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.
