How to get rid of cats in your yard

[mrsstats]

My neighbor is feeding feral cats. There must be at least 15 of them in her yard. I am sick of them coming into my yard and ruining my lawn, my garden and making my dogs crazy. I spent alot of money to landscape my property and it is being ruined. I keep my dogs confined to a certain area so they dont ruin my property and now I have these cats doing it.

I called the town and was transferred to 3 different departments. Nothing they can do. I called the SPCA, nothing they can do.

I am at my wits end and no, there is no talking to this person about it.

 

[Sparx]

A motion activated sprinkler would certainly do the job.

I read this online, but cats are supposedly repelled by: peppermint, geranium, rue, lavender, garlic, lemon grass and thyme. Most of those are small and cheap, you could plant them in the areas the cats are bothering.

You can also pour coffee grounds into the mulch and dirt area that the cats are getting into. they hate the smell of it.

 

[Magic Mom]

traps

 

[Abbie]

traps

This.

I don't understand why the local humane society wouldn't advise you to use humane traps. Ours lend them out for just this purpose. If you can't find somewhere to borrow these you can always use repellents like a pp suggested.

 

[Eagle-]

not PEPPERMINT...
Almost every cat I have ever owned steals peppermints and eats them.


I use my son's Daisy Red Ryder. Start popping cats in the shoulder with one, and they stop coming back.
After the first couple of times I popped him, the local 'bully' cat both runs home flat out when he sees me and he stays out of my yard.


He's lucky we live in town, at my Dad's place in the country we use a .22 to take care of the issue.

 

[klynn]

...at my Dad's place in the country we use a .22 to take care of the issue.

Excellent choice of round! In my area we use .30-06 or a .223 Remington!

 

[SunshineOR]

Water works. A few days being active with the hose or a really good squirt gun and you can send them a clear message.

 

[eeyore kelly]

Water works and is humane. I suggest motion activated sprinklers. What I do not suggest is hurting or torturing the cats like people have suggested here. I don't find it funny, not even when they use I just find it sick.

It is people who think cat torture is funny, is why I have a 2 year old cat that I rescued that is afraid of almost everyone outside of the family.

I suggest you use a humane way, because most states have some kind of animal cruelty laws. If I saw anyone shooting/torturing a catI would call the police and press charges. I promise there are a lot of people like me.

Cats hate water.
Water is not cruel.
Landscaping safe.

 

[kittycat9]

I hear you - only my issue is rabbits, and a home stuck in pre-forecloser but abandoned (the bank stopped the process due a backlog of homes when it didn't sell at the cty sheriff's sale last June, but the family had already moved). I walked my yard today after our big thaw and rain, and my beautiful flower beds look like I intentionally installed rabbit poop mulch, and several expensive plantings have been gnawed down over or bulbs/roots dug out completely. I'm completely lost. I spent all last summer humanely fending them off, but I'm about to declare war. I really think the bank should be taking care of the property beyond mowing.

 

[klynn]

This.

I don't understand why the local humane society wouldn't advise you to use humane traps. Ours lend them out for just this purpose. If you can't find somewhere to borrow these you can always use repellents like a pp suggested.

For feral cats (which are considered wild animals), traps will only help the feral cats problem if they are TNR (trap-neuter-return).

 

[klynn]

My neighbor is feeding feral cats. There must be at least 15 of them in her yard. I am sick of them coming into my yard and ruining my lawn, my garden and making my dogs crazy. I spent alot of money to landscape my property and it is being ruined. I keep my dogs confined to a certain area so they dont ruin my property and now I have these cats doing it.

I called the town and was transferred to 3 different departments. Nothing they can do. I called the SPCA, nothing they can do.

I am at my wits end and no, there is no talking to this person about it.

I notice that you are from Long Island. Here is a link that could help you and your neighbor help the feral cats.
http://animalallianceli.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=5

 

[Mellie2162]

For feral cats (which are considered wild animals), traps will only help the feral cats problem if they are TNR (trap-neuter-return).

Our Humane society will only TNR if you pay to have it done, otherwise they trap and keep or do whatever, I dont know. I have one feral cat that comes here and feeds, I cant help it she's pregnant and I feel sorry for her. Ive been trying to trap her for a long time, but she's way too smart.

The problem I have is not with ferals but with neighbors who let their cats roam the neighborhood. Keep your cat inside.

 

[dzorn]

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/2009/06/feral_cat_bird_campaign.html

Thought this was interesting. Ask local animal control for traps.

Denise in MI

 

[dzorn]

For feral cats (which are considered wild animals), traps will only help the feral cats problem if they are TNR (trap-neuter-return).

Yes but it will help the song bird population to to skip the neuter and return.

Denise in MI

 

[luvwinnie]

I just trapped the 3 cats I've been feeding last night in order to spay and vax them...so I DO NOT end up with 15 OR MORE...there ARE groups out there that will help, they are just hard to find sometimes. Is your neighbor willing to TRY to do this? The key is to not feed them for a day so they are really hungry and will go in for the food.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

We trapped the two feral cats last fall at the abadoned house across the street. The foundation had caved in, family behind on mortgage so the bank wouldn't release the insurance money, mother killed (no father), adult son arrested for murder . Anyway, I digress. I'm still shocked by my former neighbors as the previous ones were fabulous!!
But we trapped the 2 kittens that were born in the basement across the street. We let them lose in our home with the intent to take them to the shelter once they were a bit domesticated.

They lived under our bed for 2 weeks. Came out only at night when the house was quiet. This was last September. We can only pet one of them - still!!! The other one, even though I feed her every day, will not let anyone pet her. Sometimes DD can get in a quick stroke down her back when she is eating but then she bolts. We trapped her when she was less than a month old. She truly only knows us. We have a total of 4 cats counting these two. My family is true animal lovers. But this cat just won't warm up. I could pretty much guarantee that this cat would have been euthanized already if she had gone to a shelter. They wouldn't be able to keep a cat that has no chance at adoption. Who wants a kitty that you can't even touch??!!

 

[cabanafrau]

We have a box in our yard that emits high frequency sounds to keep skunks away. I know it has different settings for different animals & what we have it set for hopefully keeps away the skunks & seems to work on rabbits, too. We still have squirrels aplenty, possums (ewww!) & the neighbors' wandering cats don't seem bothered. You could check them out in the store & see if they have one w/ a setting for cats.

 

[zalansky]

OP - we have the exact same problem. A neighbor 3 doors down feeds the feral cats like crazy - they have reproduced like crazy too. We have trapped several of the cats and had animal control come get them and deal with it. Do I feel bad? Sometimes, but I also have 2 small kids and I don't enjoy cat p00p and urine all over my plants and yard. Thanks, but no thanks. There's nothing like the smell of cat pee hit you in the face when you open your door and windows.

I don't understand why anyone would think its ok to feed these wild cats and let them keep on reproducing? Our neighbor was upset that we were trapping the cats but whats fair is fair. She thinks its ok to overpoplulate this neighborhood with them, I think its ok to send them off.

 

[Kathi OD]

You're definitely not alone in your plight. We also have a neighbor who feeds feral cats. They reproduce like crazy. Where there were only 2 about 3 years ago, we now have well over 20 roaming the neighborhood. She keeps her garage door opened slightly so that they have somewhere to go when the weather is bad.

Fortunately for us, we have a dog that they are scared to death of and so they don't come onto our property very often.

 

[Erin1700]

It is a problem here too. I hate when there is a cat fight outside and it wakes my kids up. You can hear the cats running around on the neighbors deck chasing each other and screeching!