First, to keep feral or stray (or even your neighbor's) cats out of your yard, don’t make it easy for cats to get into your yard or garden.

If your yard or garden is small enough, consider a fence. A floppy fence of chicken wire leaning slightly towards the outside of your property may be a good defense.

If you already have a fence to serve as a cat deterrent, make sure that there are no holes at the bottom where a cat can crawl under. Cats won't usually dig a hole but they'll take advantage of one that's there. Also, consider adding a foot or two of flimsy, plastic fencing along the top so that there’s no sturdy surface for the cat to perch on.

Or, a few inches directly above your existing fence, stretch a tight strand of fishing line, string, or wire so that the cat can’t easily balance on the top of your fence.

Consider protecting small areas of your garden with bird-safe netting. It’s meant to protect berries from birds but works well as a cat deterrent. Be sure to stretch it over your small pond to protect the fish from cats and raccoons. (CONTINUED BELOW...)

The fear of predators explains why some cats are afraid of snakes. Invest in a few big realistic toy snakes and place them around the garden. Move them to new locations every few days. (And plan to be frightened yourself when you suddenly come upon one of them you’ve forgotten about.)

If you’re having trouble with cats getting into your child’s sandbox, consider a sandbox with a cover to serve as a deterrent.

If your yard is big, you may want to consider creating a "decoy" litter box in a remote area of the yard in hopes that the cat will use it instead of your garden. If the cat has already ruined a batch of your sandbox sand, use that to stock the alternate "litter box." Be sure to move the cat feces with it so that they’ll locate their own scent.

Want to know more specifically, "How can I keep cats out of my garden and flower beds?"

Plant a thick bed of prickly roses or cacti around the borders.

Be sure there are no empty, unplanted places for them to dig or lounge around.

Cats often like to cover their feces. They like sandy, soft, bare soil. So, if possible, to add to its cat repellent qualities, make sure yours is wet and rough. Keep it watered. Or cover bare areas with rocks or crushed gravel to make it less appealing.

Get some clear plastic carpet runner (that heavy clear plastic with spikes on the bottom that you place on top of carpet to protect high-traffic areas) and place it upside down to line the bare areas of the garden. Cats don’t like walking on the little spikes. It's a great deterrent.

If you have some bare areas in your garden, after you’ve hosed it down and the ground is soft, get some plastic forks and stick the handles in the ground so that the prongs stick up to serve as an effective cat deterrent. (Buy a bag of new ones or reuse those you get when visiting fast-food restaurants.)

Or, from old pencils, wooden rods, or pieces of bamboo, you can use a hacksaw to cut your own little stakes (at an angle so that it forms a spike). Stick them into the ground so that 3 to 6 inches sticking outs, pointed side up. To act as an effective cat-deterrent, space them closely enough that cats can’t find a place to recline.

After pruning roses, raspberries and other prickly plants, save the thorny stems to cover any empty spaces in your garden.

Sprinkle pine cones or broken nut shells, egg shells, or coffee grounds on the ground. All of these are exacellent cat repellents or deterrents

Lay chicken wire on the ground around the border of your garden. Cats don’t like to walk on it so this is an excellent cat deterrent. This may also work if you’re lucky enough to have a specific area where they’re entering your yard (through a gate or a gap in the fence, etc.) Otherwise, you may want to run a 3-foot width of chicken wire all the way around the area you’re trying to protect.

Motion-activated sprinkler. Cats hate getting wet. These motion-activated, high-powered, pulsating sprinklers startle the cat when they suddenly turn on for several seconds. They can do double-duty by occasionally watering your plants. The Scarecrow gets the best reviews for actually working as a cat repellent (and it works with dogs, deer, racoons, rabbits, geese and even people who may be cutting through your yard.)  (CONTINUED BELOW...)

Of course, with the Scarecrow motion-activated cat-repellent, you'll need to be able to run a hose to the area you want to protect. (It uses a battery, so no electricity is needed.)  In colder climates, the sprinklers may not be practical during the winter months. And in areas suffering water shortages, this may not be a good idea (though the sprinkler stays on only a few seconds at a time and uses less than a cup of water each time it's triggered to serve as a cat repellent.)

Other cat repellent and cat deterrent mechanical devices:

You can get lots of excellent and creative cat repellent ideas by watching "Tom and Jerry" and "Roadrunner" cartoons.

One that fits into this category would  be the Super Soaker: a high-powered, pressurized, squirt guns that can hit targets up to 35 feet away. Excellent for use as a cat repellent. (Turn this into a sporting event.)

This air-powered water blaster has two water tanks and two powerful blasting modes with a Constant Pressure System that assures the last drop of water blasts out with as much power as the first. (Maybe you should try filling it with water and some orange-scented essential oils.)

[Note of interest: the Super Soaker water gun (a.k.a Power Drencher) was invented by nuclear engineer Lonnie Johnson who worked with NASA and the U.S. Air Force.]

Other clever mechanical devices to keep cats out of my yard and garden:

High-pitched electronic motion detectors. These ultrasonic devices are supposed to be above the range of human hearing but drive cats and dogs crazy. While there are some that operate all the time, the ones with motion detectors (and battery operated) have the advantage of startling the animals.

These feral cat repellent devices get mixed reviews from customers. Maybe it depends on the cat.  This particular model has a two-year warranty and the company has excellent toll-free customer support service so if your device doesn't seem to work, you can have it replaced or get a refund. (Update: I purchased one of these myself and it worked for awhile but I think the cats got used to it.  Probably the sprinkler version would be a better choice--though you may not be able to use them in the winter when the garden hose would freeze.)

More Intensive Mechanical Feral Cat Deterrent Devices for dealing with unwanted stray cats and animals:

Feral Cat Traps. The Havahart Traps don’t injure the animal – allowing your to relocate it. The door drops down when the animal steps onto a sensitive footplate where you’ve placed the bait.

Sometimes your local humane society or cat shelter or animal control people will loan you one of these traps and help with the relocation of the animal. Otherwise, you may need to buy your own.

I’d recommend the largest size traps (for cats and moderate-sized racoons.) It will, of course, also catch squirrels and rabbits and other smaller animals.

Of course, you’ll have to decide what to do with any animals you catch – whether or not you’re going to enter them into the Witness Protection Program. Dumping them elsewhere may be tempting but making them someone else’s problem brings you down to the level of your inconsiderate neighbor. Hopefully, you have a local cat shelter which will neuter them and put them up for adoption, or euthanize them.

Some people have suggested marking cats with spray-paint so that you can see if the same ones are coming back after you release them. I haven’t done that yet but it would send a cat-deterrent message to the cat owners.

In some cases, while cats are residents of my trap, I’ve squirted them repeatedly with blasts from the hose before releasing them. (Think "aversion therapy" or "negative reinforcement.")

Surprisingly, some cats still come back even after this "water-boarding" technique. (Maybe they enjoy it.) But certainly, while they’re your guests, you want them to take advantage of some intensive training techniques. The time they spend with you should be a significant and memorable experience.

Other Cat-Deterrent and Cat-Repellent Projectile Devices for dealing with cats in your yard:

You may want to start with Frisbees as a cat-deterrent device (stock up on them at the "dollar store" and keep a stack in a handy location so you can launch them in rapid succession.)

Also, check out the Airzooka, a toy "gun" which sends a sudden blast of air 20 to 30 feet. It would probably only work well as a cat repellent in a surprise attack. But might be fun. It may also be just the tool cat owners need to use indoors as a deterrent with their own cats to keep them off the furniture, counters, and so forth.  

Consider the Jumpo, a brightly-colored plastic and very clever Bungee-cord-driven clapper device which serves as a cat-repellent by leaping into the air with a racket and startling the cats. They’re cheap enough to sprinkle around your yard.

Eventually, as your frustration levels rise and your personal moral code crumbles, you may want to expand your arsenal of cat-repellent, cat-deterrent and cat-elimination devices to include..

Pellet guns.

Paint-ball guns.

Air-powered BB Guns.

Spud guns.

Spud cannons.

Flame throwers.

Shotguns.

Magnum .44s.

Cruise Missles.

Small neighborhood-destroying thermo-nuclear devices.

Larger thermo-nuclear devices.

Super-size Earth-destroying thermo-nuclear devices.

Be sure and check into the legality of using these particular cat-repellent devices in your city, county, state, country, or planet.

If you’re serious about turning this cat-repellent venture into a sport and have the patience to lay in wait for your prey, you may want a camouflage Ghillie suit used by professional snipers–it can serve double duty at Halloween but the rest of the year neighbors may start reporting sightings of Big Foot.

Alternative: Get a Doberman or a cat-hating Pit-Bull. Or a coyote. Or, if you like cats, your own, personal, highly-territorial Tomcat.as a cat deterrent.

OK, so those are my secret cat-repellent and cat-deterrent strategies and tactics to keep cats OUT of my yard and garden.

Because I don’t know to what level your frustration has risen in your current cat problem, it’s difficult to recommend a specific offensive strategy.

You’ll have to use your own moral compass to guide you and help you decide which tactics to deploy.

I’d recommend starting with the less intensive strategies and moving forward.

Hopefully, using some of these cat-repellent and cat-deterrent strategies, you’ll soon be successful in protecting your territory from uninvited guests. 

Best of luck (and have fun!)


       -MJ

NOTE: You can find most all the items mentioned in the Cat-Repellent SHOP  (Thermo-nuclear devices are a special order item.)