%$#&@% cats!

[cygnet]

I'm looking for a humane but effective way of keeping the neighborhood cats from using my vegetable beds as a litter box ... aarrrggh!

I've tried chasing the cats out, but I work and they have plenty of hours to do their business when I'm not around. I've tried squirting them with hoses, but they're smart enough to know when I'm not there.

I've tried garlic and sulfur sprays, but if I don't reapply it every day, the smell doesn't seem to be offensive enough to ward them off. And then I have to live with the smell!

I've tried putting down bird netting and using those landscaping staples to hold it in place. They seem to dig right through it.

I don't want my yard to look like a military base with 9 foot fences around it, or to have to build cages over every bed that make it difficult to attend to daily chores.

Ideas? Suggestions? Tricks that you've found effective for an extended period of time? I'm at my whit's end!

Comments

[nicki]

I hear pine needles as mulch are helpful

[cygnet]

Hmmm - I live a long ways from pine country, but maybe I could get my hands on a bale of them? Bark mulch doesn't seem to help - the cats dig in my flower beds as well. Which doesn't offend me as much as them digging in my vegetable beds.

[nicki]

My grandmother used to drag them back from their mountain cabin every year and she seemed to think they solved the cat problem at least in the flower beds (I can't remember if she grew veggies or not)

[gchick]

A good friend of mine recently implemented this, which has the benefit of pure awesomeness. It's fairly new, so no word yet on how it's working.

[cygnet]

ROTFL! That's simply perfect! They come in lots of colors - I could make art!

Thank you, thank you - that's made me laugh about a situation that has mostly had me cursing. I'm off to the party store ...