Hi, Angie,

Did you cut the orange peels down into small unnoticeable pieces or -- ?

Thanks for the tip! My mom has a BIG problem with cats pooping in her garden. I wonder if this would work for dogs, too?

I need to put them all the way down my property line then. Everyone send me your orange peels. LOL

I used food processer to chop them up it works great so suprised to see how well this works bet lemons would work too if ya drink alot of tee save you lemons and chop chop chop hehehe.

Cats really do hate citrus. Whenever I peel an orange mine will look at me as if to say, "Oh my God, you're really gonna eat that?!"


On a related note, the store-bought citrus sprays that're supposed to keep cats away from furniture have never had even the slightest effect on them.

wow!!! thanks for the tip! I have a TERRIBLE problem with cat poop in my flower beds AND veggie beds... I will definitely give this a try....

I also heard the other day that used coffee grounds helps too... Plus it is very good for the soil... I have a container on my counter that I have been collecting, gonna spread it out today!

Iv tried coffee grounds didnt work for me when they dried out the cats started all over but the orange skins really work not sure what they will do to soil ph but has to be better than the poop hehehe day 9 no cats weee and the butterflys love the orange peels.

Coffee grounds, too???!!! I've got plenty of that as well as my mom!! I called to tell her yesterday, and she was mad with me that I hadn't called her sooner... She had just eaten an orange and tossed out the rind. I'm sure she went through the trash to get them! LOL Thanks for these fantastic tips!! I'm definitely going to try it and hope it works on dogs and ONE pesky squirrel!

The cats in my neighborhood must not know the rules! I have tried everything and it does not keep them out. My neighbor feeds ALL the feral cats in the neighborhood and those cats use my soft garden soil as a toilet and my mulched beds as their bedroom.

Peggy

This is what my daughter does to run anything out of her yard including deer. Get one of those water blaster water guns the kids love. Load it with ammonia and blast away. They will soon get the hint they're not wanted.

What exactly is hte problem with cat poop? Is it hte actualy poop? Or the holes that cats dig?

I have a cat or two that use my veggie garden as a littler box in the early spring, before it fills up. They usually dig a hole, then only half fill it (none have actually dug up a plant yet). I usually just fill the hole back in and figure its just additional fertilizer.

i was under the impression the only problem with cat and dog waste was that it generally has meat byproducts and so can small and attract flies. isthere somehting else that i should beworried about?

do you put the peels around the plants or around the edges of the garden like an invisable fence?

Neighbor has 2 outside cats that love not only my garden but the dirt floor of my lean to, especiall in winter.

I have The Scarecrow motion activated sprinkler to keep deer away. It had great reviews so I decided to give it a try. So far I am pleased.

reciently reading up on the scarecrow, but they are a bit pricy for my budget - unless I don't buy ANY OTHER gardening, seed, plant items this yr!! Maybe next yr. anyone else have opinions on them?

Not sure about this but I think there may be some disease problems associated with cat droppings. A google search would probably tell you.

Also, ammonia is corrosive and not necessary in your water gun. It may corrode the gun and if you hit an animal in the eye you can seriously damage the eye. Water alone will scare the bejeezus out of them and is much more humane.

i use weed fabric to keep my cats out.

so why is it acceptable for people to let their cats roam the neighborhood and not their dogs?

I am fed up with the neighbors cats tearing up my garden, so I use a havahart type trap and they go on a nice ride to a shelter a few towns away.... I have discussed it with the neighbors and they dont seem to care that their darling little fluffy digs up my seedlings and fouls my soil with their disease causing droppings (Toxoplasmosis. You can acquire this parasitic disease from soil or other contaminated surfaces by touching anything that has come into contact with cat feces.) also can cause miscarriage in pregnant women.. and I have one of them along with a 3 year old garden helper

K

Yep I have lost some seedlings to the cats too but the orange peels are working still its been 9 days only thing is now the using other beds that they never touched before so more orange peels a commin hehehe it works great to my surpise hope it wont effect the ph in my soil .

Angie83, thanks for the hint. I have a similar problem. I only want to discourage the cat (feral, cut and released) from pooing on my beds, or disturbing them. I am tired of spraying cayenne to no avail. Otherwise he (they) are welcome, since my squirrel population is too high and they eat them (sorry, nature...).

I wanted to ask you, do you dry the peels first, then pulverize them? or grind them while still fresh? then you get some sort of paste? citrus peels paste? or drying works better? if you dry them first, then grind them you get a powdery product. I have lots and lots of citrus, and even a food processor. Can you describe how densely you put them on the bed (s)? My dogs (smaller than average cats) also get into that bad habit, they do not seem to like citrus at all either (good thing).

I just wanted to second the Scarecrow device. I got one for my mom after two flower gardens in a row were completely decimated. They live on top of a hill in the middle of the country, so they gets lots of deer, wild turkeys, etc. The scarecrow stopped them 100% and now all her landscaping is finally able to grow. I found the best price on amazon - definitely worth the money.

I eat orange and throw peel in processer and chop away they dry but the smell is heavenly.Hope this will work as well for you its great so far keeping fingers crossed here.

thanks for the scarecrow input hazeldazel. Definately going to save up for one.

keithondelmarva I don't think it is okay for cats to run around any more than dogs. KEEP THEM IN YOUR OWN YARDS PLEASE! My DH does not want me to remove the neighbors cats in any way (don't make neighbor angry), but I may do so anyway without telling anyone. Sorry about the soap box, but I previously worked at a animal shelter and irrisponsiblbe pet owners are a sore spot.

ten_yr_plan,

I'm with you on people keeping their pets in their own yard. Our 3 cats are inside cats for that very reason. A neighbor feeds ALL the cats in the neighborhood which includes hers plus all the feral cats. All these cats love my loose garden soil so they come to my garden to potty then lie in my leaf-mulched beds to sleep out of the wind. She has a big heart but putting food out like that draws cats from all over.

I'm concerned about another flea infestation like 2 years ago when we tried everything in an attempt to get rid of them. Our poor dog would come in covered in fleas each time she went out to do her business. I was bathing her daily as well as the 2 feral kittens we rescued (their momma is pregnant again..can not catch her to have her spayed!)

Peggy

Angie83,

Are the orange peels still working for you? The daggone cats are back in my garden, guess maybe they decided citrus wasn't so bad after all... Nothing like coming home from work to pick out all of what the cats left behind everyday!

I was talking to a lady at my local nursery and she told me to use mothballs, that they wouldn't leak their nasty chemicals into my soil, but I am just a little leary about this. Will do some research on this first. Maybe if I make a border of them outside the perimeter of the garden... don't know yet. Anyone heard of this?