Deterrant advice for cats, maybe dogs, fouling our front lawn

Hi, we are suffering with someone's pets/small animal (some cat, maybe some small dog, but not sure if someone's dumping that: dogs don't leave little plastic bags behind) foul in our front lawn.

I've heard of white pepper, water-filled bottles, and lion droppings (none around here) being preventive, but never met anyone who had anything that actually _worked_.

The more it happens, the more I worry that other pets (we have none ourselves) will think our garden is a free-for-all toilet.

I recognise the dog leavings (I've walked dogs for relatives) and I think the cat is cat based on the hairs embedded, different composition, and the fact we have about 15 cats in the immediate neighbourhood.

Can anyone recommend anything?

Bucket of water thrown at offending cat!

I would certainly take some kind of direct action if I could catch the animal(s) in the act, but we never do :(

We had a similar problem with the cats in our back garden and the solution which worked for us was Contech Scarecrow. It proved to be effective, non-obtrusive, ecologically friendly, quite precise and not causing any real harm to furry trespassers (albeit being sufficiently unpleasant to encourage them to stay away). For those squeamish about soaking someone's else pet, the device gives a sound warning few seconds before each blast, giving the intruder a fair chance to leave the area (cats are very intelligent and learn fast).

Contech ScareCrow Motion Activated Animal Deterrent

There is nothing like seeing the blissful expression on the face of a large ginger tom arranging himself on our tulip border to change to something else as he got hit flat in his face with a quart of cold water under high pressure.

A couple of things to be aware of:
1. The high-pressure water jet is quite unpleasant to be hit with even for someone my size (6 feet, 16.5 stones). So make sure you have a "safe approach" planned when installing.
2. (*) Be very careful with cheap genetic copies. They tend to have inferior sensors which operate unreliably and inconsistently especially in gardens with complex layout, windy conditions, etc. Contech electronics seems to be pretty good in filtering out false alarms while remaining vigilant to real threats.

(*) This is is my honest opinion based on personal experiences. I am in no way associated with Contech. I have only had experiences with 2 other devices before purchasing Contech ScareCrow, it is entirely possible that there are some similar gizmos on the market which are as good or even better.

Thank you, Anatoli. Certainly this will answer a good many of our logistic al problems. There were another 4 foulings this morning (Saturday), and I still have reason to believe that some of them have been put there deliberately. This could well be a very good deterrent, and I'll show it to my husband :)

Save a spray bottle from a cleaning product - wash it, fill with 450ml white vinegar, 25ml washing up liquid, 10 ml of strong smelling essential oil (I find peppermint or cinnamon work best), reassemble. Gently mix by inverting the bottle a few times before use.

Spray twice a day around the borders of your garden (and any specific areas the cats etc target) - avoid spraying directly on lawn or plants, they don't like the acid in the vinegar. Cats hate the smell - I think they think it is some creature they don't recognise....this mix gets bonus points for killing weeds too.

If you have a wooden fence you can drip neat peppermint or cinnamon essential oil along the top.

This has saved us from tom cats "scenting" our garden and fouling the lawn. Not sure about dogs - I guess we are lucky with the dog owners around here.

Thank you, I will give that a try whilst my husband considers the water-shooter. The water-shooter has the advantage of attracting children to frighten away the cats ;)

hi mrs. chew,i have found a brilliant deterrent to cats fouling, i overheard another customer telling somebody that crushed mothballs work well. i bought some and yes it really does work but unfortunately so many people in our local store have been buying it all up and the store are having difficulty getting enough to go round .

Thank you. I did look into these, but found there were environmental issues with the chemicals they're made of. This afternoon I sprayed the front lawn with a 50/50 mix of white vinegar + water. Gardeners will think that strong, and that I risk killing all the greenery, but with the amount of rain we're getting in Northwest England, it'll soon get washed off. I'm attempting to build up a residual smell of vinegar across the whole lawn, which I can then maintain just around the pavement and driveway with pure vinegar.

I bought a Contech Scarecrow device through Amazon but had to return it as it was firing in the opposite direction to movement. No problem getting a refund but very disappointing that the cat poo problem persisted. They scale a 6' fence to get into my garden, so I'll try the tip with the essential oil & report back. Thanks.

Hi, as a cat owner I do sympathise and have in the past looked into ways to keep my cats from staying into my neighbor's garden. You can get an audio deterrent that emits a high pitched note that cats (and dogs) don't like and humans cannot hear. If you have no pets yourself this could be a good solution as it should keep them a good distance away. There are many on the market from approx £15 and are battery operated. As no chemicals are involved they pose no environmental hazard. Good Luck I hope this is of help, Victoria

Thank you, I may look into that if my experiments with vinegar fail. With the rain we've been having there was little damage to the grass, until my pump sprayer failed and I had to tip the last lot around generally. I do now have a 'scorch' line of yellow. But it did seem to do the job. Unfortunately in the delay of getting a replacement the fouling began again. But we've managed to spot at least one of the offenders. A smoky grey long-hair who's only been around a few months. I shall be renewing the vinegar, and seeing how it goes. It'll probably take at least a couple of weeks (if the weather doesn't wash us out again) to get the message through :)

I'm a cat person myself: my husband is more a dog person. We balance this out by having neither. I bear them no illwill, just a set determination :)

Hi, I'm just reporting on the effectiveness of the vinegar:

At 13p a bottle (supermarket cheapest) it is the cheapest option. We had initial problems with spray pumps, as it destroyed the rubber valves. I didn't bother trying trigger sprays - too much hard work - but went directly to watering cans. A child's 99p can takes 2 bottles of vinegar. Strange how my 12 year old uses 2 bottles up in one go, but my 8 year old does it with one. Anyway, the incidence of cat soil or foul is greatly reduced, almost nil. We complete a wall to wall circle round our drive, front pavement and neighbour's drive.

Thank you all for your help.

Regards,
Glenys