Cats are friendly and fun to have around until they are not, like when stray cats are chasing the birds off your yard or using it as a litter box. What’s the most effective way to keep them away?
There are different methods to spook cats away from your space. However, the most important and effective way is to make sure your environment isn’t welcoming. Don’t have food or shelter available as well as keeping noise levels high.
To understand how to keep cats away, we need to understand what attracts them and the reason as to why someone would want to get rid of them.
- Motion-activated unscented spray safely keeps pets away from off-limits areas such as counters and trash cans
What Attracts Cats?
Cats are so hard to read, whereas, with their counterpart dogs, it feels like we are a bark away from understanding their thoughts. Here are the possible reasons a cat could be attracted to your space:
- Regardless of intentional or not, leaving a small carrier or box outside your house or yard could be perceived by outdoor felines as if you were luring them in. Therefore these objects should be avoided if cats are unwanted neighbors.
- Wet food and tuna are attractive for cats, and they will always be on the lookout for these. Cats can smell wet food easier than when it’s dry, meaning that if by any instance you leave the trash out and food that is consumable is within the cat’s reach, expect a visit.
- Although some people are naturally non-violent, calm speakers, you need to adjust your tone when trying to scare away cats. If a cat associates your voice with feeding and good behavior because of its subtleness, you might want to consider having a more strict, non-welcoming approach.
Your tone of voice also comes into play, considering the noise level of your environment. Cats are drawn to quiet spaces. Therefore, if you are a calm person, you might want to try listening to music more often to ensure they don’t register the place for feeding or sleeping.
Although one wouldn’t have as a primary ideal to live in a loud, chaotic environment, noise is a solid option if you are trying to spook cats away.
Why Keep Cats Away From Your Space?
There is a possibility you haven’t considered or seen cats as an issue. However, regardless of how intelligent and cute the little feline friend might look, there is more than meets the eye.
A lousy crowd or an individual unwanted cat could affect neighbor relationships. Since these animals are loud, especially when in heat, you will hear their need to reproduce.
If you own pets, there is a chance of catching unwanted diseases because of exposure to stray cats, which you don’t want.
Cats are carnivores, which means all small rodents and birds are in danger in your yard if you have an undesired feline visitor. Many ecosystems excell off the presence of these tiny creatures, and a cat could quickly become a roadblock. In addition to this, their feces could have pathogens or possible parasites that are nowhere beneficial for the development of the plant, let alone the consumption of the offspring of the plant in question.
How Do You Get Rid Of Unwanted Cats?
Many people want to get rid of stray cats in their yards, but most of us don’t want to do so in a brutal and inhumane way. Some practices are banned in some states. So, instead of using lethal pesticides or other cruel methods to get rid of stray cats in your neighborhood, here are some gentle alternatives:
- Prickly exteriors are bypassed by cats, who prefer to tread on soft, loose soil. Make your garden beds less attractive or litter-box-like. Push pine cones or prickly yard trimmings into the soil around your plants. Other opportunities involve gravel mulch, eggshells, holly frills, or reused plastic runners with the nub side up.
- Cats register themselves in places/people with their keen sense of smell. The olfactory system is scattered throughout its complete head, supplying them with incredible smelling abilities. Their ability to detect smell is fourteen times stronger than humans since its nasal organ is more complex than humans, to the point that cats have a second “nose” located in their mouth, increasing their sense of smell.
- APP-CONNECTED LITTER BOX: This litter box is connected to the My PetSafe app on your smart phone so you can monitor your cat’s health and her litter box from anywhere, even when you’re not home
Undesired Cat Scents
The following scents are something that will keep cats away:
- Citrus
- Pine
- Deodorants
- Essential Oil
- Banana
- Old fish: This is tricky; make sure it’s out of date and not something they could nibble on.
How Do You Keep Stray Cats Away?
When trying to spook felines away, you could go the natural route, but there are some slight changes that you could do to your yard that could yield the same or better results:
- Install an automatic water house: it is no surprise that kittens aren’t too fond of water, so this becomes the perfect counterattack to keep them away.
- Tall Fences: fences, in general, will block the entry to your yard for cats, but by making them tall, although cats are great at jumping, they could recognize it as something that requires effort and will move on.
- Set up an alarm: security alarms prevent intruders from entering unwanted places. Having one in the yard (movement detector preferable) will have the same impact on cats.
If all of these fail, you could always contact your local animal shelter and arrange the rescue of a stray cat.
What Is The Most Effective Cat Repellent?
We are instructed to use repellents to avoid bugs. However, with cats, there are natural alternatives that will create distance. These options could prevent them from being ongoing intruders:
- Lavender
- Thyme
- Brewed coffee grounds.
- Rosemary
- Lemon thyme
- Rue
- Lavender
- Russian sage
The suggestion would be to have dried leaves of these plants scattered around the yard, naturally. In this context, we refer to them as natural since they are non-toxic alternatives to both the cat and the human; this method does not involve strong chemicals. Alternatively, you can grow them around your yard.
- The scaredy cat plant was bred in Germany specifically as a garden pest repellent. It emits an odour when animals brush past and can be effective against cats, dogs, foxes and rabbits.
There are other plants such as the Sea holly and the globe thistle, that have spiny leaves that could deter them. Al, look for Coleus Canina, often known as the scaredy-cat plant, which is supposed to be exceptionally efficient at keeping cats away from your flower bed.
Synthetic repellents take the approach of mimicking the smell of a cat predator or their piss. However, some cats would still acknowledge it and approach the place for the thrill of it.
Here you can find our suggested repellent recipe ideas:
Natural Cat Repellent
It contains methods that involve strong-smelling products like oranges, vinegar, bleach, etc. These are more creative and practical options that don’t involve extra effort.
Conclusion
To sum everything up, we’ve learned that the way to get rid of unwanted cats is making sure that the place isn’t easy to access and that the surroundings don’t offer nurture or shelter.
Adding bells to the yard, although it might be hard to get accustomed to, could work as an option since noise is something that cats have a low tolerance for. Whether it is by causing loud sounds, setting up their natural weaknesses across the yard, or equipping the space as a non-friendly cat space, all of the possibilities should refrain from actually hurting the cat.
Cats are valuable and lively beings that shouldn’t be open to being harmed because they aren’t aware of what’s wrong or right; if it becomes too impossible, reach out for help.
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Shawn Manaher is a serial entrepreneur but when he isn’t working, he loves dogs. He’s owned different pets over the years, and always gives a part of his heart to each pet.
