frequently discourage feline intruders. Other options include setting up a motion-sensitive water sprayer, positioning bright spotlights, hanging wind chimes, playing loud radios, or installing ultrasonic devices meant specifically for deterring cats. For optimal outcomes, experiment with multiple repellents concurrently and periodically change things up to prevent the neighborhood cats from becoming accustomed to your chosen methods.

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3. Cultivate Intensely Fragrant Plants

Certain fragrant plants can serve equally well as deterrents against cats without requiring extensive maintenance. To create a feline-resistant garden, consider cultivating plants with spiky stems and foliage, such as squash. globe thistle , and sea holly or grow strongly scented herbs, such as lemon thyme , Russian sage , rosemary, and rue .

Two pungent plants to steer clear of are catnip and its relative. catmint . Each of these plants includes a substance that appeals to cats.

To further discourage cats from entering your garden, plant them with minimal space between each one according to their specific planting guidelines. Plant several groundcover plants. Cats will not be able to dig if you maintain a cover over the soil.

Related: Is Lavender Harmful to Cats and Dogs?

4. Clean the Garden

Cats are known for being territorial creatures that claim spaces using their odor and frequently revisit these spots. By scrubbing regions marked by cats using your garden hose along with soap, you could disrupt this pattern and deter them from coming back. Additionally, try an enzyme cleaner designed for feline urine and external areas to tackle potent odors.

As you tidy up your garden, make sure to store outdoor pet and bird feeders safely, clear away wooden debris and brush piles, and enclose any exposed compost bins. Such spots frequently lure rodents, which in turn may beckon roaming feral cats searching for food. Sealing off the underneath of decks, patios, and homes might assist too; however, inspect these areas thoroughly beforehand to confirm no creatures are lurking within.

5. Create a Feline-Friendly Area

If feral cats are already frequenting your property, consider leveraging their love for catnip as a way to divert them from your vegetable and flower gardens. Grow some catnip plants instead. catnip Place cat grass in a potted plant away from areas where you wish to prevent cats from entering. Additionally, set up a compact sandpit in a discreet section of your backyard to discourage them from burrowing into your flowerbeds. Unowned cats tend to be more well-behaved when provided with some territory they can claim as their own.

Related: Catmint versus Catnip: Understand the Distinctions Before You Sow

6. Use Barriers

For safeguarding your precious vegetables, consider placing a layer of chicken wire or hardware cloth over the planting areas. Secure this mesh with landscaping staples into the ground. This setup allows most plants to sprout through easily while preventing cats from digging in these zones and leaving their deposits behind.

Fencing is a pricier and more complex choice. However, this might be useful if you frequently deal with numerous stray cats. Since they possess climbing abilities, your barrier should stand at least 8 feet high and consist of unstable materials that felines cannot grip effortlessly for jumping or scaling purposes. Feline climbers struggle more effectively with wire mesh compared to wooden constructions; thus, opting for metal fencing could deter them along with keeping out deer and other wildlife.

7. Contact a Shelter

Before reaching out to a shelter regarding stray cats, first consult with your neighbors to ensure these "stray" cats do not belong to them as pets. If you confirm that the local cats indeed have no owner, consider getting in touch with a no-kill shelter to explore their assistance options. Such shelters could potentially locate homes for the strays around your property or engage in a trap-neuter-return (TNR) initiative. TNR projects offer sterilization services to unowned cats, providing an ethical way of reducing stray numbers gradually and stopping newcomers from becoming part of this population, thus preventing more wild kitties from appearing in the vicinity.

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Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens .