Cats

And no I don't mean catarpillers. I mean cats of the feline sort. Please just a moment of your time. I know I read somewhere of some plant that deters cats from hanging around. Can't remember what. I don't have moles, voles, or deer and not even slugs....just cats. They are beating down my zone 9 garden.

I have a cat that won't come round when my greyhound is outside, but he's been sleeping on my hostas and heucheras. What can I do?

Thanks for your help.

Molly
:^)))

Mothballs, but you have to put them down about every two weeks or sooner if it rains. Keeps out dogs and cats.

Judy

Thanks Judy,

My sprinklers are on a 2 day timer, all year long. But I think moth balls are cheap

Molly
:^)))

If you can manage to sneak up on the cat and spray him with water, a couple of times should break it of sleeping in that spot. There is a motion detector water sprinkler I looked up info on in the summer because I thought I was going to have to get one but the moth balls worked for me. Of course I don't water ever often.

Some plastic forks "planted" tines up in their favorite spots tends to keep them from getting too comfy.

Dried tea bags or similar with a good sprinkling of Citrus essential oil (any of the citrus), you need to refresh it after rain.

There's a few posts on this thread that also had suggestions:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/449689/

Another suggestion used in this area is the stickery seed balls from Liquidambar or Sweetgum trees. . . kind of along the same lines as rose bush cuttings.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1033/index.html

Those little green balls turn dark brown and very hard. . .not much fun to walk on for cat or people, for that matter. Makes it a tad uncomfortable and they might just go somewhere else. There are Liquidambar trees everywhere in San Joaquin Valley, but don't know if they grow in FL.

Well, I went to the nursery and picked up some cat repellant. Sprinkled it in the flower bed. Tonight it rained so I reckon I'll be doing it again tomorrow. I don't think the cat will be there in the rain anyway. I will keep an eye on it and let you know.

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate it very much.

Molly
:^)))

hi molly! When my cats decide to start sleeping in the plants (or seed trays) I put a bunch of plater or wooden shishkabob sticks it there.
Also I had to someone for indoor cats and it might work outdoors, is make inside out loops of cellophane tape and stick them all of the plant. It will stick to the cat's fur and usually they won't do it twice.

I won't use the mothballs even as a last resort. They are too poisonous to take a chance on injuring or killing some child or pet. Please don't use mothballs when there are so many other solutions. Jessamine

Molly, does anyone ever call you Molly McButter? That drives my wife nuts, or it it did 20 yrs ago when she was a kid and there was such a thing. I saw this thread earlier and read the replies, heres my solution for neighborhood cats that used my rose garden as an outhouse/penthouse/cathouse, coffee grounds from Starbucks, free to the asking, smell good, beneficial to soil, not acidic as some will say and worms love them. Used to have cats in the regular mulch, in the morning it would be scattered all about, not anymore.

SRP,

Thanks, I love that idea and since I just went back to ground coffee, I have lots of grounds now.

Oh yeah, Molly McButter, Good Golly Miss Molly, Molly Turgis, Mustang Molly etc, I've heard them all and in spite of all that, I love the name. It was my grandmother's before it was mine.

Molly
:^)))

Just IMO...if you don't want your cats to become a problem in your yard...don't let them out of the house. No repellents required! If your cats are a problem in your yard, they're probably a problem in your neighbors yards, too. How many people in DG have written in about the problems the "neighborhood" cats are causing them and their gardens? April

Dod,

I don't have any cats. The cats belong to the neighbors. My greyhound keeps them away when she's outside, but most of the time both my dogs are in the house.

Thanks anyway tho.

Molly
:^)))

Rue. Cats hate rue.

molly,

I second baa's suggestions. You could likely spray a citrus essential oil spray on the coffee grounds with good results too. Orange may be best (= least liked by cats). (you can buy a small bottle of essential oil and make your own. It will be quite cheap that way. Probably a good idea to add a small amount of liquid soap or mineral oil, as when making other sprays, so it will adhere to the foliage).

Please don't use moth balls. They are also recommended for killing bees. And as someone else said, dangerous for kids - not to mention for the cats.

I recommended rue to somebody else awhile ago too. But be warned that it really irritates some people's skin so you'lll want to plant it at the back of the bed if you try it. Some kinds of artemisia are also recommended to plant as a border, with the claim that cats and some other animals will stay away from it. I've never tried it for that.

You might also try planting a little patch of oat grass, catnip and maybe catmint somewhere. Give them a few square feet of cat heaven, and they may choose it over the rest of your garden. If you can put it at the side from which they usually enter, and then use the essential oil spray starting 6 or so feet further on, they may not venture further.

Thank you everyone for all the great ideas.

The cat was sleeping in my zone 9 bed and for the most part, the plants all went to sleep for part of the winter. So I haven't been stressing over it much for the past couple months. The hostas and heuchers's are now starting to peep back up a bit so I will start addressing this if Snowy doesn't keep the cat out of the yard.

BTW, the lady next door who the cat adopted says she may give the cat away. It's been driving her crazy yowling in the middle of the night for food. I haven't heard a thing.

Moll
:^)))

That's not why cats howl. Teeheeee

Sidney,

This woman has a "cat door" for the cat to come and go as she pleases.

Just a thought. A cat or doggie door left to flop open and shut. Aside from the danger of letting in a very small burglar, how do you keep out the possums, squirrels and raccoons.

Can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night staring at the weseally ugly little snout of a possum? eeewww

:^)))

Or if you're close to water, RATS auughh

molly,
sometimes, if you've got a cat door, you find a possum *upstairs sitting on the sofa eating crackers* (I guess he couldn't find anything in the kitchen), while the, ahem, "watch cats", loll around as if nothing unusual is going on.
After that you *always* remember to lock the kitty door up at night!

They don't have ugly snouts though. And they do play possum, so for a wild animal in the house, they're as easy to deal with as you could get. Still, I don't recommend it ! :-)

water rats - that would be another thing altogether! I don't think I'd have a kitty door in water rat country...

Paani, I had a possum come in like that! He was a baby, hid behind my computer desk and while I was sitting there typing away, he crawled across my foot. It was not a pretty site!

Calalily,I wish you had video of that. I'm sure it was fun.
I have 2 pomeraian/mix. Small! They have an outlet through the back screen door, on the back porch, but not the kitchen door.