Driving away cats in an animal-friendly way: Two sustainable methods

Created: 09/28/2022, 16:30

If you don't want your neighbor's cat in your yard, there are ways to keep them away.

These two agents work particularly gently.

Cats are adventurous and curious creatures who like to walk over the garden fence or look at the neighbor's birdhouse.

Many people find the house tiger even decorative and like to watch the activities of the fur noses.

Others, on the other hand, are not cat fans and prefer to keep their garden free of the neighbour's cat.

For example, if you have rabbits, an aviary, a sandbox for children that shouldn’t be converted into a litter box, or have other reasons for not wanting to have a cat around, you can use a few effective means to keep the four-legged friends away – and completely legal and completely without animal cruelty.

Nothing for the sensitive cat nose: herbs and other smells to keep away

Not everyone is happy about a visit from the neighbour's cat (symbol image).

© IMAGO / perspective

Cats are known to have very good noses that can perceive far more than, for example, the human olfactory organ.

For this reason, they are also more sensitive to unpleasant smells and you can use this circumstance if you want to keep cats out of your own garden.

First, there are natural repellents in the form of herbs.

If these do not help, you can resort to artificial substances.

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First, you should try planting lemon balm or rue.

Cats don't like the smell, and if you put these plants around your property, you might be lucky enough to keep them away.

Another plant is the aptly named "piss off plant".

The species from the genus of harp shrubs belongs to the mint family and was invented by the Swabian gardener and plant breeder Dieter Stegmeier from Essingen, who presented the plant for the first time in 2001.

The purple plant is odorless to humans as long as you don't touch it, but cats and other mammals such as martens and rabbits are repelled by the smell.

But beware: If you keep rabbits or dogs as pets, you should keep your hands off the plant, because these animals are also very sensitive to the smell.

Whether the plant really works as promised is still controversial even after 20 years.

An experiment that Günter Jauch once carried out for SternTV allegedly proved the ineffectiveness of the "piss off plant".

However, the breeder says otherwise and emphasizes that the olfactory effect should already be effective at a distance of five meters.

And if no herb is working, you can always use cat granules as a deterrent in an emergency.

You can buy the agent in hardware stores, pet shops or simply on the Internet and then distribute it over a large area in the garden and on the property borders.

The granules don't last forever and after days of heavy rain you should probably sprinkle them on.

In the best case, however, the remedy keeps strange cats away from your garden for up to six months.

Cold Shower: Cats hate water, especially when it comes as a surprise

Cats are pretty good swimmers when they have to be.

When they don't have to, they hate water like the plague.

And that doesn't just mean the stream, which they'd rather jump over than splash about in it like a dog, the house cats don't like rain or splashing water at all either.

You can use this to your advantage if the neighbor's cat dares to come near your rabbit hutch again.

Either you wait with the watering can, or you install water sprinklers with motion sensors that react to the animals.

But be careful: splashing water is sufficient.

Under no circumstances should you throw an entire bucket of water over the animal's head, as this can quickly upset a cat to the point of animal cruelty.

And a proven case of animal cruelty can even end with up to three years in prison.