Neighborhood cats shit right in the middle of my lawn. It stinks and the robot lawn mover makes it even worse.
I do NOT like cats, and this is not helping.
What works to keep them from shitting on my lawn?
The votes have spoken. Some people are cat lovers; thanks for the great advice from the rest of you! I will not go out of my way to accommodate other people's pets that aren't welcome on my property. My first weapon of choice will be chili because it's simple and cheap. Other ideas have been noted.
A motion activated or retomely deployable sprinkler system would work wonders. No need for drenching the critter, just interrupt or annoy the cat. After a few forced baths, the cat would associate shitting on your lawn with getting wet and just move to safer grounds.
All these psychopaths saying kill the cat or catch it and relocate it are fucking deranged. Talk to the owners if you know who it is... firstly, I'm sure they would at least be receptive to the problem and if they're not then maybe look into legal outlets. If you've gone out of your way to post on lemmy you're technically savvy enough to look up local laws. people have also posted actual remediation methods that aren't terrible and could actually improve your lawn in some scenarios as well so maybe try those out if you're into them.
I'm positive that no one wants to lose a pet in any capacity. Just some simple communication with the owners could solve this, and if not, there are other options.
Sorry you're going through this though, shit sucks. Pun intended.
I can 100% guarantee you that the owners will just be extremely confused about the idea that people might not want other people's "pets" in their yard. I can 100% guarantee you that the response will just be "well it's a cat."
And it means that if something ever happens to this small animal, OP will get blamed for it if he says anything to the neighbors.
@PlutoniumAcid i’m 64, i’ve lived in over a hundred different places, including rural and suburbs with lawns. literally never ever had this problem. not even when i owned cat! so it seems you’re cursed. you need to find the witch or wizard you offended and make amends.
i’m really amazed this would even happen, as cat prefer to bury their waste so they like places they can dig miles more than lawns. i wonder: did your u maybe see one cat, once, poop and now you think all poop is cat poop? because dogs are a lot more likely to be doing this regularly than cats.
Elderly cats don't bury their shit. A neighbour's cat used to bury stealth bombs in my garden until he got too old and decrepit to bother. The pinnacle was a gross runny shit on top of a creeping thyme. I was thrilled when he died, but then she got a young feisty cat that slaughters birds. Sigh.
In general, many feral cats do not bury their shit. I have no idea why people keep saying this like it's a fact - I have dealt with this exact same, well, shit at several places I've lived. Most of the time it is cats shitting in the raised beds, but I have also seen some who like a certain plot of grass or weeds.
Place a box with sand near the area you want to protect. Move it further away a feet or so by day. In 10 days that cat will be shitting wherever you guided it to. Leave the box and or the sand. Done.
Low cost. Low effort. No animal cruelty. No dealing with neighbor. Effective.
Go with what...continuing to allow people to have strays? No thanks.. relocate the cat or give it to the SPCA to be sold to someone who ACTUALLY cares about the animals wellbeing.
Don't cater to neglectful owners by providing places for them to shit in the wild. Disgusting
Throughout history, humanity has had to adapt to nature instead of trying to change it to suit humans in various ocasions. Where a cat takes a shit is one of those times lol. That said, cats are normally clean as fuck. My cats live free in the backyard and I have never seen or smell where they shit because they bury it very well and never in the middle of the yard. I don't know how op is having problems with that, it is just weird.
Ignoring strays, you do realise there is no practical way for a cat owner to control where their cat takes a shit?
That is not negligence, it's nature.
You can't tell a dog where to shit, the difference being you'll pick it up where you can, and it probably can't climb fences.
Have you seen the cats pooping or just sniffing the poop?
Depends where you are, but foxes would be a more likely bet. Fox poop stinks too - really foul stuff. Cat poop generally is quite inocuos once it drys out, although a lawn mowing bot slicing it up would make sense for making it worse.
I have never heard of cats pooping in the middle of a lawn before. Normally they like private and safe spaces to poop as they're vulnerable when pooping, and normally they're fastidious about burying it where possible.
iF it really is cats, then maybe get a gravel section next to your lawn that they might prefer to go in? A litter box essentially.
That seems like the way to go for sure. On top of being affordable, it’s quick to set up, safe, should work quickly, and can quickly be taken down to return the lawn to normal. Or quickly put back in place if necessary.
Put in a sand pit somewhere you are ok with them shitting. Training domesticated cats is an undertaking that in my limited experience comes down to giving them an option they'd prefer over their current behavior. Trying to dissuade a feral cat from shitting where they please humanely seems like a loosing battle.
It's best to just trap them and relocate them far far away. Or bring them to whatever shelter will sell these cats to more families that will then have more outdoor cats.
We bought a couple of plants that have a smell that allegedly repels cats and other animals and had good results planting them around our patches. But we also left the dog in the garden more often which might have helped even more. The plants are called plectranthus ornatus ... but there are others which might also work: https://horticulture.co.uk/cat-deterrent-plants/
Find the owner and tell them the cat is shitting on your property. If they tell you to pound sand, call city/county animal control to see what your options are. Alternatively, pick the shit up before your robot lawnmower runs it over.
I have a section of dirt next to my driveway. All the other suggestions here worked for a few days max, but the solution ended up being laying chickenwire fencing on the ground. Cats won't do that on ground they can't dig.
My parents used to have this problem with dogs (our neighbors loved to let them shit everywhere but their own yard) and had a great amount of success with lining the perimeter of the property with moth balls.
I saw a guy on YouTube make an automated water turret that shoots the water hose (not a water gun, but the actual hose) at anything that the camera recognized as a cat on his lawn. It was awesome. I tried finding the video, but can't remember his name.
Side note on the chili idea, it doesn't really work on many shorthaired cats. Neither does cayenne pepper powder. [E] That was a problem I had at a previous house. I had a neighborhood cat that kept meowing hella loud in the middle of the night right outside my window. The cayenne and chili actually attracted him and more cats, and I ended up with three visiting cats, instead of the one original. Just be aware this could be your fate, too, if you use foodstuffs.
Serious answer: I don't think there's much... I used to have a problem with cats pissing on my bicycle (which used to be parked outside) and the only thing that would keep them away was a bike alarm - at the expense of mine and my neighbors' sleep. Covering the bike made no difference, they just pissed on the cover instead. The fix ended up being just parking my bike inside.
If you let the garden get a little bit overgrown, do they still come and drop their shit there?
Look up ultrasonic animal repeller. I've never used one, but it may work for you. It makes a high pitch noise that should stop cats and other animals from wandering into your yard.
I'm skeptical about how well those things work. There are a few houses with them on our walking route, and they definitely bother me much more than my dog. He couldn't care less about the noise, while it gives me a headache. Maybe cats would be more sensitive to the noise than my dog, but like I said, I'm skeptical.
My neighbors across the street got those as a deer repellent for their garden.
Although it was pointed out of the garden toward the street. So whenever it triggered we could definitely hear it in our living room. They ended up taking down after I talked with them and it wasn't really keeping the deer away anyway.
You need to make your lawn less appealing than your neighbors. They might not care as much or even notice the cats shitting in their yard. A plastic owl works with birds... maybe a lawn ornament of a predator would do
Please report back with what worked and what didn't. I have this problem (minus the lawnmower) and I hate it. In fact, as a result of this, I have gone from just a vague dislike of cats to hating them.
I've tried the sonic repellant and it didn't work at all
Oh Amazon i found the largest bag of coarse ground chili with the lowest price per weight. Bought a kilogram, that should last me a while. Sprinkled lightly around the perimeter of the lawn.
For the love of all teens and kids in the immediate neighborhood, DO NOT GET THESE! I lived next to a house that had these in their back garden and I could hear them through my window constantly.
@PlutoniumAcid a small pile of sand in a corner of yard would be preferred by most cats. other than that, as someone said above, “accept that animals shit outside.” besides, climate issues will soon make lawns go away anyway. 😢