help with cats in my garden

[Dirttiller25]

Does any one have any tricks other than putting up a fence to keep cats from using the potty in my garden? Would using coyote or fox urine or something of that nature help? Only problem with that is I'm then afraid it would attract coyotes or foxes that would then get my goats or chickens. We've tried talking my mom into getting rid of them but she doesnt listen and we just cant make her understand how unhealthy and gross cat poo is.

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome @Dirttiller25 !

To keep my cats from using my vegetable garden beds for a litter box in the off season, I spread that plastic barrier fence over them. You know the stuff they use at construction sites to close an area off? It's about 3 and a half feet or 4 feet tall which is the width of my beds. I lay it down after I put the winter mulch on. In the spring I run a low hot wire around the garden, about cat nose height, or low enough that if they walk under their tail will touch. I have a battery operated livestock charger that's portable that I use for that. The cats only have to find out what the wire means once. So I can put multiple fences around and move the charger to each one, but leave the uncharged wire fences up and the cats usually won't challenge them.

Yes, cat poo is full of pathogens, and uncovering a surprise in the garden is about as gross as it gets.

 

[Jeni Ann]

I have put down chicken wire.

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome Dirttiller25! I also have a cat pooping in my beds but they usually only do this in the winter and early spring when the beds are kind of bare. Like Jeni Ann, I also use pieces of chickenwire throughout my beds where there are bare spots. I spray the wire black so that it's not as visible. I think there is only 1 cat in the neighborhood and I should probably try to trap it to get rid of the problem.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering why you'd want to stop this...it's free fertilization. It's not any dirtier than chicken, bird, frog, horse, cow, pig, or turtle poop, really, and it's buried, as is the pee. Since there have been gardens there have been cats to pee and poop in them and it doesn't hurt a thing.

Yeah, I know folks talk about salmonella and all that from cat poo but think of all the cats in all the homes sitting their anuses~and kitty litter walking paws~ down on furniture, carpets, countertops and tables with the exact same germs being swiped there as in their feces and tell me how many people touch those same surfaces~children too~then touch food and their own mouths, and then get sick from salmonella. And that's repeated, fresh exposure.

It's sort of like gagging on a gnat and swallowing a mule, when you think about it, to worry about the germs of cat poo and pee in a garden, especially if they have cats in their homes. The soil and rains make a great cleaner and filter for any potential germs, the sun and fresh air also kill potential germs, and, finally, rinsing the veggies before eating would take care of the rest.

In all truth, unless you carpet your whole garden in some kind of netting that prevents scratching or surround it in electronetting, it's virtually impossible to keep a cat out of a garden.

 

[thistlebloom]

I do beg to differ with you @Beekissed . Many species of animals carry toxoplasmosis but cats are the only animal that can carry the parasite to maturity. Many people may be infected and never know it, but it's of particular danger to unborn babies and people with compromised immune systems. I would never knowingly add feces from cats or dogs to my garden. All excreta is not equal.

And my cats don't get near my garden when I have a single strand of wire around it, it doesn't have to be hooked up to electric anymore because they have been self taught that the wire has a nasty bite.

I personally don't have cats in my home, and the dogs are trained to stay on their dog bed when they are in. Your visual of cat and dog bottoms on floors and furniture has always been a particularly graphic vision in my own mind.

So no thanks to cat poo in my garden, buried or not.

 

[Beekissed]

I stand corrected! But, I'll stick with my earlier assessment that the chances of contracting anything from cat poo is so very slim, according to the CDC and other sites specializing in cat vet medicine, that one is more likely to contract the disease from contaminated meats than any other source.

Having been a nurse for the past 20+ yrs, I'd venture to say one's safest defense against cats pooping in the garden is the every day, ordinary hand washing after gardening and rinsing soils off of veggies before consumption, which is pretty standard anyway and exactly what the CDC recommends for prevention, along with safe handling of meats.

Just practice good hygiene and you shouldn't have anything to worry about. It's not worth the stress of trying to keep all the neighborhood cats from strolling through and taking a dump when it can be as simple as practicing good hygiene.

 

[majorcatfish]

welcome @Dirttiller25 we use to have a cat problem here as well they loved to use the asparagus bed as the box ,so couple years ago started to put plastic fencing down that solved the problem..

 

[catjac1975]

I have used the coyote urine against woodchucks. I was carrying my cat near to where I had spread the C U and she almost raked me with her claws running away in terror.

 

[NwMtGardener]

When I worked as a vet tech, we didn't worry about contracting too many things - blood, other body fluids were not a big deal unless we had a concern for rabies or possibly one other thing. BUT we were all cautious about the cat litterboxes (wore gloves), and taught our clients about toxoplasmosis and how not to contract it. I would definitely try and eliminate the cats using the garden as a litterbox and wear gloves when working in that garden.