Cat pooping in our flowerbeds

FabiBean

Sorry to bother you with such a prosaic discussion, but wondering if any of you have had experience or can share tips?
A neighbour cat (no idea which neighbour might be the owner) has decided to use our rooftop patio as his litter box, digging in our pots, destroying our flowers and happily pooping everywhere, floor included.

Any humane way to deter him?

HolbornFox

Lion urine apparently.

miss annie

If you are male your own pee will deter him - if it is a male cat. Are you sure it's a cat, they are not usually that messy, and like to cover their poo.

therattle

Where are you? (Just checking that it isn't my cat doing the naughties)

FabiBean

Definitely a cat. I had a suspicion, which was confirmed last night when we caught him in action.

I am just at the crossroads between Seven Sisters and Stroud Green, it's a black and white cat. We tried sticks, citrus peels and coffee grounds but he doesn't seem to care :-)

therattle

Nope, not ours, I'm glad to say.

therattle

Apparently they hate citronella oil. (mine pees on my curtains, but hasn't since they were doused in the stuff). Try sprinkling that?

vetski

They also loathe raw onion - slice up a couple and scatter them in your visitor's preferred spots?

HolbornFox

Funny you say that, they hate oranges as well, i wonder if that would work.

therattle

It sounds like an unsuccessful Ottolenghi recipe: orange and raw onion salad, drizzled with extra-virgin citronella oil and dusted with hand-roasted Ethiopian coffee grounds

FabiBean

yeah, that is exactly what my balcony looks right now!

harpistic

You can get a wide range of cat repellents online and from garden centres. There was an excess of spare cats where I lived before, it was very entertaining to watch them hop over my fence then flee straight back over again - that stuff works!

conformable_kate

@therattle brilliant. I might try it out...

conformable_kate

Though citronella oil tastes appalling. I tried substituting it for lemon juice many years ago - grave mistake.

oddbod

Get some fairly large stones / pebbles and lay on any exposed soil. Solved

HolbornFox

I tried using one of them jiff squeezie lemons as a substitute once, tasted like the cat had been there the night before as well.

grenners

If you can spot the cat doing a shit try and throw a bucket of cold water over it and yell at it like crazy when it runs away.

therattle

@grenners, it's already shitting itself, why make it worse?

grenners

Just trying to be helpful. No point messing around with a lemon.

FabiBean

I would happily shout at the cat and vent, but he comes overnight and makes no noise at all.
I wanted to avoid the cat repellent as my balcony is pretty small but surrounded by other balconies and patios where other well behaved cats live. It looks like those repellent work up to a range of 100 sqm, so I don't want to unnecessarily upset other cats who did nothing wrong.
So far the sticks are keeping him away, although the patio looks ridicolous.
Thanks all of you!

harpistic

The cat repellent I used only worked within the perimeter of my old garden; the cats would happily sit on our fence and come up to the fence, they just had rather a nasty surprise if they came any closer. (It was a large garden which was approximately 80% cat poop).

What we ideally need is the equivalent of a cat scarecrow...

vetski

Cat scarecrow = dog, no?!