How to keep cats out of flowerbed?

Sheree
by Sheree



  4 answers
  • C Chandler C Chandler on Apr 20, 2019

    We lived where a neighbor would feed feral cats, so it continually increased the population... they would always use my flower beds and raised tomato gardens for their personal potty! we tried so many things... lots of dollars! Then an old timer at church told us to use MOTH BALLS! we were like YUCK, who wants to smell that... and it seemed dangerously poisonous as well ... Becoming desperate, we decided to give it a go! we would put them just under the soil to prevent the strong smell and placed them only in the centers of places they obviously used because it would be scratched up into a little cover up pile. By using only the areas they had been using, it didnt affect worms or plant roots, etc underneath because cat urine is just deadly on everything! each time we saw a new scratched up place we put a mothball in it. it didnt take very long at all that they would avoid all places they could smell it! as they moved around to different beds... we would put out another one . . . it was only a few weeks and they would come from the neighbors, walk down our driveway to the street and walk around our yard.. then up to the yard next to us!! as more cats came for food or as they multiplied... the new ones wanted to stray over to our house... so finally my hubby decided to put a mothball just under the top of the soil.. around our property... down the drive way and along the curb... we lived on a corner lot, in a curve so our property was rounded out and took a whole box of moth balls... he spaced them about a foot to a foot and half apart. after than, we NEVER SAW ANOTHER CAT IN OUR YARD! we have an 8lb little yorkie-maltese mix... and it never bothered her at all ... she never acted like they were even in the yard. we walk her on a leash or let her out and stand and watch her so we would have known had she wanted to dig them up and get them in her mouth! if you have animals, most dont want anything to do with them... but just in case you have the ONE THAT WOULD, i would not place them where your pet would get one in their mouth. if you have a kitty, it wouldnt go near them just like any other cat! over time the mothballs dissolved. we sold that house about 3 years after that... but we never had to do it again!

    PS if you have little children, you should watch them carefully until you know they wont touch them! we have great grand kids that are small ... we watched them closely... but, because they were underneath the top of the soil and couldnt be seen, guess they never noticed them . .. and once they dissolved it wasnt a problem. we watched them closely before putting out the mothballs because we wanted to make sure they didnt try to put their hands where the cats had 'gone'!!

    also ... take a little shovel and scoop out their litter, replace it with potting soil or any soil you have . . . then put in the mothball. to leave their 'stuff' in their will eventually break down and kill anything around it!! we never experienced any of our plants dying from the mothballs!

  • DesertRose DesertRose on Apr 20, 2019

    The easiest way to keep cats and dogs out of flower beds is to put out a box of moth balls. They evaporate so they do not harm the water table or soil, but the pets hate them. Be sure you don't have any toddlers wandering in the flower bed in your neighborhood as they might put one in their mouth.

  • Annette Gentz Annette Gentz on Apr 21, 2019

    Fine ground black pepper sprinkled over the area. When they sniff the fine powder is undesirable. repeat as needed. I have also used a capsaisin pepper I found in bulk at a health food store.

  • Mac6231 Mac6231 on Apr 26, 2019

    insert plastic forks tines up in the open soil. The cats cannot do their duty with them in the way so they go somewhere else,