5 tips To Keep Stray Cats Away & How To make a Cat Repellent Motion Activated Sprinkler

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Without a doubt the coolest way to fight off cats pillaging your neighborhood.

How to Scare a Stray Cat Away

How to keep cats out of your yard and away from your house

It is very annoying when you’re getting ready for your yard work only to find cats poop littering your yard. There are so many reasons why you may not want to see cats around your yard. But with cat’s incredible jumping and climbing abilities, it might seem impossible to keep them out. Admittedly, it is a bit challenging keeping cats out of your yard, but it’s possible to keep them out.

Generally, cats are unpredictable, and even with some cat repellents, you may still find them in your yard. Due to curiosity, mating, hunting, feeding, establishing territory, domestic cats may wander around. Homeless and feral cats may be looking for a place they can call home. Nonetheless, there are some specific approaches you can take to keep strays and other feline intruders away from your yard.

Cat repellents

Cats are known for digging around out of curiosity, and this can be discouraging having your yard drilled by cats continuously. But here are some cat repellents you can have around your home to keep cats off your yard:

  • Planting chicken wire as a preventive measure: Buy some chicken wire and place them on top of mulch or soil in your yard. You can also place them across the planting bed before planting. This preventive measure is effective because cats hate walking on chicken wire. When the chicken wire is in place, use a wire cutter to cut enough space or holes for the plants.
  • Bristly material: if you’ve already made your garden bed in your yard, you can use bristly material to prevent cats from walking around your yard. You could mulch sharp edges pine cones, eggshells, holly cuttings, or stone mulch. This loose dirt area and rough materials everywhere on your yard will put off the cats and keep them away from your yard. You could also use plastic carpet with nub side up for other areas of your yard to discourage cats from lounging or perching.
  • Planting smelly plants: There are some plants smell that puts cats off. An example of such plants is the Coleus canina, and the common name is the scaredy-cat plant. If you’re also running into troubles landscaping with dogs, this smelly plant can also help out. Other recommended plants to keep cats away include lavender (which is also a deer resistant plant), and pennyroyal.
  • Having an electric fence: having an electric fence around your house is an excellent way to keep cats out humanely. Electric fencing is also useful in keeping rabbits out as well. Electric fence is safe, and even www.responsibleconsumer.net recommends it.
  • Water guns: just like the way kryptonite is to Superman, so is water to cats. When you find any cat in your yard, try squirting them with a super soaker or any water gun of that kind. This act reinforces the notion to the cats that they are unwanted in the area.
  • Sound and repellent devices: this device makes use of a sound and a spray repellent to keep cats off, and it is also motion activated. You could also put marbles or pebbles in an empty can to create a noise device and hang them on a fence, so when a cat walks past them, it makes noise and chases them away. A wind chime or sensitive bell also works in keeping cats away by creating a sound when a cat causes vibration.
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Attract cats away from your yard by providing a cat-friendly area for them

You can compromise a bit when you plant a separate bed of catnip plant at the other end of your yard to keep cats confined to a particular area in your yard. This process might not be all that effective because not all cats are head over heels for the catnip plants, but it works for those cats that do. Cats may come over to view the catnip patch as their private sanctuary they may even make it their favorite hangout.

You could better still make a sandbox for the cats and keep near the catnip plants. There’s a considerable chance that the cats will poop in the sandbox. And surely, you’d still have to clean up the cat poops, but at least you’d know where they are rather than having it scattered around your yard.

Preventive measures to take to prevent visits from wandering cats

Most of these cats we find walking around are either cats whose owners allowed them to wander about or stray cats with no owners. You can use these tactics to prevent cats from coming to your yard.

  • Talking to your neighbors: the first tactic you should take when you have cats all over your yard is to first talk to your neighbors. Most often, these cats you find wandering about are from your neighborhood. So, talk with your neighbors and see how you all can work with keeping their pets from walking around. You could suggest to your neighbor to get a bell for the cat or a bright collar if you have a bird the cat is always after so the bird can see the cat on time and flee. Make your neighbors understand why you don’t want cats on your yard; it helps create a better mutual understanding. And if the whole neighborhood can come together to reduce the number of feral cats in the area, the problem will lessen.
  • Contacting authorities: If you live in an area with regulations, laws, or homeowner association restrictions, you can ask what can be done legally to prevent cats from wandering around. From there, you can learn what preventive measures you are allowed to take.
  • Humane traps: When you’ve tried all you can, and it all failed, then check to see what humane traps you can legally set to stop the problem. And if the cat has a tag, that’s a perfect opportunity for you to take up the issue with the owner. If it’s a stray feline, turn it over to animal control or shelter.
  • Supporting program for feral and stray cats: lastly, check for a stray cat program in your area and support them. This progress that feeds and shelter stray, as well as feral cats, help these cats find a home. That way, the cats will have an owner you can talk to when the cat misbehaves.