Keep Cats Off Your Lawn For Good

  • By: Bob
  • Last updated: February 23, 2023
  • Time to read: 2 min.

As you probably know, cats like to bury their poop which is why they are attracted to our freshly raked borders and forked raised beds. Although not common, it has been known for some male cats to forsake the burying part and instead take a liking to doing its business on your nice lawn.

You can almost picture Tom sniggering in the general direction of your bedroom window while he takes his nightly dump in the middle of your lawn.

Update: There is growing evidence that cat poop is a serious health risk so please use gloves and wash thoroughly after disposing in the trash.

The best deterrent to keep cats off your lawn has to be a cat proof fence around your garden. If that’s not an option though then one of the water sprayers such as the Hoont Cobra or if you are in the UK the Pestbye Jet Spray Repeller will soon have them leaving your yard the way they came in.

A couple of reasons for this, the main one being that cats can get used to the ultrasonic deterrents so you have to keep moving them around and it’s hard to know exactly what area they are covering but with a water spraying deterrent you can easily test and adjust its coverage area to ensure your lawn has full protection.

Cats very quickly learn to keep well away from the protected area because they hate getting a soaking.

A sonic deterrent won’t work on all cats. Just like us their hearing range changes as they get older so they may not even hear the noise given out by the deterrent and if they do, it might not be the horrible noise a young cat hears. With a cup full of water heading their way, trust me, all cats run.

Just 1 Pestbye Jet Sprayer is enough to protect all but the biggest English garden lawn and for the larger lawns, several can be linked together. It will also protect your lawn from foxes and other critters too.

Other things to try

Keep the grass well mown during the Summer, the shorter the better and plant some cat repellent plants in your surrounding borders such as Coleus Canina, lemon balm, lavender and rosemary.

Cats are creatures of habit and so you should find they are doing their business in the same spot on your lawn. If they are, during the winter when you can’t keep the grass short try to discourage them from the problem spot with some of the odour deterrents sprayed on the spot.

One reader suggested cutting a cane up into 6″ lengths (150mm to you youngsters), wrapping tin foil around one end and sticking the other into the ground to create a barrier around the problem area. She had excellent results and puts it down to cats not liking the shiny tin foil.

Sharing is caring!

  1. I have heard that orange (or any citrus fruit) peel is a good way of keeping cats away. Has anyone any experience of this? I’ regularly wake up to see that a cat has messed on my lawn, or in the flower beds overnight, and the smell knocks me sick when I go to clean it up If this trick does work than the smell of orange is more pleasant than the smell of the cat droppings

  2. I’m considering more aggressive methods as all else has failed. These cats are bloody determined to shit on my grass. In as little as 2 days up to fifty piles of crap can accumulate on this 10 foot by 8 foot patch of grass. I have tried sprays. Not working. Tryed most methods available and all failed. Put chicken wire over the garden box, they shit over the top of it. These cats and dogs, as it’s both, are clearly possessed. This is rediculous. I’m very tempted to order conibear traps at this point.

    1. use citronella essential oil 20 drops with full water bottle purchased at home depot shake well and apply. pick up poop and remove dirt before spraying, use every 3 days. I had 8 cat poops per day in my yard now 1 poop pick up every 6 days.. the smell is strong but it works use a mask gloves and eye wear . I spoke to my neighbors about the cats pooping up my yard .They became angry and wanted to physically fight , I called the police and told them what happened . I was told by the police to spray my yard with whatever works to keep them out and to trap cats and turn into the animal control my neighbors called the police on me and lied about me saying something to their kid the police spoke with me to let me know their complaint was not believable.Both of my next door neighbors own cats and are very angry about me spraying. no one cares about cat poop in my garden yard and cats scratchingthe bark on almond tree and climbing .tree. I now have a fungus on my almond tree The cat owners sit and watch the cat climb and scratch my almond tree and laugh. I want to enjoy my garden and yard again. I will chip up front areas and install chainlink fence and in the back garden I have used chicken wire which is working no poop noted in the wire area. I also purchased wireless cameras. I need to show the courts what is happening. I will not tolerate this any longer..

  3. I have a neighbor with 7 cats. For over 50 years I have fed birds and squirrels. Newly retired and love finally being able to watch the birds and squirrels. Their mother cat had 5 kittens. Refused to give them away. Now everyday they are outside the fenced in garden with the feeders inside the garden, killing birds.
    I’m done. They use my yard as their home. Neighbors don’t really care. Caging and taking to an animal shelter is my resort. I will not spend my retiring years without the pleasure of watching birds and squirrels.

  4. Throw the shit back on the cat owners garden, dirty stinking vernum cats.
    The next lot through the letter box or on the next washing line day going to have another spin in the machine

  5. I’m sick of the cats poo in my garden every day, several neighbours have cats in my area. Every night I check my garden no poop, check again in the morning always 1 if not 3 at one point every morning. I have a back garden with no plants just grass.
    They never bury it and I have children that play out in the garden. I have tried cayenne pepper that did not work, I tried cloves they didn’t work. I will continue to try things until the cat no longer poops in my garden. It’s disgusting and cat owners should be held responsible…if you can’t look after a cat then you should not have them. A dog would not be allowed to do this! I do not want a dog not a cat and not should I have to get one just to deter the cats. I just want my children to be safe in the garden playing without poop.

    1. Nicola I hope you have managed to get rid of your cat poo in the garden. I am so fed up with cats pooing on my lawn, there are fourteen cats near me, and my lawn has become their public toilet. Last year I had to have it relayed now it is just as bad, it’s not just that the cats are pooing in my garden it’s the cost of replacing plants and lawns. At least three of the cats that use my garden have constant diarrhoea, which can not be just picked up with gloves or a spade from the lawn. They also dig into the lawn where they poo. I can not get the smell out of my nose or head, having to clear up the mess every day.
      My neighbours are now angry with me because I said I was thinking of flagging over my front garden. They say it will spoil the look of the area. If I was a bit younger I would go and live in Canada, where if you own a cat it must be kept indoors. Within the walls of your home.
      The area I am in the cats seem to be let out at night, I am not well enough to sit up all night watching for them, I can not use the automatic water sprays, as in the front garden it is to near to a public foot path.
      As someone with very poor health my garden is my only pleasure, and exercise.
      I do not want to fall out with people but some cat owners seem to be so selfish. Dog owners must clear up when their dogs poo, yet it does not smell as bad.
      It is very rear to see a dog just wandering around at night shitting (sorry, I’m fed-up), in people’s gardens. I have tried everything including the lion poo, nothing works.
      I have some poo to try and clear up.
      Deeply depressed and fed up. I now can say I have come to hate cats……….

    2. Has this problem been solved, if so, what did you use. I am struggling with my neighbours cat. I cant cope anymore. I can’t even hand washing out because a) too close the the washing line and b) smell is too strong I can’t bare it. Please advise

  6. I have cats pooing on my lawn and garden i am getting on in years and work hard in my garden had to stop feeding the birds because of them . I think it should be law that cat owners be made to keep there cats in doors. How would they like it if I went and pood on there lawn every day are the to selfish to not think how much it cost us to keep a nice garden.when I catch the cat I shall rub it in it and let it go home like it so that they can have some of it

  7. My neigbour has 15 cats but a couple of them poo in my garden now they have started on the lawn really it’s horrible as very loose. I cant do much as I have a cat myself who uses a litter tray and has never weed or pooed outside she doesn’t leave my garden. So I cant do much to deter them feel sorry for my poor cat as they are always in the garden, and she comes inside. The pooing is making me so angry every day.

  8. Hi. I have a problem with our lawn at the front of our house. We live in an “open plan area” 70s house where people don’t have fences or walls surrounding their frontages. I keep our lawn mown as close as I can in the Summer. Too close and your lawn will suffer anyway. We are the only house in the street to have a lovely colourful well kept front garden. Most passers by enjoy it and often comment on how nice it is. We have vibrant Spring Heathers, Sacrifrage in white, some small palms and Hucheras. Sadly, over the last many years our lawn has been pooed on by an unknown cat or cats. 3 neighbours have cats and as our kitchen faces the front garden, I occasionally see one or two of the local cats heading for our lawn.. so I open the window and squirt the offenders with plain water. I put 6″ canes or sharp twigs in our borders and island bed wherever there is a space, which does work as cats do not welcome squatting on a spiked twig!!! They sometimes poo on the Heather which is revolting to remove as very often soft..ugh!! But Heather is tough and does not suffer..just me with the horrid job of removing it.
    Putting twigs all over our lovely lawn is not an option..it would look like the petrified forest!!:(( also, as many of you reading this very long comment would agree..life is too short to stand watching 24/7 in order to catch the offending feline in the act and squirt!! Not possible when at home or away!!

    I squirt vinegar every other day around our front garden perimeter as this also repels dogs whose owners use those ridiculous long leads which gives no control and enables the dog to pee at will by the time the owner has caught up with the dog when it is too late anyway. So it’s not all just cats! We used to have cats but not now. Our cats had an indoor and an outdoor litter tray so they never had the need to use neighbours’ gardens as toilets.We know their habits. We have tried every repelling idea from oranges to pellets to water sprays.nothing works. If keeping our lawn closely mown and using perimeter vinegar ceases to work we intend to chat to the local neighbours who have cats to suggest they use 2 litter trays..one in one out or at least one outside.

    Wish us luck with that idea!!!

    Happy gardening to you all.

  9. I live in a little rural pocket of a relatively big city nestled just south of the downtown metro area. It’s great to be able to be around nature and there’s a ton of wildlife – crows, doves, hummingbirds, several small bird species, numerous deer, possums, raccoons, even the occasional fox. But there also tend to be feral cats as well as neighborhood cats that are allowed outdoors. I’ve never seen the cats kill any birds or other animals, but I’m sure they do and negatively impact native wildlife populations. Don’t hate me but I am actually a cat owner and lover. But my cats have never and will never go outside. They have no desire to. They’re fully domesticated after all, and have been bred to be kept as indoor pet companions; if you never let your cat outside from day one, most will never want to go outside. And you shouldn’t let them even if they want to. Dogs try to get you to let them outside, and some even escape or try to, but we don’t let them because it’s incredibly unsafe and they would be nuisances in the same way people’s outdoor cats are. Can you imagine seeing run over dogs as frequently as we see cats that have been killed on the road?! If you don’t care enough to protect your animal, maybe you just shouldn’t get a cat. When I first moved in here my neighbor at the time fed a ton of feral cats on her property. She didn’t have any cats as pets or even particularly like cats but she said she only had that and gardening to keep her occupied and she had stage 4 cancer so I wasn’t going to fight her on it. Even though it caused so many issues with my 2 cats at the time, particularly with my boy cat who is since deceased. On 2 separate occasions a feral cat tried to break through my screen door to attack my cat. They tried it a couple of times through the windows as well but those screens are heavy duty metal, unlike the doors which are loosely draped cheapest of cheap lightweight screen that my idiot landlord hung herself. The door attacks both resulted in me getting puncture wounds in my calf because I instinctively tried to scoop and drag my cat backward away from the screen so I could shut the door. They actually happened in the exact same way so that the second incident my cat just punctured the exact same holes. If any of you cat haters have read it this far in my post please feel free to laugh maniacally at my ridiculous misfortune. I’m sure it would have been hilarious to see. My new neighbor has a young boy cat that she lets outside from time to time, which I just noticed the other day, finally. I’d been watching my yard as frequently as possible for weeks trying to figure out what cat was leaving little poops on my driveway and cement walkways so that I could spray it with water, hiss, and clap and shout at it (like the crazy lady who lives alone with her cat that I am, after all) like I do to deter cats and train them to avoid my yard. This little asshole wasn’t even pooping in the dirt. Am currently waiting for some mint, lavendar and lemon balm to grow in my yard and am also throwing lemon oil and lemon peels around my yard and on the cement areas. Hopefully this will help keep that guy and any other local cats off my property!

  10. As a deterrent, I stretched some dark, thin (almost invisible), sturdy cord between flowerpots over a gravel bed in my front garden. The cord at 6 inches is at cat-face height. In my rear garden, I tried strings across areas of the lawn. It worked. They poop right up to the strings but no further.

    But, when I want to mow the lawn, I have to move the cords away. Time consuming/inconvenient. A good solution would be an extendable/retractable washing line cord but much thinner, so it’s not visible (except to the cat). You know what, nobody makes such a thing! It’s not rocket science though, is it? Barely a variation on a fishing reel! Any entrepreneurs out there?

Leave a Reply to Graham French Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

chicken wire to prevent cats digging

Previous Post

Cats Hate Chicken Wire

Next Post

How To Stop Cats Pooping In Your Garden