Since we've moved to this rural place a year ago, we find that the neighbors' cats like to stay around our garden a lot more than we like them to. And they do leave their droppings in flowerpots and any other accessible soil, recently even on concrete, daytime and nighttime. It is getting worse, the cats are getting more, and they are getting fatter (one neighbor feeding them a lot). They also leave dead birds and dead mice around.
My wife is upset while neighbors tell us that cats are a perfectly natural phenomenon and we would have to put up with it.
Well, I believe the cats here are badly educated, a lot different from the ones on my grandfathers farm.
So, I don't want them in our garden and tried various things to chase them away:
Smelly powder. It kept the cats away for a week, but just where I put the powder. After a week, cats were back. Another can at EUR 8 would have been needed for 25% of the garden area. Too much in the long run.
I set up a very loud ultrasonic source. Cat's immediately came looking what's going on and appeared not annoyed at all. I kept the sound on for some weeks. My neighbor had a marten visit every night, it left (later I found it had moved one house further). The women of my two neighbors complained about the ultrasonic sound, my wife too. Women apparently hear these high frequencies very well. I had to turn off the ultrasonic thing to keep the ladies happy. The noise has had no effect on the behavior of the cats. Maybe the frequency was wrong ?
I covered the heavily-frequented areas (under the trees) with sharp gravel. This indeed does work: Cats moved to other places in our garden. Well, I can't put gravel everywhere.
One cat I chased away permanently by repeatedly scoring hits with water, even hot water from the watercooker. But that was just one. There must still be 4 to 5 more of them regularly visiting.
I'm curious what suggestions you can come up with to keep cats away. Lasers ? Magnetrons ? Electric fence ? Light-barrier triggerd sprinklers ? A dog is not acceptable, by the way.
I'm trying not to injure any of the cats so that a neighbor could get upset. Frying my own family or even the postman who is bringing me flashlights should be avoided, too.
My wife is upset while neighbors tell us that cats are a perfectly natural phenomenon and we would have to put up with it.
Well, I believe the cats here are badly educated, a lot different from the ones on my grandfathers farm.
So, I don't want them in our garden and tried various things to chase them away:
Smelly powder. It kept the cats away for a week, but just where I put the powder. After a week, cats were back. Another can at EUR 8 would have been needed for 25% of the garden area. Too much in the long run.
I set up a very loud ultrasonic source. Cat's immediately came looking what's going on and appeared not annoyed at all. I kept the sound on for some weeks. My neighbor had a marten visit every night, it left (later I found it had moved one house further). The women of my two neighbors complained about the ultrasonic sound, my wife too. Women apparently hear these high frequencies very well. I had to turn off the ultrasonic thing to keep the ladies happy. The noise has had no effect on the behavior of the cats. Maybe the frequency was wrong ?
I covered the heavily-frequented areas (under the trees) with sharp gravel. This indeed does work: Cats moved to other places in our garden. Well, I can't put gravel everywhere.
One cat I chased away permanently by repeatedly scoring hits with water, even hot water from the watercooker. But that was just one. There must still be 4 to 5 more of them regularly visiting.
I'm curious what suggestions you can come up with to keep cats away. Lasers ? Magnetrons ? Electric fence ? Light-barrier triggerd sprinklers ? A dog is not acceptable, by the way.
I'm trying not to injure any of the cats so that a neighbor could get upset. Frying my own family or even the postman who is bringing me flashlights should be avoided, too.